Brown butter cookies recipe
1/2 cup of butter without salt, cut into pieces the size of 1 tablespoon.
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/4 cup of light brown sugar packed tightly
1 big egg at room temperature
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 cup of regular flour
Half a teaspoon of baking soda.
1/2 teaspoon of fine salt
You can add pecans as much as you like.
Directions
The initial step is to cook the butter until it turns brown. This can be prepared ahead of time to make the cooling process faster. I usually do it a few hours before I plan to bake these cookies. Put half a cup of unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces, in a light-colored pan on medium heat. Mix the butter constantly using a rubber spatula to keep it in motion. When the butter is melted, it will start to bubble and make a sizzling sound on the sides. Continue mixing. The butter will become a golden color in around 5 to 6 minutes after you begin cooking it. Some bubbles will disappear and the milk solids at the bottom of the pan will turn a golden brown color. It should smell very nutty.
Take the pan off the heat right away and pour the butter into a bowl that can withstand heat to prevent it from cooking further. If you leave the butter in the hot pan, it will get burned. Put the bowl in the fridge for 45 minutes to speed up the cooling process, or until it becomes solid and reaches room temperature.
After the melted butter has cooled down and become solid, put it in a big bowl with 1/2 cup of white sugar and 1/4 cup of packed brown sugar. Mix with an electric hand mixer for 2 minutes until the mixture gets lighter in color. If you don’t have an electric mixer, stir the mixture quickly for 3 minutes until it gets lighter in color.
Mix one big egg and one teaspoon of vanilla into the melted butter. Mix at a moderate speed until everything is well mixed. Use a rubber spatula to clean the edges and bottom of the bowl when necessary.
After that, combine 1 cup of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon of fine salt at a low speed until mixed. The dough should be quite sticky now.
Place spoonfuls of cookie dough, approximately 2 tablespoons each, onto a dish lined with parchment paper. You should have around 12 balls of cookie dough in the end. Put the cookie dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour, or leave it there overnight. The longer you leave the cookies to cool, the more their taste will improve.
Before putting the cookie dough in the fridge, heat the oven to 350 F / 175 C. Cover two big baking trays with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
Take the cold cookie dough out of the refrigerator and cover it completely by rolling it in a small bowl of sugar. Put the cookie dough on the baking sheets, making sure to leave about 3 inches of space between each cookie. Place 6 cookies on each sheet. Bake one tray at a time (put the second tray in the fridge while the first one bakes) for 11-13 minutes, or until the edges start to turn golden brown. Next, bake the second tray.
Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
