Published March 1, 2007.
By replacing granulated sugar with brown sugar, we hoped to create a brown sugar cookie with a crackling crisp exterior, a chewy interior, and a flavor that screamed “brown sugar.” We found that a few refinements were needed to get us there: Rolling the dough balls in a combination of brown and granulated sugar and adding a healthy amount of vanilla and table salt gave us a good crust; melting the butter instead of creaming it produced the chewiness we were after; and browning the melted butter added a complex nuttiness to the brown sugar cookie recipe.
The most efficient way to bake these cookies is to portion and bake half of the dough. While the first batch is in the oven, the remaining dough can be prepared for baking. Avoid using a nonstick skillet to brown the butter. The dark color of the nonstick coating makes it difficult to gauge when the butter is sufficiently browned. Use fresh brown sugar, as older (read: harder and drier) brown sugar will make the cookies too dry.
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