A work friend of mine brought in the most ridiculous…ridiculousest? little cookies from a recent trip to Paso Robles. Rich and carmely with a sandy texture they came from the descriptively named Brown Butter Cookie Company. Don’t let their humble looks fool you–these are gift worthy little bites.
As she handed me one, my friend threw down the gauntlet: “figure out how to make these.”
Once upon a time this would have been a challenge. Luckily, and a little to my disappointment, the internet has made things much easier. A handful of recipes popped up on my first Google search. The fact that multiple refer to these cookies as copycats to the Brown Butter Cookie Company’s recipe is testament to how delicious they are.
They’re also fun to make. There is no fancy equipment involved and the brown butter is stirred in while still hot making the dough a lot like wet sand. Once it cools down, into the oven it goes and in a few minutes you’ve got heaven. I made one single batch and then the next day got down to business with two more double batches.
Spoiler alert: I found the first new recipe to add to my holiday baking for 2015.
Brown Butter Sables
adapted from Yummy Mummy Kitchen
note: a single batch yields about 18 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- sea salt for sprinkling (preferably fleur de sel)
Directions
- In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and allow it to caramelize. You know it’s getting close when it begging to smell nutty. Watch the butter closely until it turns a medium to light golden brown. Do not let it burn.
- In a small bowl, sift together flour and baking soda.
- Pour butter through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium-sized mixing bowl.
- Whisk-in brown butter and sugar.
- Fold-in flour mixture until just combined.
- Allow dough to cool to room temp.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Using a small scoop (I use 1/2 ounce), scoop cookies into half-domes and place on cookie sheets about 2-inches apart.
- If desired, gently flatten-out dough domes using the bottom of a glass. Dough will be fragile.
- Sprinkle each with a few grains of fleur de sel.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.
- Allow to cool completely.
- Try not to eat all of them at once.