Brown Butter Sugar Cookies

Brown Butter Sugar Cookies 

From the Kitchen of Jenny & Andy

Ingredients:

- 6 oz (1.5 cups) butter

- 1 cup brown sugar

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 whole egg

- 1 3/4--2 cups all purpose flour 

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 2 tsp cinnamon


Directions:

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan until the butter starts to brown, then transfer to a mixing bowl.
2. Add the brown sugar, baking powder, and egg and mix until combined. 
3. Fold in the flour, salt and cinnamon until you have a soft dough.
4. Wrap in saran wrap and refrigerate for 30 min.
5. Roll out your dough to about 1/2" thick and cut into desired shapes. (Optional: dust with a layer of brown sugar before baking)
6. Bake for 9-10 min at 375 degrees
7. Let cookies cool before eating.

This recipe is modified from Byron Talbot's recipe which can be found here.

Elephant Ears (Palmiers)

This delicious French cookie comes from Ina Garten's French cookbook, Barefoot In Paris, and could not be more simple! They're actually supposed to come out much rounder, but for some reason mine fell. I kind of liked it though. They made adorable little hearts.

• 2 cups sugar*
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2 sheets Pepperidge Farm puff pastry, defrosted

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine sugar and salt, then pour 1 cup of mixture onto flat surface. Unfold first pastry sheet onto sugar and pour 1/2 cup of sugar mixture on top, spreading evenly. With a rolling pin, lightly roll dough until it's a 13" square and sugar is pressed in on top and bottom. Fold the sides of the square towards the center, but only halfway to the middle. Then fold them again so that those folds meet exactly in the middle of the dough. Then fold one half on top of the other, like you're closing a book. There will be 6 layers. Slice the dough into 3/8" slices and place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat process with the second sheet of pastry. (There will be quite a bit of sugar left). Slice and arrange on baking sheet with parchment.

Bake cookies for 6 minutes, or until caramelized and brown on the bottom, then turn with a spatula and bake for another 3-5 minutes, until caramalized on the other side. Transfer to baking rack to cool.

*I only used half the sugar it called for and it was more than enough!

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

I forgot to take pictures of the finished product on this one,

but here are our chocolate sugar cookies in pre-baked form.

Last week, I had a hankering to try out my snazzy new cookie cutter set. What cookie cutter set, you ask? This one:

Thanks dapper Joe for your lovely modeling. ;) Jen gave me a sweet 101 cookie cutter set for my birthday, so we tried it out one Friday afternoon. I wanted to do cookies, but I'm admittedly not a big fan of sugar cookies, which led to discovery of the Chocolate Sugar Cookie. Amazing!! They're like brownies, but in cookie form.

I found this recipe on the Joy of Baking website, which I wasn't familiar with but Jen tells me is fabulous. I can certainly vouch for this recipe!

Chocolate Sugar Cookies:

2 3/4 c. all purpose flour

3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1 c. unsalted butter, room temperature

1 3/4 c. granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder.
2. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes). Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough.
3. Divide dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for about one hour or until firm enough to roll.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place rack in the center of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
5. Remove one half of the chilled dough from the refrigerator and on a floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Cut out desired shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter and transfer cookies to the prepared baking sheet. Place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to chill the dough which prevents the cookies from spreading and losing their shape while baking.
6. Bake cookies for about 10-12 minutes (depending on size) or until they're firm around the edges. Remove the oven and let cookies cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

The only thing I would add is I would highly recommend adjusting the cooking time. Go 8-10 minutes instead, so they're soft and chewy instead of crispy around the edges. So good!