Brown sugar cookies with browned butter frosting

Have I ever told you how much I love browned butter? Well, I love it. Browned butter adds to a cookie (or, in the case also frosting) a nice nutty flavor that is different, and gives it substance. It's amazing. These recipes come from two different places. The frosting is from cooks.com and the cookies are from this wonderful book: America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. I have all three of their books, the cooking book and the healthy cooking book and I love all of them. They are so handy.

Anyway, onto the cookies!
These cookies require browned butter, just like the frosting.

To brown butter (I now know, thanks to America's Test Kitchen!) melt it in a saucepan, stirring constantly. The butter will foam and, after 3-5 minutes, depending on how high your heat is, it should take on a nice brown color and have a nutty smell.

Roll the dough into balls, roll them into a sugar and brown sugar mixture, and set on the cookie pan. I forgot and thought these cookies were going to be squished, so I started to do that. When I went back to actually reading the recipe, I noticed that they weren't supposed to be that way, so I decided to experiment:

Here are the flattened cookies...

...and here are the ones that were balled. I preferred the balled ones because they were a little thicker and smaller around. I suppose it's a personal preference though!

Brown Sugar Cookies


1/4 cup white sugar
2 cups packed brown sugar
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 3/4 sticks (14 tablespoons) butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg and 1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or spray with non-stick cooking spray. Whisk the sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar in a small bowl and set aside.
Brown 10 tablespoons of the butter in a skillet. Transfer to a large bowl, and add the rest of the butter. Set aside for 15 minutes so the butter melts and the whole thing cools.
Stir the remaining 1 3/4 cups of brown sugar in the melted butter until mixed. Add the egg and egg yolk (I scrambled these separately and then added), vanilla and mix. Add the flour, baking soda and powder and mix until combined.

Roll 2 tablespoons of the dough into balls and roll in the sugar mixture. Place them on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies, 1 sheet at a time, 10-14 minutes, rotating the baking sheet once halfway through. Remove the baking sheet and let the cookies cool 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.



Browned Butter Frosting

1/3 cup of butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons milk (you can also use cream; I used whole milk)

Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium heat until it is browned and giving off a nutty smell. Remove from heat, stir in powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. Beat until the frosting is smooth and spreadable.
If, at any time your frosting becomes too stiff to spread (usually if it has been sitting out), just microwave it for 30 seconds.

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday.