Sugar Cookies for Rainy Days

In the spirit of this rainy fall Portland weather, last night I made Butternut Squash Soup and Brown Sugar Cookies. Ummmm. Yummy.

This is the best Brown Sugar Cookie recipe I know - its goooo-ooo-oood. You don't even have to wait for the butter to soften, you brown the butter in a pan (which is so yummy!)! I had to share.

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

DIRECTIONS:
preheat oven to 350F

1. brown 10tbs of the butter in a pan on the stove (keep an eye on this, stir often as to not burn the butter, get a nice dark nutty brown on the butter) then take off the stove and add the remaining 4tbs of butter to the pan (this will foam up and replace some of the lost moisture, as well as cool down the butter). Set this aside to cool for 10-15min

2. combine 1/4cup brown sugar and 1/4cup white granulated sugar in a shallow dish (like a plate or a pie pan) and work out any lumps in the brown sugar. Set this aside to roll the cookies in before baking.

3. combine the flour, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl. Separately mix the 1 3/4cup remaining brown sugar and salt with the butter. Once the sugar has mixed in thoroughly, add the egg and yolk and vanilla to this mixture.

4. combine your wet ingredients (the sugar, butter, egg mixture) with the flour. Once stirred together so that there are no pockets of dry flour, divide the dough into two pieces. Set one aside.
6. pinch off small pieces of dough (you will make 12 out of this 1/2 of the dough - 24 cookies total) and roll into balls. Toss the balls in the sugar mixture you made in step 2, then space them out on a pan to bake. Bake 10-15min (check for doneness- take them out when they have sorta cracked on the surface but the center still seems uncooked, this will result in a great finished cookie once cooled)
7. When the cookies are done, cool them for 5 minutes on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Take the other half the dough (you can even prep the other 12 little cookie balls as the first batch cooks) and make the rest of the cookies.

Enjoy!

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