Brown butter snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles are so much more than sugar cookies! This is a recipe you'll return to time and again. It's simple and straight-forward, with world-rocking, mind-blowing results.

I got a new cookie jar. Watch out.

My old one hasn't had a lid for years, and it was always too small. I've solved that with a beautiful old jar I found at Fairhaven Antique Mall (my new favorite place). It's inspiring when it's sitting there on the counter, all empty and big. My kids are happy about this development.

I made three batches of these last week. I stumbled across them on Pinterest, and the photo was enough to change my mind about homemade snickerdoodles. Whenever I've made them, I'm disappointed. They turn out like ho-hum sugar cookies and seem to go stale almost immediately. If that's your experience, prepare to have your mind blown. Or your world rocked. Or your universe expanded. (Wyatt and I like to play with these exclamations. He would say these cookies rock his world off. Or blow his socks up.)

They're made with brown sugar and melted butter. Whenever a recipe calls for melted butter (instead of beating butter with a mixer), I know that's a good sign. It means less air will be beaten into the batter, there will be less manipulation, and the cookies are likely to be more tender than normal. And more brown sugar usually makes cookies softer. You need to refrigerate these, so plan ahead. 

Happy cookie jar-filling. 

Brown butter snickerdoodles
Adapted from here. If you don't refrigerate the dough, they will spread out too much. And they cook very quickly, so make sure you watch them and take them out a little before they look done.

2-1/2 cups flour 

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted butter

1-1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus one egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt

For rolling mixture

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon 

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

To make browned butter, melt it over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Whisk it constantly. After a few minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom and separate into solids. Remove from heat as soon as this starts happening and pour butter into a bowl to prevent it from burning.

With a wooden spoon, mix browned butter with sugars. Add egg, egg yolk, and yogurt until combined. Add dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Refrigerate dough for three hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Form refrigerated dough into balls (about 2 tablespoons of dough for each one) and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake cookies about nine minutes, or until set on edges but slightly undercooked in the middle. Remove from oven, let cool a few minutes, then transfer them to a rack and cool completely.