Browned butter brown sugar cookies

I had really been a bum when it came to baking this month.  Sadly, the last two posts that I put up today were from a few weeks ago -- and that's the last time I actually baked anything.  It's a shame, really.  But the decadence of these cookies more than makes up for the lack of baking I've been doing.  Like I-think-I-gained-back-the-few-pounds-I-lost-in-the-past-week-or-so decadent....and I just ate one!

The secret is actually two-fold: don't use regular butter, use browned butter*....and don't use sugar, don't use light brown sugar, but use dark brown sugar.  Uber decadent.  Uber rich.  Thank goodness they're so rich I can't eat more than one at a time, because if I could, I would....and that would be dangerous!

* When it comes to making browned butter, be careful.  It goes from perfectly browned and nutty and aromatic to burnt in a few seconds.  Trust me, it happened to me the first time I made browned butter and it turned me off to making it for a while.  And then I made it again today for these cookies and....in the span of 2 seconds, I burned the batch again!  Bottom line?  Watch it.  Like a hawk.  Consider yourselves forewarned.

These cookies are delicious.  But they aren't for the faint of heart (or the diabetics....)...

Browned Butter Brown Sugar Cookies
From Eats Well With Others

Ingredients:

14 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks)
1 3/4 cups packed dark brown sugar (if you have light brown sugar and molasses, you can find a conversion online to turn your light brown sugar into dark brown sugar....trust me, it's what I had to do)
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda (Looking back, I may have used 3/4 tsp)
1/4 tsp (Looking back, I may have used 1/2 tsp....my head was clearly in the clouds today)
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 Tbsp vanilla
(You can see, from above, that my head may have been in the clouds a little when I was measuring the ingredients, since I'm not sure if I 1.5-2 timesed the baking soda and powder.  The cookies turned out perfectly, so I'm not sure what happened, but that might explain why my cookies were a little fluffier than I thought they would've been.  But I digress...)

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
(I couldn't do the conversions again for the light to dark brown sugar for this one, so I just used 1/2 cup light brown sugar plus 2-3 Tbsp granulated sugar, mixed well, and that worked perfectly!)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Melt butter in a skillet or frying pan over medium heat.
Allow to simmer until it starts to turn an amber color, and smelly nutty and fragrant.
Remove from the heat, and place in a separate bowl.
Allow to cool for 15 minutes.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the browned butter and brown sugar until well-blended.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
Set aside.

Add the egg and egg yolk to the sugar/butter mixture, one at a time.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
Mix in the vanilla.

Mix the flour mixture into the mixer, stirring until just combined.

In a small bowl, combine the sugar and brown sugar (or, use the mixture I gave above).

Scoop the cookie dough into balls using a 1 1/2 Tbsp cookie scoop or scoop into rounded tablespoons.
Roll each ball in the sugar mixture.
Place on the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between cookies.
I pressed mine down a little bit.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are starting to set around the edges.
Allow to cool before serving.