brown butter brown sugar shortbread

Fifteen Decembers ago, I shared a recipe for one of the most delicious cookies I’d ever made or eaten:brown butter brown sugar shorties. I told you that because they were impossibly flavorful (nutty brown butter, brown sugar, vanilla, you’re welcome) but not terribly cute (beige, sprinkle-free) you should feel free to keep them home from parties where their feelings could be hurt as they were ignored in favor of the frosted, baubled, and brightly colored popular kids. They’re too good to share, anyway. But the recipe turned out to fail one crucial test: It doesn’t work for everyone. The problem is the brown butter. All butter has some water content; when we brown it, the water content evaporates off and the amount of butterfat and milk solids left behind is variable. When you’re makingsalted brown butter crispy treatsora wedding cake with brown butter vanilla cake layers, it doesn’t matter: these recipes are forgiving. When you make a shaped cookie, like a slice-and-bake or cookie cutter shape that has to be consistent for everyone, it does. There were so many comments about the cookies turning into a crumbly mess that I had to add a note of caution, warning you to proceed only with modest expectations. Not a single year has passed in which I haven’t been distressed by the knowledge that one of the most delicious cookies on the website is one of the least reliable, but I come bearing a breakthrough: Keep the cookie, lose the pre-oven structure. By baking these in a pan, just likethe best classic shortbread cookies on earth, the sides hold the shape so the cookies don’t have to. We cut themaftertheir shape is set. And while the squiggle of icing on top isn’t necessary for taste, after so long stuck in the shadows of other, more glamorous cookies, I felt this shortbread deserved a little glow-up for the holiday season, a rightful place in the limelight. 15 years is long enough! I hope you make these immediately. 6 months ago:Sliced Egg Sandwich1 year ago:Baked Brie with Garlic Butter Mushrooms2 years ago:Russian Napoleon3 years ago:Small-Batch EggnogandBaked Brie with Balsamic Red Onions4 years ago:Unstuffed Mushroom CasseroleandBanana Toffee Cake5 years ago:Baklava BabkaandCosmopolitan6 years ago:Dutch Apple PieandSalted Butter Chocolate Chunk Shortbread7 years ago:Pimento Cheese Potato Bites8 years ago:The Browniest Cookies,Gingerbread Layer CakeandFeta Tapenade Tarte Soleil9 years ago:Deep Dark Gingerbread Waffles,Fairytale of New YorkandRoasted Grape and Olive Crostini10 years ago:Breakfast Slab Pie,Gingerbread Snacking CakeandRum Campari Punch11 years ago:Fromage Fort12 years ago:Cinnamon Brown Sugar Breakfast PuffsandScallion Meatballs with Soy Ginger Glaze13 years ago:Spicy Gingerbread Cookies,Crescent Jam and Cheese CookiesandMilk Punch14 years ago:How to Host Brunch and Still Sleep In,Spinach and Cheese Strata,Pear Bread,Parmesan Cream Crackers,Walnut Pesto, andSpicy Caramel Popcorn15 years ago:Cranberry Vanilla Coffee Cake,Seven-Layer/Rainbow Cookies,Grasshopper Brownies,Braised Beef Short Ribs,Sugar and Spiced Candied Nuts16 years ago:Robert Linxe’s Chocolate TrufflesandCaramel Cake17 years ago:Parmesan Black Pepper Biscotti Video