Brown Sugar Cookies

Be forewarned—These Sugar Cookies made with Brown Sugar are addictive.

If you love the flavor of butterscotch, this sugar cookie recipe is one you will want to put at the top of your "must try" list.

It creates a rich and chewy cookie with bold butterscotch flavor!

This recipe for Brown Sugar Cookies comes from one of my favorite baking books - The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. If you are familiar with Cooks Illustrated and America's Test Kitchen, you know that they are all about searching to find the best recipes and testing them thoroughly so we can be confident they will work for us at home.

Some things to remember when making these brown sugar cookies:

Don't use old, hard, dry brown sugar—Make sure your brown sugar is nice and fresh.
Use dark brown sugar—It has richer flavor.
If you only have light brown sugar, add 1 tablespoon of molasses to each cup of light brown sugar and stir it around to create dark brown sugar.

This brown sugar cookie dough can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to two days.

Balls of brown sugar cookie dough can be frozen and placed in a freezer bag. Frozen cookies can then be baked whenever a cookie craving strikes. (They will need a few extra minutes of cooking time.)

Brown Sugar Cookies Recipe

1/4 cup sugar
2 cups packed dark brown sugar
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (10 2/3 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla

Position an oven rack in the middle of your oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.
In a small shallow bowl, whisk together the sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar and set this aside for rolling the balls of cookie dough.
In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
In a 10-inch skillet, melt 10 tablespoons of the butter over medium-high heat, moving the pan over the burner constantly, until the butter is dark golden brown with a nutty aroma, 3 to 5 minutes.
Transfer the browned butter to large heatproof bowl and stir in the the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter until it is melted. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes.
Stir the remaining 1 3/4 cups brown sugar and salt into the cooled browned butter until well combined. Stir in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until thoroughly blended.
Stir in the flour mixture until just combined.
With wet hands, roll 2 tablespoonfuls of dough at a time into a ball. Roll balls in the sugar mixture, coating thoroughly.
Place the balls of sugar coated cookie dough on the lined baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.
Bake the cookies, one baking sheet at a time, until the edges are set and beginning to brown and the centers are still soft and puffy, about 12 to 14 minutes. The cookies should look undone between the cracks when removed from the oven. For best results rotate the cookie sheet from front to back halfway through baking.
Remove baking sheet from the oven and place it on a wire rack. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely or enjoy the cookies while still warm.