brown butter snickerdoodles

While snickerdoodles are one of Drew's favorite treats (shocking because they don't have a trace of chocolate!), I'm not such a huge fan. In fact, I don't really see the appeal. I mean, I like them, but they're just so simple and so not showstoppers at all. After all, they're just cinnamon, sugar, butter, flour, cream of tarter, baking soda, and salt. So not surprisingly, I've made these only two other times in my life. 

While paging through my Baked Elements cookbook, I was intrigued by the recipe for Brown Butter Snickerdoodles. I'm a sucker for brown butter, ever since I made a Brown Butter Pumpkin Cake, which is quite possibly the best thing I've ever baked in my entire life. Despite my ambivalence with snickerdoodles, this recipe had me at "brown butter" (old movie reference-do you get it? It's from Jerry McGuire, circa the late 1990s. That I just referred to a movie released while I was in high school as old makes me a little sad.).

Anyway, I had a bit of a tough time browning the butter. Not like it was hard or anything, what I mean is that I had a difficult time detecting when it was "done." I followed the directions, cooked it for the recommended number of minutes and until it reached the appropriate color, but my sense of smell was off and I couldn't smell if it was sufficiently browned. Given that I ate 5 cookies yesterday (2 for breakfast, and 3 for dessert after dinner), which is very unusual, I'm guessing that 1) I must be a huge fan of brown butter, and 2) it was sufficiently brown. 

Let me say  a few words about the Baked cookbook (and this will explain why I was eating cookies for breakfast). This is the 3rd Baked cookbook, and I have all three. For the most part, I like them, though the recipes have many steps, seem a little high maintenance, and usually require some advance planning. As long as you plan in advance, it helps alleviate the high maintenance aspect. And best of all, the results are terrific, so it's all worth it. If you make any of the cookies, you can pretty much count on chilling the dough from 1 hour to up to 24. I made the cookie dough on Monday morning and baked the cookies on Tuesday morning...hence cookies for breakfast. In my defense, there is almost nothing better than fresh baked cookies straight out of the oven.