Brown Butter White Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies.

Two things. 

1. It's time to fall in love {again} with oatmeal cookies. 

2. This is my last post involving brown butter. I have a new love... and it's coming soon.

Something about summer makes me crave oatmeal cookies. I know it's still spring, but I've already baked with marshmallow Peeps and pastel-colored chocolates so I feel like it's time we just jump right into this summer thing. I'm looking ahead to hours of True Blood, hot days in flow, short dresses, grilled pizzas, baked sugar cookie peaches, and just about as many kettlecorn dinners/strawberry margaritas as I can get away with. Starting... now. 

And oatmeal cookies. Because I may have finally found the perfect one.

These are the best oatmeal cookies I have ever made because they're so unlike traditional oatmeal cookies. No flat cookies, chocolate chips, or raisins here. Just crispy edges, thick, chewy centers, that rich brown butter flavor, extra-large chunks of sweet, melty white chocolate, and a sprinkle of sugary salt.

For these cookies I shattered two Ghiradelli white chocolate baking bars into perfect, fat cookie-baking chunks. Real chunks of white chocolate are just infinitely better than vanilla-flavored chips... and so is breaking chocolate against your countertop on a particularly stressful day. 

Puppies help too.

I talked about brown butter + dark brown sugar + oatmeal when I made s'mores oatmeal cookie cups... and it definitely involved the words "a meant-to-be situation." And it truly is. The nutty brown butter gives the oatmeal a deep, rich flavor... like toffee and caramel and butter and buttermilk pancakes. All together. All in your cookie. 

Real quick: let's talk about sugar. 

Have you ever had a salted caramel mocha from Starbucks? It's a fall thing. They sprinkle crunchy-sweet turbinado sugar and chunky bits of sea salt on top of their caramel and whipped cream. It's perfect and it's dreamy and this is that. On a cookie. 

Just sprinkle it on! The salt helps balance the sweetness from the rich white chocolate and the sugar adds a light, sweet crunch to an otherwise soft, chewy cookie.

Sugar + salt. Just another simple thing that makes these cookies absolutely irresistible/something to fall in love with.

And... brown butter: it's a wrap! Now is the time for new things (and an oatmeal cookie or two). Let's make it happen.  

Brown Butter White Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies

Printable Recipe 

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

2/3 cup dark brown sugar

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

8 ounces white chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons granulated or coarse sugar + 1 tablespoon sea salt for sprinkling 

Prep. Line two baking sheets with a baking mat or spray with baking spray; set aside. In a small bowl, mix together the 2 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon sea salt for sprinkling on your cookies.

Brown. First, brown the butter by melting it in a medium saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly. The butter will begin to bubble and (after about 7-8 minutes) will foam and then quickly after, turn a golden brown with amber specks (for more information on how to brown butter click here). Immediately remove from heat and pour into a small bowl. Place in the refrigerator until cool to the touch. 

Mix. In a large bowl, whisk the oats, flour, baking soda and salt together. 

In the bowl of a stand mixture fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the cooled brown butter and vanilla extract on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add the granulated sugar and dark brown sugar and beat until combined. 

Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in the eggs one at a time. Gradually add the oat mixture. Stir in the white chocolate chunks. 

Bake. Scoop dough 2 tablespoons at a time onto prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle with a pinch of sugar-salt mixture, then bake for 12-14 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking. Cookies should be golden around the edges, but appear under-done in the centers (they'll set as they cool).

Remove from oven and let cookies cool 2 minutes on sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Source: Barely adapted from Shauna Sever's Salted Vanilla Chip Oatmeal Cookies, as found in her book Pure Vanilla. 

Peeps Rice Krispie Treats {...or how I accidentally browned butter.}

Real quick. Before I head off down the coast for a spring weekend vacation (and, let's just all be honest, to avoid packing) I need to tell you a few things.

Like how I am not ashamed to be posting a Peeps recipe twenty-five days after Easter. I'm just not. 

Like how the only thing my boyfriend ever wants me to bake him is Rice Krispie treats. A bundt cake? He is just not impressed. Oh there's bourbon in these chocolate chip cookies? I mean... I love you. But could you just melt some marshmallows and cereal?

Or how between Instagram, counting marshmallows, and catching up this season of the Vampire Diaries (what is even happening with this show?!?) it's definitely and totally possible to accidentally brown butter. 

Yes. It happened. It's real. I accidentally browned butter. 

But honestly... I can't think of anything wrong with brown butter Rice Krispy treats. So I'm just going to own it. Like it was all on purpose. 

Okay. So sometimes baking is simple. Sometimes it's not even baking at all... it's just melting bright, colorful, sugary marshmallows and stirring in crispy cereal. That could totally be a thing, right? 

This is a melt, bake, and eat situation. It's the perfect way to live like it's spring, while getting ready for easy, no-oven summer baking.

A tip: I was impatient and chose not to let the Peeps get fully melty. I wanted marshmallow-y chunks of Peeps and it was fully a good decision. 

I mean, what else was I going to put in these crispy bars? Bourbon? Stop it.

Another tip: one ounce of Rice Krispies cereal = one cup. So you don't have to google it in the cereal aisle. Don't be like me. 

Peeps Rice Krispie Treats

Printable Recipe

3 tablespoons butter
6 cups Rice Krispies cereal
35 (7 sleeves) assorted colors of Peeps (I used pink, purple, blue, & yellow)

Prep. Spray a 9x13-inch baking dish with baking spray.

Melt. Melt butter in a large pot over low heat. Add Peeps, keeping each different color in it's own section in the pot. Do not stir. Remove from heat once Peeps have melted (about 8-10 minutes).

Mix. Add the Rice Krispies cereal and stir to combine until well-coated. Pour into prepared baking dish and press down evenly. 

Eat. Allow to cool completely, then cut into squares and serve.

Source: Serious Eats.

Brown Butter Bourbon Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Alternate titles... 

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER. Seriously... Put These In Your Life.

How to Bake Perfect {Bakery-Style} Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I Solemnly Swear There Is No Brown Butter In These Cookies. Except There Is.

These Are Totally Just An Excuse to Put Booze in My Cookies.

All the above/this is the only chocolate chip cookie recipe that you'll ever need. Ever. 

Every chocolate chip cookie I've made has been leading up to to this moment of perfection: the brown butter from every recipe ever my one true love and ex-current go-to chocolate chip cookie dough, the splash of bourbon from these boozy pretzel-bottom blonde brownies, and the absolute must-add of cinnamon from my lazy-day chocolate chip cookies. Lazy day cookies are real. Because there's days when you want to brown butter... and there's days when you just want a cookie like five minutes ago.

Bakery-style: your cookie. I can't think of any other way to describe it. They're the irresistible cookies you find and fall in love with at the corner bakery. Maybe you like your cookies cakey or stuffed with Oreos or thin and crispy. That's okay. Be you.

Everyone has their own idea of what makes the perfect chocolate chip cookie... and this is mine. Perfectly-scooped-shaped, over-sized, thick and chewy, buttery-soft with just-crispy edges, and bursting with chocolate. Everything you could ever want from a chocolate chip cookie... and from life.

(Also: baking with an ice cream scoop is just a bonus.)

There's  bakery-style cookies... and there's these cookies: cookies that immediately inspire you to open a bakery just so you can live life right and share these thick, fudgy, buttery, chewy, sugary-rich, chocolate chip dreams with the world.

Here's how these happened/I need a bigger baking mat.

Perfectly-scooped-shaped & over-sized: In my crazy baker's brain, I always want my cookies to look like perfect scoops of ice cream... which is why I always, always use a cookie scoop when I'm baking instead of hand-rolling my dough.

But for these, I wanted a for real, in-your-face, xxl cookie. Remember those brown butter oatmeal M&M cookies? Seriously with the brown butter! Well, I took a tip from baking those... and scooped these using an ice cream scoop.

Now that's a cookie.

Thick and chewy: It's all about the flour and sugar. Cake flour gives these cookies their thickness and baking with more brown sugar than white sugar makes them chewy for days, with just the right balance of perfectly crisp edge and super soft centers. For these, I even used part dark brown sugar and part golden brown sugar. I love baking with dark brown sugar... it gives these cookies a deep, rich flavor that pairs perfectly with the brown butter, cinnamon, and bourbon.

If you look close enough... you can see the flecks of golden brown butter. I will never not be obsessed.

Buttery-soft & crispy edges: Brown butter + chilling the dough.

Fact: I had absolutely no intention of chilling this dough. But real life happened and 48+ hours later I finally had a minute. Can a girl just get a minute to bake some cookies? I mean really.

I didn't know this. I should've... but I'm impatient, especially if chocolate chip dreams are involved. Chilling the dough gives cookies perfect crispy edges and a soft, chewy middle. So. You know. Do that.

On the P.S. Another secret? Take the cookies out of the oven when they just begin to turn golden brown around the edges. They'll look doughy and underbaked... but trust, some kind of baking magic will transform them into the perfect cookie. Don't wait until they look "done."

11 minutes was my jam with these cookies.

Bursting with chocolate: I've heard of chocolate feves before... flat, round chocolate discs that are nearly impossible to find. These baking melts just might be the next best thing.

I used Hershey's semi-sweet baking melts (although those milk chocolate melts would work just fine too). And oh my goodness. Biting into these cookies was like slicing into this zebra bundt cake: just strata of chocolate! The discs melt into layers, giving every bite more chocolate and cookie.

And sometimes... there's just molten chocolate centers.


(Oh and then because I could, I threw in a handful of fat chocolate chips. Because I mean, we're already baking with bourbon. So really there's no limits here.)

P.S. Bourbon. I wrote about baking with bourbon here. It's a situation you're going to want to find yourself in. Basically, the alcohol bakes away, leaving these cookies with a slight, dark caramel-vanilla flavor.


Bourbon. Because live life. 

Also: sometimes perfect cookie stacks fall over. That's real. Just go with it.

Brown Butter Bourbon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Printable Recipe

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/4 cup (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, browned
1 1/2 cups brown sugar (I used 1 cup light brown sugar + 1/2 cup dark brown sugar)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons bourbon
2 egg, at room temperature
10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used a 9.5 ounce bag of Hershey's semi-sweet baking melts + .5 ounces regular semi-sweet chocolate chips)

First, brown the butter by melting it in a medium saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly. The butter will begin to bubble and foam and then quickly after, turn a golden brown with amber specks in the butter  (for more information on browning butter click here). Immediately remove from heat and pour browned butter into a small bowl and place in the refrigerator until cool to the touch.

In a large bowl whisk together the cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside. 

When butter is cooled, cream together with the brown sugar and granulated sugar until smooth and creamy. Mix in the vanilla extract, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Finally, mix in the bourbon. Because do it.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mixing until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. 

Refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour or up to 3 days. Don't skip this step! Because we're browning the butter (turning it into a liquid) instead of creaming it, it's necessary to chill the dough to prevent the cookies from spreading and baking up flat, thin, and crispy. Chilling is mandatory if you want thick, chewy chocolate chip cookies. (I actually chilled this dough for 3 days because real life was happening. They baked up perfectly.) 

When the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a Silpat baking sheet. Scoop dough into 1 1/2 tablespoon (golfball-sized) balls (I used an ice cream scoop). Bake for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool a few minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Makes about 24 large cookies.

Source: Adapted from The Cozy Little Kitchen. 

Peanut Butter Rolo Blondies w/ White Chocolate Chevron.

Peanut butter blondies + pastel Easter Egg stripes. I mean... really. Could Friday get any better? 

It could. Because Rolos!

So far 2013 has been about combining my favorite flavors into something else entirely... and in totally unexpected ways. Brown butter and bourbon. Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and s'mores. Oreos and white chocolate raspberry. I literally get inspired (and make it through my work day) by thinking of two things I love and dreaming up ways to smash them together. 

Like peanut butter and caramel and white chocolate M&Ms. 

I knew about chocolate and peanut butter. Seriously... trust. And I knew about peanut butter and marshmallows (obsessed/in love). Peanut butter and spoons is also a true thing to appreciate. But peanut butter and caramel? Get into this immediately/where have I been living!

Like oatmeal and brown butter, bourbon and chocolate, these two rich, honey-sweet flavors complement each other in an even sweeter, richer, meant-to-be flavor.

The best part about these blondies? They're a buttery, sugary-sweet blank canvas for all kinds of cookie doughs, flavors, and add-ins. Chocolate chip cookie dough, sugar cookies, all-chocolate cookies, or fudgy brownie batter mixed with chocolate chips, nuts, candy bars, crushed cookies (Thin Mints! Oreos!) M&Ms,  or marshmallows. The oven's the limit.

For these, I went with a peanut butter blondie batter and Rolo candies (you could also use Hershey's caramel kisses). These peanut butter cookie bars start with a simple peanut butter cookie dough base that's pressed into a pan for quick baking. They bake up extra-thick, soft, and chewy, studded with bursting pops of bite-size chocolate caramel chunks and couldn't be any easier to throw together.

Also: let's discuss how those pops of bursting caramel could easily be miniature peanut butter cups.

Next: the chevron stripes. We're going to need some some Easter egg colors! 

I used pastel-colored white chocolate (Easter seasonal) M&Ms. For these stripes (and to make sure I had enough of each color), I needed three bags. 

You could also use regular M&Ms, dark chocolate M&Ms, or Reese's Pieces. Mix up the colors for the holidays! Red, white, and blue chevron stripes in July or orange, yellow, and white candy corn stripes in October are simple ways to make any cookie bar instantly impressive. Or look like an Easter egg.

First things first: get organized. Separate your colors. The Type-A in me loved this step a little too much. 

Then gently press the M&Ms (with the "m" facing down) into the cookie dough in a chevron stripe. You can use a knife to trace stripes into the cookie dough to guide you, but we're just making blondies here! It doesn't have to be perfect. 

It all starts with three triangles. Easy. We're doing this.

Keep adding triangles facing in alternate directions...

Take your time. Totally stop to eat some Rolos. It's a necessary thing.

And... done. Fifteen minutes later.

And that's it. They're ready to bake! 

These peanut butter cookie bars stuffed with chocolate, gooey caramel, bright pops of colors, and crispy white chocolate Easter egg stripes are all I'm thinking about this Friday... and how quickly I can bake these bars again (... and what new things I can smash into them) for Easter Sunday. Trust me... after making these chevron stripes you will feel like you can do anything. Look what you did with just M&Ms! You totally just made candy art. 

Happy Easter!

Peanut Butter Rolo Blondies w/ White Chocolate Chevron

Printable Recipe

1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups light brown sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup Rolo candies (whole or chopped)
White chocolate M&Ms (for these stripes, I needed 3 bags)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with baking spray and set aside.

Melt the butter and brown sugar in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in the creamy peanut butter until smooth and combined. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

When the peanut butter is cool to the touch, stir in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Pour into the flour mixture and stir until combined. Fold in the Rolo candies, either whole or halved (I used a combination of both... the whole Rolos had a bigger burst of caramel which I loved, but the smaller chunks made it easier to press the M&M candies on top of the dough.)

Transfer batter to prepared baking dish and spread evenly. To make the chevron design, separate your M&Ms into each color you want to use. Make sure you have enough!

Gently press M&Ms into the cookie dough ("m" side facing down) in chevron stripes (you could also trace lines in the cookie dough with the tip of a knife to help guide you). It doesn't have to be perfect! 

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is golden and the edges are slightly browned. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Source: Cookie bars from Two Peas & Their Pod.