Brown sugar cookies with brown-butter cream cheese frosting

I’m so excited to share my new cookie discovery with you all — Brown Sugar Cookies! Everyone is familiar with sugar cookies. Plain, sprinkled, frosted. Rumor has it that The Pioneer Woman’s husband prefers sugar cookies made from tubes of store-bought refrigerator dough. And you’re probably lying if you say you don’t like those soft, frosted sugar cookies with sprinkles sold in the bakery section of your local grocery store. And then there’s the Pillsbury sugar cookie dough that comes in different shapes for the holidays. Soft and chewy. Pretty tasty actually. So you may be wondering, does anyone need another sugar cookie recipe? The answer is yes. Most definitely. Yes. 

My brown-butter frosted Brown Sugar Cookies looking swimmingly atop my maple Vineyard Vines tray.

If you’ve been following me, then you know that before the holidays I purchased the popular 100 Cookies by Sarah Kieffer. I thought I had enough cookies in my repertoire but turns out I was wrong. Enter the game changer: Brown Sugar Cookies. Should that be hyphenated? After all, they aren’t “brown” sugar cookies. They are “brown sugar” cookies. The journalism major in me digresses. Anyhow, cookies. I like my sugar cookies soft and chewy. I also love frosting. Well, that and butter. That’s why Sarah Kieffer’s recipe is perfect. Made even more perfect with my brilliant idea to add brown butter cream cheese frosting. (Wait, shouldn’t that be “brown-butter”?)

This new and improved sugar cookie variety (recipe available here and #7 in the book) uses dark brown sugar instead of granulated white sugar. It also has 1 teaspoon of molasses that deepens the brown sugar flavor. The two sticks of butter don’t hurt either. The cookies turn out soft and chewy and stay fresh for days stored in an airtight container. An extra egg yolk contributes to an irresistible sink-your-teeth-into fudgy center. They don’t require any resting or refrigeration. Just some ball rolling in granulated sugar. Side note, I use the organic (unbleached) sugar from Costco in all my baked goods.

Between my favorite Nordic big sheet pan and a regular-sized cookie sheet, they only took two turns in the oven. I recommend following the directions exactly and turning halfway through the 10-11 minutes of cooking time. Also, let them sit on the pan for 5-10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

The texture is Goldilocks-just-right and they are as yummy three days later as when they come out of the oven. However, I couldn’t leave well enough alone. In the back of my mind, I remembered that I had some leftover cream cheese frosting in my freezer. (Well actually, I also have some maple and chocolate frostings in there too, but that’s another story.) This Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting is from Edd Kimber’s One Tin Bakes book. I had made it for a carrot cake at Easter. I let it come to room temperature and spread a generous layer on some of the cookies. 

What’s better than brown sugar cookies? Brown-sugar brown-butter cookies, naturally.

My brown-sugar cookies tanning themselves in the sunshine ☀️

If you’ve never browned butter before, trust me, this extra step makes all the difference. Instead of creaming the butter and cream cheese together, first you brown the butter in a small pan over medium heat. It will melt, start to sizzle and foam and eventually get little brown flecks in it. Watch it closely, you don’t want it to burn but you want to see the flecks and smell the toastiness. Seems counterintuitive, but once it’s brown and aromatic, pour the melted butter into a bowl and refrigerate until firm, stirring a few times. Then you will take it out and beat it with an electric mixer until it’s soft, creamy and at room temperature. Then you beat it together with the cream cheese and add powdered sugar, fine sea salt and vanilla. Get a spoon.

I have concluded that cookies are my favorite thing to make and that I should make a new cookie recipe every week. Well once a month at least. Next up are the Neapolitan Cookies, #70 in 100 Cookies. Send me your requests please! And let me know if (when) you make these Brown Sugar Cookies and what you think! Tag your cookie photos with #kitchenisticscookielove on Instagram.