What's up England?

It’s no secret that I’m not British, but there are many things that British people do that I also enjoy. Things like:

• Drinking tea.
• Drinking tea with milk in it.
• Eating cookies with tea.
• Speaking in a British accent.

Lemon Tea Cookies

Yield: 30 cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes + chill time

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar + plus some for dusting
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch of salt

Helpful Equipment:
Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer

Directions:

1) Cream together butter and powdered sugar using a hand mixer or stand mixer.

2) Once the mixture is light and fluffy, add in the lemon extract and continue to stir.

3) In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt and baking powder.

4) Slowly mix in dry ingredients into butter mixture. Stir until just combined.

5) Wrap dough with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for an hour.

6) Break off a large tablespoon sized piece of dough and roll it into a ball with your hands. Gently flatten the ball and put it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat. You should get about 30 cookies out of the dough batch.

7) Bake cookies at 375 for 10-11 minutes. They should be lightly browned around the edges.

8) Let cookies cool completely and dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Easy Cookies

These cookies are about as easy as cookies can be. There are two interesting things about them that give them a very unique texture.

1) They have powdered sugar instead of regular sugar. They aren’t quite as sweet because of this and have a much lighter texture.

2) There aren’t any eggs in the recipe. This again makes the cookies really light and also makes them nice and crunchy which is a good texture for a tea cookie.

I've used a lot of butter this week...

The first step to these cookies is just like 99% of the cookies you’ll ever make. You need to cream together the butter and sugar even though the sugar is powdered.

Just use a hand mixer or stand mixer and beat the butter and sugar until it’s a nice, light consistency.

Easy...

The Extract

I wanted to add a very simple flavor to these cookies and a tiny amount of lemon extract did the trick.

You don’t need much of this stuff. It’s very flavorful.

Mix the extract into the butter mixture. It’ll make your kitchen smell like a lemon bomb went off.

Very strong stuff.

The Finished Dough

In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, salt, and baking powder and then slowly mix it into the butter mixture.

Once it’s combined, your dough is done. Don’t overmix it. Once you can’t see any more flour, it’s ready to go!

Done.

The dough should be easy to mold, but pretty dense.

Take all the dough out of the bowl and wrap it in plastic wrap. Let this chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, but an hour would be best.

Cool it down.

Making the cookies

You could actually roll this dough out and cut out different shapes if you wanted to.

I went the easy route though. I just made my cookies by breaking off a small piece of dough about the size of a large tablespoon.

Then roll it gently into a ball using your hands.

Form a ball.

Gently press this into a disc shape and lay the cookies out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

You should get 15 cookies per sheet because these guys are smaller and they won’t really expand that much.

Should get 15 on a sheet.

Bake these guys at 375 degrees for about 10-11 minutes.

They are done when the edges are lightly browned.

Small is okay here.

Let these guys cool a bit and as they cool they will get nice and crispy.

Then give them a dusting of powdered sugar and serve them with your favorite cuppa tea!

Really light and tasty.

These will smell way more lemon flavored then they taste. As they bake they lose some of the lemon so the flavor ends up being subtle which is nice.

These are very light cookies. Perfect for an afternoon snack without being super-sweet or super-decadent.

So Mate. If you fancy a tea cookie, give these a jingle! 

An army!

You guys happened to pick one of my favorite dessert flavors for the poll last week. It’s a rare day that what I want to win actually wins. I got lucky this time around!

Besides using something with almond, I also wanted to make something super-easy to make.

In fact, these guys are so easy to make you don’t even have to turn on your oven!

This was my first attempt at making truffles and while they didn’t turn out perfectly shaped and I would probably need a few professional lessons before getting hired by See’s candy, I was completely happy with the result.

Almond Truffles

Yield: Makes about 40.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter
2 ounces cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup unsweetened coconut, toasted
4 ounces almonds, about a cup, ground
1/4 cup cocoa powder, for coating

Helpful Equipment:
Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer

Food Processor

Directions:

1) Cream together butter and cream cheese using a hand mixer or stand mixer until it is fluffy and smooth.

2) Toast coconut in a dry skillet over medium-low heat until it's a light brown color, about 4-5 minutes. Be careful not to burn the coconut.

3) Process almonds in a food processor until they are a rough meal.

4) With cream cheese/butter mixture, add in extracts and powdered sugar. Then stir in coconut and almond meal.

5) Make teaspoon sized balls of the dough and roll them into a tight ball with your hands. Toss them in cocoa powder until completely coated.

6) Chill for storage or serve immediately. These are best served at room temperature.

Adapted from a Food52 recipe.

Truffle Basics

I had never made truffles before and the first thing that shocked me was how little material actually goes into the balls. To make about 40 truffles, I only used 1 tablespoon of butter and 2 ounces of cream cheese.

Sure, there are a lot of add-ins and stuff, but the actual binder for the truffles is just a very tiny amount of these two ingredients.

The basics.

Add the butter and cream cheese to a mixing bowl and beat it until it is a light and smooth texture. I used my stand mixer for this, but you could just as easily use a hand mixer.

After a few minutes of beating you should be all set.

This actually makes a lot of truffles.

After this, mix in your extracts (vanilla and almond) and also the powdered sugar.

The Add-ins

Now for the fun stuff. This is where all the flavor and texture comes from for these truffles.

No need to peel.

For the almonds, just measure out 4 ounces (about a cup) and quickly process them in a mini-food processor. If you don’t have a food processor, I would just put my almonds in a plastic bag and crush them with a mallet or something.

Your goal is to get a really nice almond meal.

Easy breazy.

Besides the almonds, there’s also coconut in this recipe. I’m not always a huge coconut fan, but I really liked it in this recipe.

The key to coconut is to make sure you toast it lightly before using it. I just toasted mine in a dry skillet for a few minutes over medium-low heat. Be sure to keep an eye on the coconut and stir it frequently.

It can go from toasted to burned in about 30 seconds.

This is what you’re shooting for!

Don't burn it!

Add in the almond meal and coconut to the butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar.

Stir this all together and your truffle mixture is done!

Try to not eat this with a spoon.

Making the Truffles

Keep in mind that truffles are supposed to be bite-sized treats. This stuff is pretty rich and nobody wants a candy bar sized truffle.

I literally used a teaspoon to measure out my truffles. To make one, scoop out a heaping teaspoon of the mixture and then lightly roll it into a ball using your hands.

See how small it is?

Small is good.

Toss the ball into a bowl of cocoa powder and shake it around to coat it completely.

You can do more than one at a time.

Once you get the hang of it, you can do 5 or 6 at a time and then just toss them all with the cocoa powder at the same time.

It took me maybe 10 minutes to pop out about 40 of these bite-sized goodies.

As I finished them, I just set them out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The paper just makes it a bit easier to clean up. There’s really no danger of the truffles sticking to anything.

Not bad for my first truffle.

While these are supposed to be one bite treats, I bit one in half so you can see the story.

Pretty delicious stuff. The cocoa powder is sharp and intense and then then the whole thing just melts in your mouth.

Chomp!

Store these in the fridge, but they are best served at room temperature. So, if you can, take them out of the fridge 10 minutes before eating them.

I find this next to impossible because when I open my fridge, there they are, and I just pop one in my mouth.

So, that serving method works too.

These are really unique and they look and taste way harder than they actually are. Give them a shot if you’re a truffle fan, an almond fan, or a fan of good stuff that requires very little work!

Unassuming, but delicious.

This year I decided to participate in my first ever Cookie Swap!

This means that I sent out three boxes of cookies to three food bloggers and three other food bloggers will be hopefully sending me three boxes of goodies.

While I was mailing my boxes of cookies I did have this moment of thinking that this might be some very elaborate pyramid scheme to get millions of free holiday cookies for a few lucky people!

I had this vision of the creators (Lindsay and Julie) sitting around hundreds of boxes of collected cookies… laughing all the way to the dentist’s office.

Of course, that won’t really happen. Food bloggers are generally the nicest people ever and I have full faith that I’ll receive my delicious boxes of cookies.

This year I think something crazy like 700 food bloggers signed up for the cookie swap. I have no earthly idea how long it took Lindsay and Julie to organize and match that many people, but I do honestly hope they sent themselves a few free boxes of cookies just for the trouble!

If you want to sign up for next year’s cookie swap, there’s already a signup form for it.

These brown butter guys are the cookies I sent out to my matches!

Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Yield: 36 cookies

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, browned
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2/3 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oat flour
3 1/2 cups rolled oats (not instant kind)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 Cup dried cherries, chopped
1 Cup chocolate chips

Helpful Equipment:
Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer

Directions:

1) Add butter to a small saucepan over medium heat. Melt butter, stirring slowly. After butter melts, continue to cook for a few minutes until the butter solids start to brown. It easy to tell this if you use a non-dark colored pan as you'll be able to actually see the brown bits on the bottom. You can also tell when the butter is browned by the smell. It will start to smell very nutty which means it's done!

2) Pour off browned butter carefully. Try to leave most of the browned solids in the pan, but it's okay if some go with the butter. Let this cool.

3) Cream together sugars with brown butter until they are smooth using a hand mixer or stand mixer.

4) Beat in eggs one at a time and vanilla extract.

5) In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients except chocolate chips and cherries.

6) Slowly mix in dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Mix until just combined.

7) Stir in add-ins (chocolate and cherries).

8) Spoon large tablespoons of cookie dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

9) Bake cookies at 375 for 10-12 minutes until they are lightly browned around the edges.

10) Let cookies cool on a wire rack.

Butter, Browned

What I like about these cookies is that they are surprising. They look just like normal old oatmeal cookies, but they are jam-packed with flavor.

Step one to creating that flavor is to brown some butter. That gives the cookies a great nutty flavor that goes really well with the brown sugar.

If you’ve never browned butter before, it’s not all that hard. Just add your butter to a small saucepan and melt the butter over medium heat. Stir it frequently and after a few minutes the butter solids will separate out and sink to the bottom of the pan.

If you have a light colored saucepan, you’ll be able to actually start to see them brown a bit. You’ll also be able to smell the butter. When it’s done, it will have an intense nutty smell.

Start to finish, the butter browning process maybe takes 5-6 minutes.

Then you can pour off your browned butter. Try to leave behind most of the butter solids, but its okay if some get mixed in. It won’t affect the recipe at all.

Flavor town.

The Cookie Dough

Start this dough by mixing together all the dry ingredients in a bowl. If you can’t find oat flour, you can definitely use just all-purpose flour.

All the dry business.

Using a stand mixer or a hand mixer, beat together the browned butter and sugars until they are smooth and light. This should take a few minutes.

Then slowly mix in your eggs and your vanilla.

Once that is all mixed together, slowly mix in your dry ingredients, working in batches.

Try not to overmix this dough. When the flour is incorporated, it’s done!

Pretty simple.

The Add-ins

I figured these cookies would have lots of flavor and great texture as-is, but this is a cookie swap so I wanted to amp up the flavor even more.

So I mixed in some chocolate and dried cherries. I figured it’s hard to go wrong with these flavors.

Don't skimp on these!

Once those are mixed in your dough is done and you’re ready to make some cookies!

This makes a lot of cookies.

Baking the Cookies

Scoop large tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. You should get about 36 cookies out of this recipe.

Twelve cookies per baking sheet should be about right.

Ready to go!

Bake these guys at 375 for 10-12 minutes.

The should be lightly browned around the edges and still a bit soft in the center.

Let them cool on a wire rack if you have one.

If you’re photographing your cookies, here’s a TIP! Don’t photograph them on a counter that is almost exactly the same color as the cookies.

Talk about camouflage!

My counter is like camo for these...

The Packaging

I stressed out a lot about how to ship these cookies. I ended up letting the cookies cool completely and then sealing them well in a large freezer plastic bag.

Next I lined a large box with plastic wrap and filled the bottom with spicy kettle corn! I figured that would cushion the cookies a bit and also give the recipients a little extra treat.

The finished package!

Signed. Sealed. Delivered.

Now I need to make another batch of these for myself!

Ice cream in winter? Sure.

All this week on Macheesmo I’m making cookies! Be sure to check out the full list of cookie recipes on Macheesmo for even more cookie ideas.

As you’ll learn if you stick around for this full week, my definition of “cookie” is pretty broad. I should’ve probably called it “Dessert-that-you-can-eat-with-your-hands week”, but that doesn’t have the same flair.

Some might be shocked to see an ice cream based recipe in December, but I’m just not one of those guys that only likes to eat ice cream when it’s warm outside.

In fact, I’m up for eating ice cream pretty much any time. I could have hypothermia and be lost in the Canadian wilderness and probably still be up for a double scoop.

Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches

Yield: 24 sandwiches

Prep Time: 1 hour + ice cream resting

Total Time: 2 hours + plus freezing time

Ingredients:

Chocolate Chip Cookies:
Makes 48 small cookies.
8.5 ounces cake flour (2 cups minus 2 Tbsp.)
8.5 ounces bread flour (1 2/3 cups)
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 cups unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 ounces chocolate chips

Vanilla Ice Cream:
Makes about 1 quart.
1 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
3/4 cup sugar
1 pinch salt
2 cups heavy cream
6 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Helpful Equipment:
Stand mixer or hand mixer
Ice Cream maker (I used the kitchenaid attachment which works okay.)
Mesh Strainer (for straining ice cream custard)

Directions:

1) For ice cream, slip vanilla bean in half and scrape out seeds into a medium saucepan with milk, sugar, and salt. Bring to a simmer, then remove from heat immediately, cover, and let sit for one hour.

2) Whisk together yolks in a bowl. Bring milk mixture back up to heat (not simmering, just hot). Once hot, whisk in about 1/2 cup of the milk mixture slowly into the yolks to temper them. THen whisk yolks back into milk mixture.

3) Cook over low heat, scraping regularly and stirring with a heat-resistant spatula. Cook until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula, about 5-6 minutes.

4) In a separate bowl, add cream and set bowl in a larger bowl filled with ice (ice bath). Once custard is thick, strain into cream. Stir well to combine and cool, then stir in vanilla extract.

5) Chill custard overnight or until thoroughly chilled. Then add to ice cream maker and churn according to instructions for your machine. Freeze ice cream until it's solid. I like to stir mine a few times while it is freezing solid to remove ice crystals.

For cookies:
1) Mix together dry ingredients (flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda). Set aside.

2) Cream together butter and sugars. Then mix in one egg at a time, slowly. Once all the eggs are incorporated, stir in vanilla.

3) Slowly stir in dry ingredients. Once dry ingredients are mixed in add chocolate chips and stir just until they are evenly distributed. Try not to overmix.

4) At this point you can chill the dough for up to 2 days if you want.

5) To bake, scoop tablespoon sized balls onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper. You should get about 48 cookies out of the batch. Bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes until they are lightly browned, but still somewhat soft.

6) Let cookies cool completely (preferably on a wire rack).

Making the sandwiches:
1) Once your cookies are made, transfer them to a large container and freeze them for about an hour.

2) Scoop a few tablespoon of ice cream and sandwich it between two cookies. Eat immediately or transfer to a freezer safe dish and freeze for up to 2 months.

Cookie recipe adapted from NY Times. Ice Cream adapted from a David Lebovitz recipe.

The Ice Cream

The most obvious shortcut that you could take for this recipe is just to buy ice cream from the store. You could sandwich almost any ice cream between these cookies and be in good shape. Since I figured I’d be snacking on these for a long time, I thought it would be worth it to make a really rich and delicious vanilla ice cream.

Any good vanilla ice cream recipe has to start with real vanilla beans. They are expensive, but the flavor is hard to beat.

Anytime you’re working with vanilla remember to split the bean and scrape out all those tiny vanilla seeds. Lots of flavor there!

Caviar? Nope. But still expensive.

If you’ve never made homemade ice cream before, it isn’t really that hard. You basically just make a custard and then chill it.

So start by combining your vanilla, sugar, salt, and milk in a saucepan. Bring this to a simmer and then let it sit, covered, for about an hour. This will infuse the milk with all that vanilla flavor (top left).

In a separate bowl, whisk together your egg yolks. Then heat up your milk mixture again (not simmering but hot). Then slowly whisk in about 1/2 cup of the milk mixture into the whisked yolks. This will bring them up to temperature and then you can whisk the warm yolks back into the hot milk mixture without worry that they will cook.

Cook this mixture over low heat until it thickens enough to coat a spatula. Be sure to stir this constantly and scrape the bottom of the pan to make sure it isn’t sticking. After 5-6 minutes, it should start to get very thick (bottom left).

Then strain this mixture and whisk it into your heavy cream. Add the vanilla and cool this as quickly as possible. I like to do this by putting the bowl in a larger bowl filled with ice (bottom right).

This might seem like a drawn out process, but minus the hour that you have to wait for the milk to infuse, it’s really only about 10 minutes of work.

Let this custard mixture chill thoroughly before making the ice cream. I recommend chilling it in the fridge for at least a few hours.

The Leftovers

A good vanilla bean will probably cost you $3-4. So don’t throw it away after you’re done with it in the custard mixture. There’s still tons of flavor in that bean actually. I like to cut my bean into a few pieces and add it to a dish with a few cups of sugar. Seal this and shake it up and after a week or so you’ll have some delicious vanilla sugar that you can use for a ton of things.

Still lots of flavor in those beans.

Making the Ice Cream

Depending on your ice cream maker, there will be different instructions for actually churning the ice cream.

I used my KitchenAid attachment which works pretty well. If I were buying an ice cream maker today though, I think I’d get a stand alone model.

Churn it!

Once your ice cream is churned to a nice soft serve consistency, you can scoop it into a dish and let it freeze solid in your freezer.

I actually like to take my ice cream out and stir it every hour or so just to make sure large ice crystals aren’t forming in the ice cream.

Soft serve.

The Cookies

I’m not going to go into a huge amount of detail on the chocolate chip cookies that I made for this. I used the same recipe that I used for my pretzel chocolate chip cookies. You can also check out the printed version of this recipe for thorough instructions.

Instead of making 18 huge cookies though, I made about 48 smaller cookies.

The cookies are pretty straightforward. Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Cream together butter and sugars. Stir in eggs and extracts. Then slowly mix in flour followed by chocolate chips.

At this point you can chill the dough for a few days, but I just baked them immediately on this day. For the cookies you want to shoot for large tablespoon-sized cookies and should get 12 per baking sheet.

I recommend using parchment paper to make sure they don’t stick to the baking sheets.

Pretty straightforward.

Bake these cookies for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees. They should be lightly browned around the edges and still a bit soft in the middle.

Let them cool completely.

Building the Sandwiches

The only trick to making these sandwiches is that I would recommend freezing the cookies quickly before actually making them. I just stacked all of my cookies in a large casserole dish and then froze them for about an hour. That will make them more firm and easier to work with.

Chill these guys first.

A few tablespoons of ice cream smashed between two cookies is all you need for a really delicious dessert.

These are a bit of work, I won’t lie, but they make a bunch and keep perfectly so your work will pay dividends. You could also take some shortcuts if you want like using store-bought ice cream.

So good.

There’s a couple of things that I love about this treat. First, it combines my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and my favorite vanilla ice cream recipe. So yea. These are good.

Second, I love that since you freeze these, they keep for a really long time! This recipe makes about two dozen ice cream sandwiches and eating more than one at a time is a feat. So they keep for a while and you’ll have easy access to a quick frozen dessert should the urge strike you.

Even though I made these about a month ago, I’m still snacking on them and they are basically as good as they were on day one!

Sometimes I have good ideas.

One of the things that I really like to do when I’m coming up with a recipe is turn stuff inside out. Put what’s normally on the inside on the outside.

If you have a good flavor combo, it keeps that combo but can give you really interesting, new textures.

Now that you’re kind of inside my brain, you can probably see how it’s not a huge leap to take a chocolate covered pretzel and flip it all around.

This cookie is the result and I think that it might be the best cookie I’ve ever made. I’m not going to go so far as to call it The Best Cookie EVER like so many people do, but I’ll just say that I would put it up against any other cookie in a taste test and leave it at that.

Pretzel Chip Cookies

Yield: 18 cookies

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

8.5 ounces (a scant two cups) cake flour
8.5 ounces (1 2/3 cups) bread flour
1 1/4 Teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 Teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 Teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/4 Cups unsalted butter
1 Cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 Cups sugar
2 eggs
2 Teaspoons vanilla extract
1 pound chocolate chips, at least 60% cocoa
Hard pretzels, crushed

Helpful Equipment:
Kitchen Scale
Stand mixer or hand mixer

Directions:

1) Sift together flours with other dry ingredients except sugar.

2) Cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs one at a time and vanilla.

3) Mix in dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Then fold in chocolate chips.

4) Cover dough with plastic wrap and let rest for 24 hours in the fridge.

5) When ready to bake cookies, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

6) Make 3.5 ounce balls of dough (a large golf ball). Press dough ball into crushed pretzels on top. Press on a lot of pretzels.

7) Add cookie to baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Six cookies should fit on each baking sheet.

8) Bake cookies for 18-20 minutes until lightly browned but still chewy on the inside.

9) Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to rack to finish cooling.

Adapted from an NY Times Recipe.

The Flours

I’ve been eyeing the recipe that I adapted for these guys for a while. One of the things that intrigued me about it was how it ditches all-purpose flour for a mixture of cake flour and bread flour. I could see how that would give the cookies a soft texture but still be somewhat chewy which sounds like a winning cookie to me.

Interesting flour combo.

I usually don’t worry about weighing cookie ingredients, although I know I should, but for this recipe it seemed to call for a very exact ratio of cake flour and bread flour so I pulled out my digital scale.

Gotta weigh it!

As far as the chocolate goes, the article in the NY Times goes on and on about how to get the absolute perfect ratio of chocolate to dough and exactly what kinds of chips result in the best cookie.

I’m sure they are right, but I’m not really going to order chocolate off the internet just to make chocolate chips cookies. So I just picked up a few different kinds of chips that looked good to me and tossed them in.

Use a few different chips.

Making the Dough

This is a pretty standard cookie dough to make.

Start by sifting together the flours and other dry ingredients except the sugar. It is somewhat important to sift the flours here because cake flour can sometimes clump up pretty badly.

Then, using a mixer (hand or stand) beat together the sugar and butter until it’s a light, fluffy texture. Then mix in the eggs one at a time on low. Then add the vanilla.

Next, add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture and mix until the flour is incorporated. Mix on low and don’t over mix it or your cookies will get too chewy.

It should take under a minute to get your flour mixed in, then gently mix in your chocolate chips until they are evenly incorporated.

Don't over-mix it!

The Waiting

There was one part of the article that I was a bit skeptical about. They said that it’s very important to let your cookie dough rest in the fridge for at least 24 hours before baking your cookies.

This is a serious test of willpower. You have these delicious cookies just sitting there, but you have to wait.

The idea behind it is to give the dough plenty of time to absorb all the liquid. If you bake them right away, the flour won’t get a chance to even absorb the eggs.

I didn’t actually bake a cookie right away to compare, but I must say that the dough had a much different texture after sitting overnight.

So I think it’s worth it if you can stand the wait.

Once the dough is mixed, just cover it with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge overnight.

Patience people.

Forming the Cookies

When you’re finally ready to make the cookies, just scoop out about 3.5 ounces of cookie dough. I actually weighed mine to make sure it was right, but basically it should be the size of a large golfball.

This amount of dough makes a pretty enormous cookie. You can only fit six of them on a baking sheet at a time.

When each cookie is rolled into a ball, press it into some crushed pretzels on one side. Make sure a good amount of pretzels are stuck to the cookie.

Then add each cookie to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Seriously large cookies

Bake these guys at 350 degrees for about 18 minutes. The cookies should be nicely browned on top, but still soft in the center.

These guys turned out so perfect.

Done deal.

Once they come out of the oven, let them cool on the baking sheet for five minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Serving them a bit warm is a really good idea.

I do not mess around.

Biting into one of these is a pretty intense experience. The salt from the pretzels is the perfect topping for the cookies. It really brings out the chocolate flavor in the cookies.

At the same time there’s this fantastic texture thing happening between the soft cookie and the crunchy pretzels.

This picture doesn’t really do it justice, but maybe it’ll give you an idea!

Chomp!

There’s a few tricky parts with this recipe and you could ignore them if you dare. You could not weigh or sift your flours. You could not let your dough sit for 24 hours. You could make wimpy little cookies. They would still be good.

But if you do take the time to follow some of the more annoying steps, you’ll be well-rewarded.

Pretzels. Chocolate. Cookies.

Is it the best chocolate chip cookie IN THE WORLD? I don’t know, but I definitely wouldn’t turn one down.

These will punch you in the face.

Have you ever been punched in the face?

I’ve never really been a fighter, but after I ate one of these guys, my head did the “jerk back” thing like I just got sucker-punched.

I found this recipe when I was browsing through some of Bill Yosses‘s recipes. If you don’t know who that is, he’s the pastry chef for the White House. I assumed that presidents probably don’t eat crappy cookies so I thought I’d give it a shot.

These cookies are super-flavorful. They are packed full of hidden spices that are almost overpowering.

If you want to say goodbye to wussy cookies, give these a shot!

Pepper and Spice Cookies

Yield: 30 cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes + 1 hour to chill

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 Cups cocoa powder, unsweetened
3/4 Cup brown sugar
12 Tablespoons unsalted butter, soft
1 large egg
1 Teaspoon black peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick (or 1 Teaspoon ground cinnamon)
1 Teaspoon allspice berries (or 1 Teaspoon ground allspice)
1/2 Teaspoon pink peppercorns
1 1/2 Teaspoons baking powder
1/8 Teaspoon ground ginger
2 Teaspoons vanilla extract
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Pinch of salt
Pinch of ground mace (opt.)
Coarse sugar, for sprinkling (opt.)

Helpful Equipment:
Spice Grinder

Directions:

1) Grind black pepper, cinnamon, and allspice in a spice grinder.

2) Sift spices with all other dry ingredients and set aside.

3) Roughly crunch pink peppercorns with a mortar and pestle or just the back of a knife.

4) In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add pink peppercorns and beat until smooth and light, about 5 minutes.

5) Mix in eggs and vanilla and mix well.

6) Slowly add in dry ingredients and combine until the dough comes together. Try not to over mix it.

7) Scoop dough out onto wax paper and roll into a cylinder about 2 inches in diameter.

8) Chill dough for at least an hour.

9) Slice dough into 1/4 inch cookies and add cookies to baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.

10) Bake at 375 degrees for about 7-8 minutes.

11) Move cookies to a wire rack to cool for a few minutes.

Adapted from The Perfect Finish

The Spices!

This recipe has some crazy spices in it. Some of them you might not be familiar with. You can just leave the ones out that you don’t know or have, but I’d really recommend hunting down the more important ones and trying them out.

Especially the allspice and pink peppercorns. They add some really unique flavor to these cookies.

Spice city.

If whole spices like this intimidate you, they shouldn’t. I actually prefer buying whole spices just because they keep way longer than dried spices.

All you need to use them is a reasonably economical spice grinder. You can use your normal coffee grinder, but make sure you clean it out before you try to make coffee next time! If you blend up some white rice in the grinder, it’ll clean it out. Personally, I just picked up an extra grinder that I only use for spices.

Grind up the cinnamon, allspice berries, and black pepper. Leave the pink peppercorns whole for now.

Not coffee!

Sifting

The recipe called for sifting all the dry ingredients. I’ve been known to skip steps like this in recipes, but I decided to go with it this time around. The man makes cookies for Obama, so maybe I should just listen to him.

Not sure if this is an essential step....

It only takes a few minutes to sift all your dry ingredients on some wax paper. That just makes it easier to add to the dough later.

Lots of sifting...

Starting the dough

These cookies start like most cookies, by creaming together the butter and sugar until it’s nice and smooth and light. The only difference here is that we’re going to add in those pink peppercorns to the butter mixture!

If you’ve never had pink peppercorns before, they are an incredibly unique taste. They are a bit spicy but also bright and flavorful. Pink peppercorns are softer than the black variety so no need to grind them up. I used my mortar and pestle to just lightly crush them, but you could also use the back of a knife to crush them up a bit.

A rough grinding...

Then add the butter and sugar to a mixing bowl and beat them together until they’re smooth. You could use a stand mixer or hand mixer for this. Add your pink peppercorns to this and continue to beat it until the mixture is nice and smooth, probably about 5 minutes.

Standard stuff.

Next, beat in the egg and vanilla and slowly add in the sifted ingredients. Mix it until it’s just combined and try not to over-mix the dough. It should be a somewhat stiff dough.

Rolling the dough

To prepare this dough for cooking, spoon it out onto some wax paper and roll it tightly into a cylinder.

A log of dough.

You should let this chill in the fridge for an hour or two before making the cookies, but I went ahead and baked them right away. That’s why mine turned out a bit oblong. They weren’t quite chilled enough for slicing, but they baked up fine.

When you’re ready to make the cookies, unroll the cookie dough and slice it into about 1/4 inch cookies.

Cookies!

Baking the cookies

Add these cookies to a baking sheet (you’ll probably need two) that’s lined with parchment paper. If you want, sprinkle them with some coarse sugar which gives them a nice texture. It’s also pretty.

The sugar is a nice touch.

Bake these at 375 degrees for about 7-8 minutes. They don’t take long and keep an eye on them so they don’t burn!

Once they’re done, move them to a wire rack to cool for a few minutes before serving!

Cooked and Cooled.

Besides the incredible flavor these cookies have, they also have a really nice texture. They are kind of crumbly. They break apart easily and then just kind of dissolve in your mouth.

And then the spices kick in and BAM.

You’re punched in the face.

Food porn alert!

Want a small glimpse into the mind of a food blogger? It goes something like this.

Since it’s cookie week next week, I should really post a poll to let people vote for a cookie!

*After some brainstorming and posting* Man. I hope people pick dulce de leche as a winner. That would rock because dulce de leche is delicious.

*Check poll results late Friday night* Whoa. Dulce de leche is winning by a lot! That’ll be easy. I can just buy some dulce de leche and sandwich it between some nice soft butter cookies.

*The food blog homemade devil appears on my shoulder* You know. You could make dulce de leche. How hard could it be?

*Research research research* Boiling a can in water for 3 hours seems incredibly dangerous and not really HOMEMADE.

I’ll spare you the rest of my thought process, but I think you see where this is going. I decided to make the stuff literally from scratch. Like starting with milk and sugar.

Alfajores

Yield: 20 Cookies

Prep Time: 6 hours

Total Time: 6 hours

Ingredients:

Dulce de Leche (Recipe from Chez Pim)
1/2 gallon whole milk
1 1/2 Cups (500 g) sugar
Pinch of salt

Butter Cookies (Recipe from Baking Bites)
3/4 Cup (1 1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
1 Cup sugar
1 large egg
1 Teas. vanilla extract
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 Teas. baking powder
Pinch of salt

Directions:

1) If you're making the dulce de leche, just add milk, sugar, and salt in pot and put over medium heat. Whisk until mixture starts to simmer. TUrn heat down to low and let simmer slowly for 3-5 hours until dulce de leche reaches the consistency you want.

2) Once the mixture reaches the consistency you're looking for, take it off the heat and skim off any hard skin that's formed on top. Then whisk the mixture until it's smooth. I also recommend straining it through a fine strainer to remove any bits.

3) Let cool to room temperature and then store in the fridge for a few weeks (if it will last that long).

4) For the cookies, cream together the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl using either a stand mixer or with a hand mixer for a few minute suntil the mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

5) Add egg and vanilla extract and mix to combine.

6) Add dry ingredients and mix until combined. Try not to over mix.

7) Form small balls with dough and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicon baking sheet. You should be able to fit 20 cookies per baking sheet. They don't really expand as they cook.

8) Flatten the cookies slightly so you can make a sandwich out of them.

9) Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Remove and cool on a wire rack.

10) Sandwich some dulce de leche between the cookies and eat! You can also just dunk them in the dulce de leche!

The Sweetness

There’s a few recipes floating around that involve boiling a can of condensed milk in water for like 3 hours and that apparently makes very delicious dulce de leche.

For some reason, I just couldn’t get myself to do it this way. For one, I’m pretty certain this isn’t how old Argentine grandmothers make dulce de leche. Second, I couldn’t get past the huge warning on the can that says it might explode if heated.

So I went a different route.

Milk. Sugar.

The process of making dulce de leche was actually very easy assuming you have 3 to 5 hours of time.

Basically, just combine the milk, sugar, and salt in a pot and bring it to a simmer while whisking. Once it’s simmering, turn the heat down to low and simmer very slowly for somewhere in the 3-5 hour range. Make sure it’s not simmering too rapidly. Slow is better here.

It took me four hours to get to my final consistency which I’ll admit was a bit thinner than what you’d buy in the store. I probably could’ve simmered for even another 1/2 hour to hour.

Tastes better than it looks!

Once you’re ready to pull the sweet stuff off the heat, try to skim off any tough skin that’s formed on the top of the milk and then whisk it until it’s smooth.

I would also recommend straining it through a fine strainer just to make sure it has no lumps.

Let this cool at room temperature until it’s cooled down and then you can keep it in the fridge for a week or two without a problem.

I knew that it would thicken a bit in the fridge, but it didn’t thicken quite as much as I was hoping for. This was my final consistency which tasted excellent but was a bit on the thin side.

Not quite thick enough... but good.

The consistency that you want to shoot for depends on what you want to do with it. If you’re making alfajores, you probably want to make it thicker. If you’re putting it over oatmeal or ice cream (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), then thinner is better.

Neither is wrong. No matter what, it’s delicious as long as you don’t burn the milk which you won’t do because you’ll take your time right? Right.

The Cookies (easy part)

I just went with a pretty simple butter cookie for this recipe.

Kinda close up, but you get the idea.

Start by creaming together the butter and sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix together. Then add in the dry ingredients and mix until the dough is just combined.

It should be a pretty firm dough like this:

I ate some with a spoon. Don't tell.

Roll the dough into small balls and place each ball onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicon sheet. You should be able to fit 20 cookies per sheet. These guys won’t expand much. They will basically cook in the shape you make them.

Easy enough.

Bake them at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes and then let them cool (ideally on a wire rack).

Once they are cool, feel free to sandwich them with some dulce de leche. This is when I really realized that mine was a bit too runny.

I recommend a small sprinkle of salt on the cookies. It makes the flavors in the cookie really pop.

Salt is a good idea.

In reality, it was easier for me to just dunk the cookie in the dulce de leche which was completely delicious.

I found making the dulce de leche a really fun experience. It’s pretty slow food, but it was cool to see the milk transform into the decadent almost caramel like stuff.

So. Is this too much? Anybody ever made dulce de leche before? In the can or otherwise?

Ginger-packed.

With the holiday season in full effect I thought I’d spend a week and post a few cookie recipes that have been swimming around in my head recently. Therefore, I’m un-originally calling this week Cookie Week. As an aside, it also happens to be cookie week on Tablespoon.com where I write once a week as well. So, basically, if you don’t like cookies you might want to just ignore me for a week.

But who in their right mind doesn’t like cookies?

I thought I’d start the week off with something simple: Ginger snaps. I like ginger snaps a lot mainly because they tend to not be too sweet. I usually don’t like stuff that’s super-sweet and these guys have a great balance of spice and sweetness.

I decided to jack up the ginger flavor a bit by using fresh ginger as well as ground ginger.

Double Ginger Snaps

Yield: 30 Cookies

Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes

Ingredients:

3/4 Cups (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup brown sugar
1 large egg
2 Tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
2 Teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 Teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon molasses
2 Tablespoons honey
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 Teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
Coarse sugar for topping cookies (Optional but a nice touch)

Helpful Equipment:
Microplane zester for ginger

Directions:

1) Cream together butter and sugars using a hand mixer or stand mixer until mixture is light and fluffy. In a seperate bowl, combine all dry ingredients.

2) To butter mixture, add egg, vanilla, molasses, honey, and fresh ginger. Stir to combine.

3) Slowly add dry ingredients in a few batches and stir until dough comes together.

4) Scrape dough out onto clean surface and form a log out of the dough. Wrap the log in plastic wrap tightly and store in the fridge for an hour so the dough can firm up. You can also freeze the dough if you want to store it for a long time.

5) Slice off 1/4 inch cookies using a sharp knife. Dip cookies in coarse sugar on one side and set sugared side up on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicon mat.

6) Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cool before serving.

Making the Snaps

There are a few more ingredients in these cookies than some others, but actually making the cookies couldn’t be easier.

Cookie deconstructed.

Start by combining your butter and sugars into a bowl and mix with either a stand mixer or hand mixer. Cream the butter and sugar together until it’s nice and light and fluffy. This will take a few minutes.

Once the mixture is light and fluffy, add your egg to the mix.

You don't need a fancy mixer for these...

In a separate bowl, combine all your dry ingredients. So that means the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ground ginger. Mix those all together with a fork.

The Secret Ingredient

I was hoping to give the cookies a bit more of a spicy flavor by using some fresh ginger along with the ground ginger.

It worked really well actually. The key is to grate the ginger finely so it kind of dissolves into the cookies.

Secret ingredient!

Combine the fresh ginger, honey, molasses, and vanilla extract in your mixing bowl with the butter/sugar/egg. Mix for a few seconds to combine.

Then add your dry ingredients in two or three batches, mixing slowly until the cookie dough is combined. Don’t over-mix it or you’ll end up with tough cookies. Nobody likes tough cookies.

When the dough is ready, scrape it out onto a clean surface and shape it into a log. The log should have about 1 1/2 inch diameter, but there’s no need to measure it or anything. Just get it close.

Wrap this really tightly in plastic wrap and store it in the fridge so the dough can chill for at least an hour. This will just make it easier to work with.

You can store this forever.

When you’re ready to bake the cookies, unwrap your log and slice off as many cookies as you want to bake. I just baked them all at once, but you could definitely just bake them as you need them and keep the dough stored for later. It would keep in the fridge for a few days or you could freeze it for even longer.

Use a sharp knife to slice the dough about 1/4 inch thick.

1/4 inch is good.

Dip these guys in coarse sugar and lay them out on a baking sheet. Give the cookies plenty of room because they’ll grow.

I actually over-crowded my pans a bit. I think 12 cookies per baking sheet is about the maximum. For best results, use parchment paper or a silicon baking mat with the cookies.

Sugar topping.

Bake these guys at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. I err on the side of undercooked because I like these a bit soft. Definitely check on them around 7-8 minutes and remember that they’ll firm up a bit as they cool.

Let the cookies cool for a few minutes before eating them.

I like mine a bit on the soft side.

When I was planning out my cookie week lineup, these were the clear underdogs going in. I just wasn’t sure that they would be fantastic.

But they’re the kind of cookie that sits unassuming at a holiday party for a few minutes until someone tries one. Then word spreads and suddenly they are gone.

Check back tomorrow for a cookie with an even more hidden ingredient!

Find me a better chocolate chip cookie. I'll wait.

Are you in desperate need of a raise, lover, friend, or just some general praise? These cookies, my friend, have the potential to get you all of those things. Ok. I can’t promise the raise, but ya never know!

Anybody can make a decent chocolate chip cookie right? The good news is that anybody can also make a better chocolate chip cookie because these little guys are better than the standard but still pretty straightforward to make.

There’s one trick and one secret ingredient that takes these cookies to the next level.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: Makes 24-30 cookies

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

2 1/4 Cups bread flour (you can use all-purpose, but they'll lose some awesome chewiness)
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Teaspoon kosher salt
1 Cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/4 Cup sugar
1 1/4 Cups dark brown sugar (packed)
1 Tablespoon Half and Half or heavy cream
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 1/2 Teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 Cups chocolate chips

Helpful Equipment:
Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer

Directions:

1) Mix flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside.

2) In a medium pot, add butter over medium heat and cook until melted. Turn heat down to low.

3) Cook, and whisk occasionally, until milk fats seperate out and slightly burn on the bottom of the pan. Little brown specks will appear and it will smell very nutty. This should take 15-20 minutes.

4) Let brown butter cool for a few minutes then add sugars and stir to combine. Let cool for a few more minutes until warm.

5) Add sugar/butter mixture to a stand mixer bowl or a bowl with a hand mixer and cream together on medium speed until slightly fluffy and combined, about 5 minutes.

6) Add egg and yolk, vanilla, half and half, and lemon juice.

7) Next add flour in a few batches and stir on low speed until well incorporated. Don't overmix though.

8) Stir in chocolate chips. Cover and store in the fridge for at least an hour, but you could store it for up to a week.

9) When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350. Add large tablespoons of dough to a parchment sheet lined baking sheet. Roll dough into balls.

10) Bake for 9-10 minutes. Preferably underbake these.

11) Cool for a minute or two preferably on a wire rack and eat as soon as possible!

Adapted from a Recipe Girl recipe.

The Secret Ingredient

I haven’t seen many cookies that are made with bread flour instead of all-purpose flour. In fact, the first time I saw this recipe I thought it was a mistake.

But trust me. It’s not a mistake. This is the stuff you want.

Secret ingredient alert!

Bread flour has a slightly higher amount of gluten in it which is why it’s great for breads. It gives you that really chewy texture that you can’t reproduce with all-purpose flour. In fact, most bakeries use even a higher-gluten flour then bread flour which is pretty hard to find in stores.

Because of the bread flour, these cookies have a bit more chew to them then you’re probably used to. It makes for a fantastic texture.

Besides the flour, you’ll need some standard cookie stuff, including a lot of butter of course.

Butter and suga.

To start, mix your flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside for later. You don’t want to have to be worried about that at the last minute.

Browning the butter

I’ve made brown butter sugar cookies before and these are a similar process. The flavor is really boosted in these though because of the brown sugar, extra vanilla, and chocolate obviously. These are much more decadent.

The butter process is the same though. If you’ve never browned butter before, don’t stress about it. It’s really simple.

Start by adding your butter to a medium pot over medium-low heat and let it melt. Once it starts frothing, turn the heat down to low and whisk the butter. As the butter cooks, the water will evaporate from the butter leaving only the oil and the milk solids. Eventually, the milk solids will separate out and start to brown which gives it the distinct brown color and also the delicious nutty flavor.

It’ll take about 15-20 minutes for the butter to brown. Just whisk it every minute or so to make sure that it’s heating evenly. There’s no need to lord over it though.

You know your done when it smells very fragrant and nutty and looks like this!

Don't be nervous about this.

See those little brown specks at the bottom? Those are butter gold!

Let this cool for a minute and then add all your sugar to the brown butter. Stir it all together.

Basically this is a caramel sauce.

If we continued to heat this and melted all the sugar, you’d have a brown butter caramel sauce!

But we don’t want that. We want cookie dough, so it’s okay if your sugar and butter separate out some.

Let the butter/sugar mixture cool down before continuing since we are going to be adding eggs to them. You don’t want to cook the eggs!

Making the Dough

From here on out the process is the exact same as making any cookie dough. Add the butter/sugar mixture to a stand mixer or use a hand mixer (on medium) to cream the butter and sugar together. It should lighten up a bit and turn fluffy. My took about 4 minutes to get to the right point.

Then add your egg and egg yolk and continue to mix. Add the vanilla, half and half, and lemon juice, and eventually you’ll have a very smooth caramel colored mixture.

This is the stuff dream cookies are made of.

Again... caramel sauce.

Turn the mixer to low and stir in the bread flour mixture in a few batches just until it’s combined.

Then add in all the chocolate chips and stir again until they are evenly distributed. Try not to over-mix the dough.

Chillin

This dough needs to chill before you use it. Wrap it up in plastic wrap and store it in your fridge for an hour or two before baking.

You could keep it in your fridge for a week like this without a problem.

Baking the cookies

When you’re ready to bake, roll the dough into heaping Tablespoon sized balls and add them to a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

You can make these pretty big.

These will not spread out like some cookies do. Instead they will puff up! So you don’t need as much space between each cookie. Just an inch or so should do the trick.

Bake them at 350 degrees for 9-10 minutes. Cookies are always better if they are slightly underbaked so I recommend pulling them out at 9 minutes.

Let them cool for a few minutes (move them to a rack if you have one handy), and then dig in!

BITE!

These are best right out of the oven, but they were actually still very good a day later.

I didn’t have any left to try after that point. If they make it longer than 24 hours without being consumed, you probably did something wrong!

So for the last cookie of the week, I wanted to do something simple. And these browned butter cookies are definitely simple to make. They also happen to be delicious.

I wish you could smell these.

Browned butter cookies are kind of the Holy Grail of holiday cookies. They may not look as colorful or shiny as some of the others, but it would be a horrible mistake to pass them up.

(For those Indiana Jones fans, please do not carry the analogy further than this. You will not turn to dust if you choose a different cookie.)

Brown Butter Cookies

Yield: Makes 16.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

3/4 Cups (1 1/2 Sticks) salted butter
1/2 Cup dark brown sugar (I used light and I wish I could have a do over.)
1 Teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 Cups all-purpose flour
Demerara sugar, for coating cookies (or any other large grained sugar)

NOTE: If you use unsalted butter, add 1/4 Teaspoon of salt to the dough.

Directions:

1) Add butter to a small saucepan; place the pan over medium-low heat until it melts. Stir the butter and after a few minutes it will start to foam and then the milk solids will sink to the bottom. Keep stirring or swirling pan and eventually the butter will start to turn a light brown and give off a very delicious, nutty aroma.

2) Once the butter is brown, pour it into a dish and store it in the fridge for about an hour. It needs to be chilled and almost solid before continuing with the recipe. It’s okay if it’s a little liquid still, but it should be cold before you make the cookie dough.

3) Once butter is cool, add it to a bowl along with brown sugar.

4) Mix the butter and sugar together with a mixer (hand or stand) on medium until they light and airy for 3 to 4 minutes.

5) Add vanilla and slowly incorporate flour.

6) Either scoop onto a baking sheet or lie out dough on wax paper and wrap the wax paper around the dough and press down to form a cylinder. Using your hands, press on the one edge of the dough – sandwiching the cylinder of dough between the two sides of paper. As you press down, the cylinder gets longer (and narrower).

7) Sprinkle down a good amount of demerara sugar (or any very grainy sugar like sugar in the raw).

8) Roll dough log around in the sugar until it’s well coated.

9) Wrap dough up in the wax paper and stick it in the fridge for a few days without a problem or freeze it for a few weeks.

10) When you are ready to bake, take it out and slice off as many cookies as you need.

11) Before baking, sprinkle a bit more of the sugar on top of the cookies.

12) Bake them on an ungreased baking sheet in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are slightly dark.

Adapted from a Gourmet recipe. RIP.

Making Brown Butter

There’s really no trick to making brown butter. It’s a lot easier than you might think considering how freakin’ delicious it is. Basically, just add your butter to a small saucepan.

Salted butter is good for this.

Then place the pan over medium-low heat until it melts. Stir the butter and after a few minutes it will start to foam and then the milk solids will sink to the bottom. Keep stirring or swirling your pan and eventually the butter will start to turn a light brown and give off a very delicious, nutty aroma.

That means it’s done.

Really the only way you can mess this up is to overcook it and turn your brown butter black. I actually think I overcooked mine a bit for this recipe because I was watching football and not watching my butter. Go figure.

This was my result which was just a tiny shade too dark I would say.

Maybe a tad too browned...

Cool the butter

Once you have your brown butter, pour it into a dish (above) and store it in the fridge for about an hour. You want it to be chilled and almost solid before continuing with the recipe.

It’s okay if it’s a little liquid still, but it should be cold before you make the cookie dough.

Annoying, but important step!

Making the Dough

Once your butter is cool, add it to a bowl along with your brown sugar. Don’t worry about the tiny particles of milk solids. You can add those also. They won’t hurt a soul.

I used light brown sugar because I had it on hand, but I think dark brown sugar would be a lot better. It would just hold up better to the brown butter flavor. It’d be worth a trip to the store in my opinion.

Anyway, mix the butter and sugar together with a mixer (hand or stand) on medium until they light and airy. That shouldn’t take more than 3 or 4 minutes.

Shoulda used dark brown sugar.

Then add your vanilla and slowly incorporate your flour. This isn’t a very wet dough, but that’s okay.

I think you could just scoop these on a baking sheet and bake them without a problem but if you want to take it to the next level, lay out all your dough on some wax paper and wrap the wax paper around the dough and press down to form a cylinder.

I use my hands to kind of press on the one edge of the dough – sandwiching the cylinder of dough between the two sides of paper. As you press down, the cylinder gets longer (and narrower)! Get it?

Kind of like compound butter...

You can make your cylinder whatever size you want. The smaller you want your cookies, the narrower your cylinder should be. Mine was probably about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter.

Next, sprinkle down a good amount of demerara sugar (or any very grainy sugar like sugar in the raw). Roll your dough log around in the sugar until it’s well coated.

Easy!

At this point you can wrap your dough up in the wax paper and stick it in the fridge for a few days without a problem or freeze it for a few weeks!

When you are ready to bake, just take it out and slice off as many cookies as you need.

Baking the cookies

Before baking, I like to sprinkle a bit more of the sugar on top of the cookies which just gives them a little more texture and sweetness.

Bake them on an ungreased baking sheet in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are slightly dark.

Really flaky and flavorful!

I made two mild errors with these cookies (not using dark brown sugar and slightly overcooking my brown butter) and they still turned out very good. The final cookie is light and flaky and melts in your mouth.

Simple and very tasty!

Oh, and if anyone is paying attention, the thing I borrowed from yesterday’s cookie recipe is rolling in sugar!