with the bite of ginger and the nutty warmth of the browned butter, this brown sugar cookie is heavenly, in my humble opinion. and with the crackled sugar-crusted exterior and the chewy interior, this has my favorite cookie texture combination.
Chef's notes
after rolling in the sugar mixture, i freeze the remaining cookie dough on parchment-lined baking sheets for about 1-2 hours; store them in zipper-lock freezer bags. whenever the urge for fresh-baked cookies comes, i just have to preheat the oven to 350ºF, pop them straight out of the bag onto a sheet and bake until they're done, about 10-12 minutes.
Steps
1
brown the butter and infuse with ginger
Ingredients
14 tbsp (1 3/4 stick) unsalted butter
1 oz fresh ginger sliced thin
1/4 tsp salt
heat butter in skillet over low heat, to just barely simmer, until melted. add the ginger and continue to cook, until milk solids are dark golden brown. the moment that you start to see shades of gold in the foam and when you start to smell the toasty smell of the browned butter, it's almost ready. push aside the foam so that you can see if the milk solids at the bottom of the pan are golden brown, yet.
remove skillet from heat and transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. remove the ginger pieces. add the salt and stir into hot butter to dissolve; set aside for 15 minutes.
2
prep dry ingredients
Ingredients
2 c (9 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup candied ginger, minced
3 tbsp granulated sugar
3 tbsp brown sugar
whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder together in medium bowl; add the candied ginger and mix with your fingers to ensure ginger bits are not stuck together; set aside.
in shallow dish or pie plate, mix granulated sugar and brown sugar, rubbing between fingers, until well combined; set aside.
3
mix the batter
Ingredients
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup (12 1/4 oz) brown sugar
add brown sugar to bowl with cooled butter; mix until no sugar lumps remain. add egg and vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. add flour mixture and mix until combined.
4
bake
adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350ºF.
roll about 1 tablespoon of batter between your hands into balls about 1 inch in diameter. working in batches, toss balls in topping to coat, brush off excess and set on prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart.
bake one sheet at a time until cookies are browned and still puffy and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft (cookies will look raw between cracks and seem underdone), 10 to 12 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. do not overbake.
cool cookies on baking sheet 5 minutes; transfer cookies to wire rack and cool to room temperature.
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This is not my recipe, but i would say to go ahead. I almost always put my cookie batter in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before baking the cookies.
Dawn T •This is not my recipe, but i would say to go ahead. I almost always put my cookie batter in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before baking the cookies.