We are big time cookies fan (irrespective of our age). We hardly buy cookies from the store. I love to bake. Baking is therapeutic experience for me. Few days back we visited a small Danish village in California called Solvang. It was like a kid-in-the-candy-store experience for me with so many bakeries, pastry and dessert shops around. I tasted the melt in the mouth brown butter cookies there. Surprisingly they have the exact same ingredients as that of Shortbread cookies but the taste is very very different and light. Here’s my twist on the brown butter cookies I tasted.

You will need

2 sticks of room temperature unsalted Butter

1 Large Egg

2 Cups of all purpose Flour

1 teaspoon of pure Vanilla Extract

1/4 cup regular granulated Sugar

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1 teaspoon of Baking Powder

1 pinch of Salt.

1 teaspoon Cardamom Powder

1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg Powder

You need to start by melting the butter in a heavy bottom pan. Indians are pretty familiar with this process. This is how we make our clarified butter or Ghee. You need to be really careful while melting the butter. We do not want to milk solids to start burning and settling down. We want the butter to be nice and golden and not dark. The burnt butter is the last thing you want here. Trust me!

It would take hardly 4-5 minutes for the butter to reach to the nice and golden state. This is a chemical irreversible process and this exact process makes these cookies different from shortbread cookies. In case of shortbread cookies we start with room temperature butter and here we are starting with nice brown melted butter.

Let the butter cool down for another 4-5 mins till it reaches the room temperature.

Sift together flour, salt and  baking powder to remove any lumps.

Add an egg, vanilla extract, sugars to the butter and mix well.

Add Cardamom and Nutmeg Powder.

Add the flour, salt and baking powder mixture.

This gives the cookies a little Indian touch and very mild fragrance.

The butter is very smooth so the dough comes together within minutes. Roll the dough in a cylindrical/cuboid shape and keep in the refrigerator for 30 mins to set.

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F.

Take the cold rolled dough out of the refrigerator and cut 1/2 inch pieces. Bake on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper for 15 minutes. Every oven is different so you need to keep an eye and take the cookies out just when it starts to become slightly golden at the edges.

Cool them to room temperature on a cooling rack.

We like the cookies on  little lighter side and not too sweet. If you like them more sweet you can sprinkle some sugar when they are still hot out of the oven. The sugar will melt and create a nice crust on the cookies. You can enjoy these along with your morning coffee/tea or just as a pick-me-up snack.

Variations to the cookies

• Add about 1/3 cup of Cocoa Powder while making and then you have Chocolate Brown Butter Cookies
• You can add Walnuts, Almonds or practically any nuts to these cookies.
• Coat them with Chocolate Ganache and you have a different flavor of Chocolate Brown Butter Cookies.
• You can reduce the sugar and add some Cumin Seeds or Carom Seeds or Dried Fenugreek Leaves and you have salty brown butter Cookies/Crackers to pair with some cheese.