Burnt-Sugar Vanilla Butter Cookies

I was intrigued by this recipe mostly because of my love of creme brulee...more specifically, the burnt sugar topping of creme brulee. This recipe, found in the Dec. 10/Jan. 11 issue of Fine Cooking, was inspired by the custard dessert. So, despite my normal disdain for sugar cookies I went for it. I planned on bringing the cookies to our friends' baby dedication get together so we weren't left with several dozen cookies floating around the house.

And so we begin.

 

I was curious about some of the instructions, and if I make them again I may do a few things differently. Typically the first step in making cookies like this is to cream the butter and sugar together but here we mixed the butter (no sugar in here) until smooth. Then blend in the vanilla seeds and sugar.

 

In this case I used Vanilla Bean Paste...an amazing substitute for trying to keep vanilla beans. (They dry out fast!)  

This recipe called for 2 eggs plus 2 yolks. I think that this gives the cookie a rich custard flavor. One note on separating yolks from whites. Don't worry if you don't have an egg separator in your kitchen drawers. I don't either. My separator is attached to my body! That's right. Use your hands: it's really the best separator you could have.

 

Just let the white gently fall off of the yolk while transferring it from hand to hand. Don't bother trying to use the shells - you might break the yolk that way and it's harder to strain the white. Today I had no use for the whites so I just let them go down the disposal. If I was ambitious I could have saved them in a container and made something with them (even an egg white omelette could be made...now that I think of it I should have saved them!)

 

After all of the wet ingredients have been added: gradually blend the flour in. You do this in steps so that the fat has a chance to absorb the flour. 

Final result is a soft dough that looks like this:

The next part was a little tricky.

 

Rolling this dough to a tube was harder than I would prefer - I'm not sure we had enough flour in there because it was *really* soft. Next go around I will work a little bit on the flour. The idea is to roll this up, wrap in saran wrap and then store it in a paper towel tube in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight (or in the freezer for up to 3 months)

 

Day 2. Put the tube o' dough on the counter to slice up. Each cookie will be pressed into sugar and onto cookie sheet for baking.

My first sheet was a bit of a mess. I put the cookies a little too close together (see photo). Had to adjust fire and place fewer cookies on the sheets for baking.

On the left: too close...too many cookies on the sheet. On the right: just right.

 

Ok...this is really the reason I made these. I got to use my torch!! After baking, sprinkle more sugar on top and then torch away like creme brulee. Fun!! Also - the house smelled like toasted marshmallow after this. Yum!

 

Here is a plate of finished cookies. They were very tasty. Had a rich, custardy flavor and the burnt sugar was delicious - sweet and roasty at the same time. We brought them to our friends home for the afore mentioned baby dedication get together (dedication service at our church and then back to their house to celebrate the dedication and our friend's baby's first birthday). I was told that everyone asked about the cookies. So they were a hit! 

Would I make them again - yes. But not necesarily for me or Chris. Sugar cookies just aren't our thing. Still...we both agreed these were the best sugar cookies we had ever tasted.