Thursday, July 16, 2009

Brown Butter Cookies

I believe I have not nearly perfected but perhaps strengthened a recipe that I found. The Brown Butter Cookie Company definitely perfected it but I doubt they will give me their recipe. Especially since they sell their 1 inch in diameter cookies for $1 dollar each. Here's a picture of their cookie- followed by my recipe adapted from Gourmet.

May I just add that you should not store your flour where you previously stored coffee. You will get a latte taste in all of your cookie recipes. But I guess if you're into that...



Brown Butter Cookies with Sea Salt

Ingredients:

1 cup salted butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
Sea Salt

1. In a small saucepan, melt butter on low to medium heat, stirring occasionally, until browned. Stir in sugars and vanilla and remove from heat.
2. Let the sugar mixture cool to room temperature.
3. In a mixing bowl add flour and baking powder. Stir in sugar mixture until combined.
4. At this point I recommend letting the mixture rest for at least an hour to let the flour absorb all the butter. The mixture may be stiff afterwords and crumbly- microwave handfuls of dough for 10 seconds. The dough will be easier to roll.
5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
6. Roll 1 inch balls of dough and dip in sea salt. Place on cookie sheet with sea salt on top.
7. Bake for 15 minutes.

**Note: If your cookies don't turn out as good as you hoped- go to Brown Butter Cookie Company in Cayucos for some delicious treats.

49 comments:

  1. And you're bringing some of these delicious things to my house tomorrow, right?

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  2. I would but they have all been eaten. :(

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  3. I added just a bit more white sugar to mine and they were so close to the $1 cookies!! You did an AWESOME job!! Thank you!

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  4. Heard about these cookies and had to try them. I used your recipe and they are delicious. I don't know if I will ever compare them to the original, and thats ok. these are GREAT! Thank you.

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  5. Can anyone tell me how many cookies this recipe makes?

    They sound delicious!

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  6. Wow, I just finished my first batch of these cookies, I got 24 (I asked the question above)
    YUM YUM YUM, this will be my cookie exchange entry for the holidays!

    jennifer

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  7. I just made these over the weekend (after spending far too much money on the ones from Cayucos over the past few months) and they are soooo good. I oversalted before putting them in the oven (the sea salt looked so pretty, but wound up having to brush a lot off). Thank you!

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  8. I'm so glad this recipe is such a hit!

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  9. I ate my very first Brown Butter cookie at a little tea shop yesterday and am IN LOVE. Now I can't wait to bake my own from your recipe. Thank you!

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  10. have you tried adding cocoa yet? wondering how much to add.

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  11. yep...looking for the amount of cocoa...The Brown Butter Cookie company is in my front yard...literally...and these suckers are HIGHLY addictive! I have to learn to make this on my own.....but....I want that exactly cookie over yonder....$1...worth it....but let's find the real secret potion??!!
    Sims ~

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  12. I haven't tried adding cocoa to the recipe but give it a try and report back!

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  13. I'm on batch #2...my brown sugar isn't melting into my butter when added....Is it supposed to be seperated? or should the brown sugar melt?

    someone help!!

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  14. The brown sugar stays separated from the brown butter-don't worry!
    I've made these cookies twice this week because everyone loves them. Here's a trick for people who are having trouble forming the balls because of the crumbly texture: use a small ice cream scoop (the kind that you squeeze the handle to release the ball).
    Trying to figure out the cocoa ones next...

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  15. Just ate the REAL Brown Butter Sea Salt cookies...they were easily the best cookies I've ever eaten. So...I hunted the recipe and will try this as soon as possible. If they are even close to the ones I ate they will be delicious!

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  16. Tina M. from TexasMay 21, 2010 at 3:23 PM

    i just tasted the brown butter cookie company cookies...and it seems they're using a specific type of sea salt...possibly a hawaiian pink sea salt...as they all taste very different. I haven't tried it yet but did order some pink sea salt and will let you know :)

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  17. Has anyone ate the Honeys? I am looking for the recipe. the brown Butter Honey.

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  18. Question: is the brown sugar PACKED 2/3 cup?usually recipes that call for brown sugar say PACKED but this does not specify - I am planning to make them tomorrow so would like to know ASAP.

    Thanks very much.

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  19. I just had the brown butter company's cookies and they are as promised; amazing! i tried making the cookies last night but i had a problem the outside of the cookie was like melted butter and burnt when the cookie was fine...did i use the wrong kind of butter? or not leave it out long enough?

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  20. is there a recommended type of butter and sea salt?

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  21. i had the same problem my cookies had a crispy outside and they tasted fine but the outer layer was burnt....:( am i a bad baker?

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  22. I have has these yummy lil cookies from the Brown Butter Cookie Co , just made this Recipe... turned out good.. added an Extra 1 Tbs of Sugar... But this recipe calls for 1 Tsp of Baking powder which I used.. But I have a card from their lil box of cookies I bought from there and the ingredients: flour, butter, brown sugar, sugar, vanilla, BAKING SODA, and sea salt... So next time im going to use baking soda instead of the baking powder...maybe they wont crack... but they still taste WONDERFUL ;)

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  23. did you all PACK the brown sugar?

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  24. Yes, the brown sugar is packed.

    I have no idea what happened to the "crispy on the outside" cookies, maybe it's an elevation difference thing? Does anybody have any suggestions for the separating batter people?

    Good call on the baking soda vs baking powder!

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  25. Mark in CaliforniaJune 26, 2010 at 10:11 AM

    I made the cookies using your recipe only I doubled the white sugar (thanks for the suggestion) and I also had a card from the real cookies, and I caught the Baking Soda change. I used baking soda instead of baking powder, and I still got a few minor cracks on the cookies, but they came out very, very good. My batter did separate a bit before I added the flour mixture. I just stirred it up first and it mixed in just fine. That's an awesome suggestion about using pink Hawaiian sea salt. I just used regular Costco sea-salt in a pepper grinder, and it worked out fine.
    Thank you so much for posting this recipe. It was excellent!

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  26. Was just reading this and was wondering if anyone had any ideas on the recipe for their Cocoa cookies.

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  27. I've been trying to figure this out and never would have guessed actually browning the butter (never done that before!). THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing your fabulous recipe!

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  28. I would use about 3 tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder and subtract the same amount from the flour.

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  29. What about the expresso cookies? chocolate with expresso? or just expresso?

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  30. After having bought some of those delicious little cookies, then traveling about 3 hours up to Cayucos to the actual place and falling in love with the original cookies, the honey cookies, and their granola...just had to try this recipe. Borrowing a hint from my mom's incredible short bread recipe, I used 2 T. rice flour as part of the flour portion, and not reading first, I used unsalted butter, couldn't wait the hour for the dough to sit [kept eating the dough] so I used a silicon cookie scoop which gave the flat bottom and rounded top, sprinkled just a small amount of regular sea salt on top before baking, and just ate one...it may not be exactly like the original, but wow! Thank you so much for coming up with this recipe...now, looking for the honey butter recipe...[as for the cracking, the ones that were packed tight, didn't crack]

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  31. I can't wait to try this recipe! i'm a big fan of the cayucos cookies, but my mom says they are too expensive! You rock!
    thanks from hungry cookie boy!

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  32. My friend and I have been trying hard, using the notes here on this page, to recreate these cookies. (I still have some of the originals in our freezer from Cayucos, we pull them out to compare how we are doing.)
    The original cookies are lighter than we've been able to make, so we let the browned (unsalted)butter harden in the fridge and then scoop out and whip, leaving a little of the brown specks behind. Then we beat in the sugars and vanilla. We dropped the baking soda to about 1/4 tsp. We form the balls, tricky to do since the dough is crumbly - I may add a little water next time - and bake at 300 for about 22 minutes. SO close to those originals!

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  33. After tasting my first brown butter cookie in Cayucos yesterday, my daughter and I immediately looked for a recipe to bake our own (the original too expensive!). Yours tasted just as good! Thanks for saving me money for retirement. We used double the white sugar and baking soda instead of powder as recommended by previous writers. No cracking. Thanks again!

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  34. I am SO addicted to those cookies! My favorite though are the Cocoa Brown Butter Cookies from this company. Do we know how to get as close as possible to make those? I saw the above post for 3T Unsweetened Cocoa Powder and subtract the same amount from the flour. Has anyone tried this? Thank you so much for all of the info on these cookies....I'm going to give them a try tomorrow. : )

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  35. OK, I'm on my second batch. I doubled the white sugar to 2 TBSP, substituted baking soda for powder and used 2 TBSP white rice flour (removing 2 TBSP regular flour) as recommended by prior writers. I also packed the dough into a TBSP measure to shape... and what do you know? SPOT ON!!!!! I'm very happy right now. Thanks.

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  36. I am totally obsessed with Brown Butter Cookie Company and had been craving these in my pregnancy. I think your recipe is amazing. Maybe I'm just pregnant but to me tasted just as good as the Company's:) Thank you for posting!

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  37. was in cayucos in dec. found a recipe for a chocolate cookie and tweaked it to resemble the chocolate espresso version from the cookie shop.
    1c.softened butter(i used unsalted),1c.powdered sugar,2Tbs cocoa powder,1Tbs cinnamon,2tsp instant espresso powder,2c flour.Beat all but flour in mixer, add flour gradually. form into balls (i used small scoop) and I dipped the top into grey sea salt (faeries finest.com)
    bake at 400 8-10 min. Very close to the original. I figured next time I'll brown the butter but not sure it would make that much difference in the chocolate cookie.

    thanks for the plain version, gonna try it soon.

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  38. OMYGAWD IVE BEEN SEARCHING SO MUCH FOR THIS RECIPE!!!! I loved these cookies (i went to a brown butter cookie store) and have wanted the real recipe for a really long time!
    I'm going to try it tomorrow! THANKYOU!

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  39. So good. I used soda, not baking powder as written, and added an extra TBS of regular sugar based on the comments here. Since it's essentially just a shortbread made with brown butter, I rolled mine out on a board about 1/2" thick and then cut them into squares. Had to use a spatula to get them onto the pan without breaking, but that's ok. They were Perfecto. Delicious. Used pink Himalayan salt since that's what I had. Very good.

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  40. Just made these and they turned out perfectly! I didn't expect to get so close to the taste of the original. Very nice. I also doubled the white sugar and used 3/4 tsp baking soda and 1/4 tsp baking powder.

    I was making them for a birthday dinner, and didn't have a full hour to let the butter soak into the flour, but they still turned out perfectly and I didn't have any spreading issues.

    Thanks!

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  41. To start, thank you for the recipe. Its my friend's birthday and I thought I would try and make these for her. She loves the ones from the Bakery.
    Since there aren't any posts about someone trying the cocoa, I did as suggested and added 3Tbs of Cocoa and also followed the other suggestions of the extra sugar and using baking soda.
    They did turn out very nice. Didn't have any problem with cracking or browning, but I have to say the chocolate flavor still needs some work. They still taste great but needs more flavor. I think I will try melting some baking chocolate into the melted butter/sugar mixture while its cooling for the next time.

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  42. The reason the cookies crack is the baking temperature. I baked them for at 300 and used lightly browned butter to match the color/flavor of bbcc. If you brown the butter too long you lose moisture hence the cracking.

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  43. Thank you so much for the recipe. I made it for the second time today and both times, i used twice the sugar & baking soda instead of power from the suggestions above. I had crackings which I will try to solve by reducing the baking temperature. I'm having a problem with the texture.. it's sort of brittle after you bite into it and i don't know why. Also with the direction of letting the mixture cool, i tried that and the sugar just ended up hardening on the bottom of my saucepan..

    thanks!

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  44. I've made these several times now, adding the extra 2 tbsp sugar and switching to baking soda. What I would like to get down better is the shape. Last time I made them, I think I measured the flour better and they were moist enough to slightly flatten with a glass and not crack. I liked the look better on those and I think they matched the cookie company's look better. I just made 125 of them this morning for a wedding cookie bar and while they taste good and didn't crack, they are not perfectly round and look a little unappealing to me. Put in a cute paper holder, they will look nice, but standing alone, look rather plain and making so many, they definitely do not look exaclty alike...no precision. I have already packed and frozen the wedding ones, but will try again, reducing the flour so the cookie is moist enough to flatten a bit. But the taste is wonderful and addicting! Thanks for the info from everyone!

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  45. so the recipe on here calls for salted butter. is that what everyone has been using!? it seems like that would make it waaaay too salty.

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  46. Guys, I think I know a little trick I've seen at the Brown Butter Cookie Company some time ago. I live on the central coast and on my birthday I went to Cayucos and I treated myself with some of these marvelous cookies. When I went there I saw the ladies rolling the dough balls between their hands before baking them, BUT they had a big bowl in the center of the table and inside it there were pre-rolled cookies. The bowl looked chilled as it had condense on the outside surface. Soooo I suppose that after they put the flour into the melted butter and sugar mixture, they don't let the dough sitting in a bowl like that, but they roll the balls, because the butter is still warm, the dough still pretty wet and not crumbly and you can compact the dough balls much much better. Then they must stick the dough balls into the fridge so the butter recompacts a bit and then they take them out, roll them again between their hands, put them on the baking sheet, flatten a bit the surface and add the salt. I've actually just tried this (the pre-rolled cookie balls are in the fridge for about 30 minutes now) and WOW! the dough was so easy to handle and compact.
    Just wanted to share my little discovery with you all, who were so kind in perfecting the recipe. Hope you all try pre-rolling the dough when the dough is wet: no crumbling then!

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  47. YAY! Just took them out of the oven. They are PERFECT! No cracks, smooth surface. Definitely rolling them when the butter is still warm helps in compacting the dough and holding their shape! Taste is pretty darn close to the Cayucos ones!

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  48. I think I've just about mastered the chocolate ones... as suggested above, increase the white sugar to ~3Tbsp and then replace ~1/3 cup of the flour with dark chocolate cocoa powder. Roll the dough into balls while it's still quite warm and stick them in the fridge then after an hour or so. Take them straight from the fridge and throw them onto cookie sheets and into the oven at 325 for ~12 minutes. In my experience, re-rolling/warming at this stage leads to a lot of spreading, but YMMV.

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  49. Lily, that is exactly what I was wondering- about refrigeration! The NY Times had an in-depth article about chocolate chip cookies where they found that cookie dough that had been refrigerated at least 24 hrs, preferably 36 hrs, baked more evenly and had a "notes of caramel and hints of toffee". And it is totally true for the choc chip cookies...I don't want to post a link but you can find that article pretty easily. I'm gonna try forming the dough and letting it rest in the fridge a couple days.

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