spiced sage brown butter cookies
Add this non-award-winning recipe to your holiday cookie rotation.
I’m seeing a lot of cookie recipes with tahini in them. At least, that was the case at the holiday cookie competition at my work. I’m all for tahini; it’s creamy, nutty, vegan, great for salad dressings, dips, you name it. But in the world of food media, tahini feels like one of those overused, easy-to-reach-for ingredients that’s along the lines of brothy beans, anchovies, and miso, because culturally, it’s a bit niche. I’m not saying it’s this way in its own right, rather in the context that the ingredient is used in. Like in recipes from Bon Appétit, New York Times, and Epicurious — it’s a way to make an ordinary dish feel extraordinary, or at least, a little bit beyond basic.
In the past when I’ve made tahini-based recipes, like this one from NYT Cooking, I’ve often found that its flavor overpowers the overall profile of the cookies. The texture gets affected too, turning snappy shortbreads into a gritty, disintegrating mess. Regardless, it seemed like the grip of tahini remained strong over last week’s holiday cookie competition, with about half of the cookies highlighting tahini as its main ingredient.
Unknowingly so, I tried to take a different approach when conceptualizing a holiday cookie for the competition at my office. Working at a media company myself, I wanted to stand out among the editors at Eater and Grub Street by coming up with a recipe of my own — and, if I’m being honest, try to to impress them. I chose to highlight a quintessential holiday ingredient, but one that’s often used in a savory context: sage.
To develop this recipe, I played around with a version of a chewy ginger cookie to base my adaptation off of, subbing out fresh ginger for chopped fresh sage. I also decided to brown the butter with a tablespoon of whole milk powder, yielding more browned butter solids, which further intensified its overall flavor profile. I threw in a fresh vanilla bean to make the cookie feel extra luxurious, using the pod in the brown butter and the seeds in the batter. For added complexity, I cranked a few turns of fresh black pepper and shards of white chocolate. And for that “wow” factor, I topped each cookie with a whole sage leaf.
Sadly, my spiced sage brown butter cookies did not win, nor were they even a runner up. The winning one was a cornbread honey butter cookie, which in my opinion, was way too sweet — its topping was basically like a dab of butter. In all honesty, I probably didn’t win because, as a first-time competitor, I didn’t consider portion size or how people would be tasting dozens of different cookies. My cookies were way too big, making people feel less likely to take an entire cookie for themselves. Whereas the veterans knew to bake off smaller portions or pre-cut their cookies into bite-sized pieces.
I also made a critical misstep: I forgot to put a slice of fresh bread in the containers to retain the cookies’ moisture. This only made the breaking and sharing of the cookies more difficult for my coworkers. Regardless, the cookies got a decent amount of praise. I heard mumblings of “wow, these are very pretty” and “I couldn’t just take half a sage cookie, I needed the entire sage leaf on top.”
Don’t be like me. Follow this recipe with the notes in mind, and I can assure you that, fresh out of the oven, this cookie recipe is an absolute winner.
Spiced Sage Brown Butter Cookies
Serving: 24 cookies
Ingredients:
200 grams unsalted butter
1 tablespoon whole milk powder
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out and pod reserved
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sage leaves, plus 24 fresh sage leaves left whole for topping
1/2 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
240 grams confectioners’ sugar
1 ¼ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg, room temperature
250 grams all-purpose flour
100 grams white chocolate, chopped into shards
Granulated sugar, for coating
Directions:
Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat, about 3 minutes. Add the whole milk powder and reserved vanilla pod to the pan. As the mixture begins to foam, stir constantly using a heat-proof spatula, scraping the bits of butter that are sticking to the pan, about 7 minutes.
Once mixture reaches a deep brown golden color, pour it into the bowl of the stand mixer, making sure to scrape all the brown butter pieces into the bowl. Let the mixture cool slightly for a minute, then add the vanilla seeds, chopped sage, fresh ginger, ground ginger, cinnamon, and black pepper to the bowl, stirring to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to solidify slightly, about 20 minutes.
Attach the chilled butter bowl to the stand mixer, then pour in confectioners’ sugar, salt, and baking soda to the same bowl. Mix on low with a paddle attachment until light and creamy, about 3 minutes.
Add the egg and mix on medium until pale and fluffy. Then add the flour and mix until combined, about 30 seconds. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper, then use a cookie scoop — or an ice cream scoop like I did — to portion out the dough. Alternatively, if you don’t have a scoop, weigh out 30 grams of dough for each cookie and roll into a ball with your hands.
Pour the granulated sugar into a small bowl, then roll the dough into the sugar to coat entirely. Place on a lined sheet pan about 1 inch apart. Push a whole sage leaf into the center of each cookie. Cover and chill the dough for 24 hours.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. As the oven preheats, remove the cookies from the refrigerator and let them temper slightly, about 15 minutes. Bake until slightly golden at the bottom and around the edge of the cookie, about 10 minutes. Be careful not to over-bake the cookie, this will prevent the cookie from being chewy.
Immediately pull the sheet pan from the oven, then bang the pan on a heat-proof counter top five times. This will create a nice crinkly top on the cookies. Cool on a wire rack, then serve. Note: these cookies are best enjoyed the day they’re made, but if you plan to eat them later on, store in an air-tight container with a slice of fresh bread to help retain moisture.
— Rayna