Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookies - week 38 of 52

This week I lost a bet at work and promised to make cookies – so this week I’m making Anna Olson’s Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookies – aka “I lost a friendly wager and must make cookies for work” cookies. Maybe I should have made humble pie instead :)

This is a recipe that my sister had forwarded to me – this is a little different from regular oatmeal cookies because the butter is browned. The butter is browned for a about 5 minutes. 10 tablespoons is a little more than ½ a cup. Since the butter needs to be browned some brown bits will be formed from the butter cooking, I suggest cooking approx 2/3 cup of butter to ensure you get the right amount of brown butter.

The recipe is super easy – I substituted white flour for the whole wheat flour. The kitchen smelled amazing when it was cooking – mmm.... cinnamon!

The cookies turned out well – these are the crisp cookies, not chewy ones. Good flavor, but would have prefered slightly chewier cookies.

Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookes – courtesy of Anna Olson
Cost $
Rating (out of 5) ****

Ingredients
• 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/3 sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/3 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips, raisins, chopped walnuts, coconut or any combination

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375°F and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. Melt butter in a sauté pan over medium heat until bubbling subsides and butter browns, about 5 minutes. Strain butter through a coffee filter and cool to room temperature.
3. Beat butter with brown sugar, sugar and egg until smooth. Stir in vanilla. In a separate bowl, stir oats, flours, cinnamon, baking soda and salt to combine. Add oat mixture to butter mixture and blend. Stir in choice of chocolate chips, raisins, walnuts, and/or coconut. Drop by spoonfuls onto prepared tray and bake in the center of oven for about 12 minutes, until browned. Let cool for 5 minutes, then gently remove from tray onto a rack to cool completely. Makes approx 36 cookies