Bake: Brown Sugar Cookies
To help kick off our new series, is friend and fabulous baker,the lovely food blog, Nosh With Me. If you haven't already visited, well you should. I'm happy to have her here today! She is generously sharing her recipes and tips with us and actually, she is nice enough to be joining us for a few upcoming Bake posts.
As a child, Autumn meant gathering leaves into piles and jumping in them, the smell of fresh cider and doughnuts from the cider mill, and of course, the beginning of the school year. As an adult, it means rich, warm colors, the return of long sleeves, and the amazing baked goods that are made with brown sugar.
Yes, brown sugar - something you've undoubtedly baked with before, but never knew could have such impact on a cookie. Brown sugar is a combination of sugar and molasses, and adds depth, flavor, and richness to many recipes, including this one which is hands down, my favorite cookie ever.Follow the recipe after the jump:
Ingredients
14 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (about 1 3/4 ounces)
2 cups packed dark brown sugar (14 ounces)
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons (about 10 1/2 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Preparation
Heat 10 tablespoons of the butter in a pan over medium-high heat until melted. Continue to cook the butter until it is browned a dark golden color and smells nutty, about 1 to 3 minutes. Transfer the browned butter to a bowl and stir the rest of the butter into the hot butter until it melts- let this rest for 15 min.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a baking dish, mix granulated sugar and a ¼ cup of the brown sugar until combined well; set this mixture aside to roll dough balls in.
Mix flour, baking soda, and baking powder in a bowl. Add 1 ¾ cup brown sugar and salt to cooled butter and mix until there are no lumps. Add egg, yolk, and vanilla to butter mixture and mix well, then add flour and mix until just combined.
Roll dough into balls about 1 ½ inches in diameter, and roll balls in brown sugar and white sugar mixture. Place balls about 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets.
Bake sheets one at a time until cookies are puffy and lightly browned, about 12- 14 minutes. (It says the cookies will look slightly raw between some of the cracks and seem underdone, but be careful not to over bake.) Cool on sheet for about 5 minutes and then transfer to a rack to cool.
Yields two dozen cookies.
Tips!
To prevent the cookies from puffing up too much, use the palm of your hand and gently flatten the dough while on the cookie sheet prior to baking.
Afraid you’ll eat the whole batch and only want to make a few? Freeze the remaining cookie dough! Simply roll the dough into balls and place on a cookie sheet. Put the sheet in the freezer for one hour then put the dough balls in a freezer bag, and return to the freezer. When you want to bake, allow the dough to defrost then roll each ball in the sugar mixture and bake as usual.
Brown Sugar Cookies from Cooks Illustrated
Thanks Hilary!!! We'll see you next week!
You can follow along with Hilary on her blog, on Twitter and on Facebook.
Oh and P.S. how cute is the "Bake" button? It's created by my talented friend Ana from Live & Enliven. In fact, she designed all of my buttons and updated blog look! If you haven't already, go check out her amazing blog.
Labels: Column - Bake, friends and company, kitchen |
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11 comments:
I would definitely eat the whole batch Michelle! Thanks for this - I am saving it in my Recipes folder!
YUM!!!! Thanks for passing her info on! I think I just printed off about 20 recipes!! HAHA! Must be hungry!
I love the new Bake series! Love it!! Having once devoured an entire rustic chocolate cake, pretty much by myself, I can attest to how incredibly fabulous it is! Yummy. Can't wait to try out the other recipes.
I love the new series. I feel the exact same way about baking. Last year, it was challenging, because many of my friends started getting SUPER healthy on me and I had to think of other (non-baked) treats to give them- for the holidays, hostess gifts, etc. No fun. At all.
We're back on track this year... and I am headed to check out this blog right now:).
Perfect. I needed a cookie recipe for this weekend. Looks like I will be making these!
OK, I am going to LOVE this series, I AM loving it already! Thanks so much for the recipe! I can't wait to make these.
xo
O.k. well this series is clearly going to be a problem for me. How can I express my deep love for brown sugar? Now I have to make these cookies and I have NO business baking cookies at the moment. Thanks a lot, lady.
love the idea!! cant wait to try some of these!!
Oh my goodness, I can't wait to make these. Love this idea.
P.S. Your buttons look beautiful! I am in love with your bake button. Awesome job Ana!
Oh yum!! Those cookies look amazing!!! I am definitely going to love this series!!
ooooo-
my son and i are big fans of regular sugar cookies.
we just made a batch the other day so we could make 'fossils' =
a Martha Stewart idea, where you press plastic animals into the cookies to make like fossils :) it was fun and they were a big hit at our BBQ.
can't wait to make this brown sugar version!
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