Brown Butter Brown Sugar Shorties If youre worried youll eat the whole batch and you would

d be, I think, if you had one in front of you, too the greatness that is the slice-and-bake cookie is that you can just bake off a few at a time and then hide the rest in the fridge (for a week) or the freezer (for a month) until the craving strikes again !he back story behind this cookie, by the way, is that a few weeks ago, I had lunch with some food bloggers, two of whom were in town for the "ourmet Institute and we were joined by the nicest "ourmet editor, Ian #nauer $hen I came home, I immediately looked u% reci%es with his name attached to them and found this gem $hat can I say& 'wesome %eo%le clearly cook awesome things (akes about )* cookies + +,* sticks unsalted butter +,* cu% %acked brown sugar (%referably dark) + teas%oon %ure vanilla e-tract + +,) cu%s all-%ur%ose flour +,. teas%oon salt (flaky salt would be great in these) /emerara sugar (0ugar in the 1aw) or sanding sugar for rolling (o%tional) 2ut butter into four or five %ieces and cook butter in a small heavy sauce%an over medium heat, stirring fre3uently, until it has a nutty fragrance and flecks on bottom of %an turn a light brown, anywhere from . to 4 minutes It hel%s to fre3uently scra%e the solids off the bottom of the %an in the last cou%le minutes to ensure even browning !ransfer butter to a bowl and chill until just firm, about + hour 5eat together butter and brown sugar with an electric mi-er until %ale and fluffy 5eat in vanilla, then mi- in flour and salt at low s%eed until just combined !ransfer dough to a sheet of wa%a%er or %archment and form into a +*-inch log, + +,* inches in diameter 2hill, wra%%ed in wa%a%er, until firm, about + hour 6reheat oven to )789: with rack in middle ;nwra% dough and roll it in coarse sugar, if using, and %ress the granules in with the %a%er youd be using to wra% it 0lice dough into +,.-inchthick rounds, arranging + +,* inches a%art on an ungreased baking sheet 5ake until surface is dry and edges are slightly darker, +8 to +* minutes <et sit on sheet for a minute before transferring to a rack to cool (2ookies will 3uite fragile at first, but will firm u% as they cool ) /ough kee%s, chilled, u% to + week, or in the freezer, u% to one month 2ookies kee% in an airtight container at room tem%erature + week Update 12/8/08= I am going to go ahead and %ut a yellow,yield light on this reci%e 'lthough I have tested it twice, and had dreamy results both times, as have the majority of res%ondents, enough commenters are s%eaking of >s%reading? or >falling a%art? cookies that I want to warn you to a%%roach this reci%e more cautiously