Bready or Not: Lemon Brown Butter Crinkle Cookies

Today’s recipe involves a bit of cookie alchemy: Lemon Brown Butter Crinkle Cookies.

They combine a lot of elements that you don’t normally see together, but the result is an amazing and unique lemon cookie that is spicy and fresh.

This is a nuanced cookie. You take a bite, and different levels of flavor evolve on your taste buds.

It’s also messy because the cookies are rolled in confectioners’ sugar, so this isn’t a cookie to eat before a fancy meeting or on the go.

Note that the sugar coating will be absorbed and/or fall off the cookie over time, so if you want them to look fully coated, eat them fresh. But the flavor is fine if you wait. The presentation changes, that’s all.

If you need tips on how to brown butter, there is a lot of advice to be found online, including videos! Browned butter really does make a different in a recipe, as it has a nutty new flavor going on. It’s well worth the effort for certain recipes.

Modified from Martha Stewart Living.

Print Recipe

Bready or Not: Lemon Brown Butter Crinkle Cookies

These lemon cookies are incredibly nuanced, with spices, brown butter, and a powdered sugar coating. Note that the dough needs to be chilled overnight, at minimum, as the dough is otherwise difficult to work with.

Course: Dessert, Snack

Keyword: cookies, lemon

Author: Beth Cato

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter 1 stick
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar packed
• 2 large eggs
• 1 lemon reserve 1 teaspoon zest and 3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Instructions

• Brown butter in a saucepan, watching carefully to make sure it doesn't burn. Set aside to cool.
• Mix together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, place the two sugars. Stir in the browned butter, followed by the eggs, zest and juice, and vanilla. Slowly add the flour mix. Dough will be loose and oozy. Wrap it up well in plastic wrap and set in fridge to chill for a day or two.
• Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Place parchment paper on cookie sheet.
• Measure out confectioners' sugar into a small bowl. Scoop a tablespoon of dough, roll it between palms to shape, then roll it in the powdered sugar. Set on parchment paper. Repeat process with other cookies, spacing them out, though expect minimal spreading.
• Bake 15 to 18 minutes, until cookies spread a smidgen and crackle. Let cool on cookie sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a rack to completely cool.
• Store between strips of parchment or wax paper in a sealed container. Will keep up to two days, but note the confectioners' sugar will absorb more over time.
• OM NOM NOM!