I'm pretty sure I say this every time I make some cookies but, seriously, best cookies ever. Earlier this week I saw a recipe for brown butter and fleur de sel chocolate chip cookies on Picky Palate, and knew immediately that I would have to make some variation on this recipe sooner or later. It turned out to be sooner.
They were also an excuse to use two ingredients I'd bought on a whim in Waitrose - butter with sea salt crystals and some amber cane sugar from Barbados. But you don't have to be as pretentious as me.
I do love this sugar so much though. The smell of the raw cane when you open the packet is wonderful and I love how it looks like sand and glistens in the sun. Imagine running barefoot on a whole beach of this stuff. Wow. I'm going to make a creme brulee soon just so I can top it with this stuff. And because I really like creme brulee.
The salt cuts through the sweetness of the sugar and the fudge and the texture of these is perfect; still chewy and soft but with a little crunch from the salt. They are like biting into a little piece of fudge-flavoured heaven. You really should go and make these now.
Brown butter and sea salt fudge cookies (makes about 30)Recipe adapted from Jenny at Picky Palate
250g butter with sea salt crystals
225g light brown sugar
55g castor sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
310g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
100g fudge chunks (Waitrose does readymade chunks for cooking but you could just chop some up)
1/2 teaspoon of salt (if using unsalted butter)
1. Preheat the oven to 180oC and line a baking tray with parchment paper (I also used a whoopie pie tin because I ran out of space.
2. Put the butter in a saucepan over a low heat and allow to melt, foam, boil and, eventually, turn dark brown. There are pictures and everything at Picky Palate. It took longer than I was expecting and I did wonder if it would ever get there but it did in the end.
3. Allow the butter to cool for 10 minutes. Put both types of sugar in a bowl and add the butter. Mix well to combine. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well.
4. Add the flour and bicarbonate of soda (and salt if you're using unsalted butter) and mix until just combined. Stir in the fudge chunks.
5. Place small balls of dough on the baking tray and bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool before transferring to a wire rack otherwise your fudge chunks will get stuck to the paper and won't come with the cookie which will be nothing short of a tragedy.
Also isn't it weird how the plate in the cookie pictures is a completely different colour but the cookie is the same? The wonders of photoshop. Except I just realised I changed this photo so that comment doesn't apply anymore. Here, more cookies!
