Brown Butter Sugar Cookies

This recipe is the first recipe I tried to make on my own. I decided that I wanted to start making my own recipes from scratch. So, I went down the rabbit hole of baking ratios. Then I get hella confused. Then I tried using the ratios I had found for sugar cookies of 1 part sugar, 2 parts fat, 3 parts flour (by weight). I didn't trust it because it felt like a LOT of butter, so my first try wasn't awesome lol, so I tried again and actually did stick to the ratios, and I have some delicious sugar cookies with a lemon cardamom royal icing.

These cookies have brown butter in them because I'm at a place in my life where I want all my butter to brown. Come at me, bro. The brown butter makes a major difference in the sugar cookie flavor. These are kind of nutty with a deeper, more sophisticated flavor than a normal sugar cookie. Okay, let's get into this!

One last thing- this recipe only makes about 2 dozen fairly large sugar cookies. You can totally easily double or triple this if you want more cookies. 

For the cookies:

*I'm going to give you measurements AND weights here because the ratios are based on weight, so I think if you're trying to figure out ratios yourself, you'll be able to more easily see mine in the weights. 

1/2 c granulated sugar (100 grams)

1 c unsalted butter (~228 grams)

2.5 c all-purpose flour (300 grams) *I doubled this recipe, and ended up using a bit less flour than double this amount. You are looking for the dough to be able to stick together. It is not a big deal if it's a bit sandy at first (like a shortbread), but if you use less flour than this, and it's at the right consistency, that's totally fine!

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt 

1. Start by browning the butter. *You will want to do this a bit in advance so that it can come back up to room temp before making the cookies.* Put 2 sticks of butter into a medium saucepan on medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir constantly. At first it will look really foamy, but then it will calm down a bit so that you can see it start to change color. Pull off the heat when it gets to an amber color- this took me about 5 minutes. Make sure you get all those brown bits! Those are the best. Allow to cool before using. 

2. Preheat oven to 350F.

3. Cream butter and sugar. LOOK at those beautiful little brown butter specks! 

4. Add egg and vanilla. 

5. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder. Slowly add to the butter mixture. 

6. Once all combined, turn dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Let cool in fridge for at least 30 minutes. 

7. Place dough on a lightly floured surface. Roll out with a rolling pin to about a 1/4 inch thick. Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. 

8. Bake for about 12 - 14 minutes. The cookies will still be pretty light in color.  

For the royal icing:

6 oz powdered sugar 

1 egg white

Zest of half a lemon

1/3 tsp lemon juice (or how I measure- a squeeze of lemon)

1/8 tsp cardamom

1/2 tsp vanilla 

1. Sift powdered sugar into stand mixer. *I don't sift hardly anything. Sift this powdered sugar! You don't want lumpy icing. 

2. Add the rest of ingredients into the mixer and mix on high for about 5 minutes until you have stiff peaks. 

3. Spread onto cooled cookies. *I just used an offset spatula. You can also put some of the icing into a piping bag and pipe borders on your cookies. Then you can add a bit of water to the rest of your icing for a thinner consistency to "flood" the rest of your cookies inside of the border. This creates a cleaner look. I was going for rustic this time ;)