Brown Sugar Cookies made with dark brown sugar and butter are sweet, soft, chewy, and the PERFECT spin on the traditional cookie ready in under 30 minutes!
We’re getting ready to serve up some classic desserts for the holiday, and to go with these cookies we’re also making Award Winning Gingerbread Cookies and the Ultimate Apple Crisp!
Brown Sugar Cookies
Brown Sugar Cookies are a great twist on this traditional cookie recipe, and gets its color and rich flavor from dark brown sugar and butter. They’re soft and chewy and super EASY to make. They also have a prep and cook total time of 30 minutes, which means you’ll be in cookie heaven in almost no time at all.
I hadn’t ever had these cookies before I spent a hosted weekend at the Kohler Food and Wine Festival eating the most delicious food I’ve EVER eaten.I know, I know, that’s a huge statement. But it is true. there is really no other way to describe a weekend so full of pampering and delicious food that I have already begun looking into the 2019 festival for a repeat trip.
If you were following along on my Instagram stories you saw some of the delicious food, but it was full of A5 Wagyu steak (The Immigrant Restaurant is a four star restaurant and the best restaurant meal I’ve ever had), beef cheeks, coffee, melt in your mouth pastries, the BEST chocolates ever (these Peppermint Crunch Terrapins were amazing) and I got to attend no less than three days of events where I learned how to make some delicious food including these Brown Sugar Cookies at the Cooks Illustrated Cooking event.
Plus, we stayed at the American Club (a five diamond resort) and the spa made us feel like we were in heaven. If you go, you have to try the healing waters treatment which is basically the best spa treatment I’ve ever had. Also its the only place in the world you can get it! Trust me, if it were available local to me, I’d need it in my life all the time.
You can use this recipe to cut out cookies in fun shapes, but I like to roll little cookie dough balls and let them drop into circles while they’re baking. You can roll the balls in light brown sugar or granulated sugar, to give the cookies extra sweetness. I’ve also used cinnamon sugar to top cookies in this recipe for some extra flavor.
HOW LONG DO SUGAR COOKIES LAST
Sugar cookies will last in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. You can also freeze them for several months to make them last longer, or get ahead on holiday baking!
You can make this dough ahead of time and freeze it for up to a month. Just pull it out and defrost in the refrigerator before rolling, cutting, and baking.
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN COOKIES ARE DONE?
You’re going to want to take them out when the edge just barely start to brown and the middles still look wet.
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HOW DO YOU MAKE SUGAR COOKIES SOFT AND CHEWY?
For soft and chewy brown sugar cookies you want to add ingredients that have a lot of moisture in them. Dark brown sugar contains some molasses, so combining that with butter makes these cookies have an amazingly soft and chewy texture.
This recipe will also work with light brown sugar or white sugar, but the cookies may turn out less chewy and more crumbly. If your cookies are too crispy, try less baking time and making sure your oven is at the right temperature with an oven thermometer.
For a deeper flavor, try brown butter instead of regular. You can make brown butter by cooking butter over medium heat until it melts. Let it keep cooking until the butter turns brown and smells slightly nutty. Let the brown butter cool before adding it to the cookie dough.
MORE GREAT RECIPES FOR COOKIES
- Buckeye Brownie Cookies
- S’Mores Cookies
- Legendary Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Black and White Cookies
- Dark Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Flourless Chocolate Chewy Cookies
- Apple Crisp Cookies
- Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
TIPS FOR BROWN SUGAR COOKIES
- Add all purpose flour as needed if your dough is too sticky to work with. You can also flour your rolling pin, and just dust the extra flour off of the cookies before baking. Be careful not to add too much flour, or your cookies may turn out too dry after you bake them.
- Place a piece of parchment paper under your dough when you’re rolling it out. It’ll make it easier to pick up and prevent it from sticking to your surface. You can also add parchment paper to an ungreased baking sheet to make cleanup easier.
- If you don’t have vanilla extract, you can try this recipe with a teaspoon of almond extract in its place. It will give them a really indulgent flavor, but only add a teaspoon because it has a stronger flavor than the vanilla.
Ingredients
- 14 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 ¾ sticks)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 cups packed dark brown sugar
- 2 cups flour , plus 2 tablespoons
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a skillet melt 10 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat. Whisk constantly until butter starts to brown, about 3-4 minutes. Pour into bowl, add remaining butter to same bowl and set aside.
- In a separate bowl whisk together sugar, ¼ cup brown sugar, flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
- Add remaining brown sugar and salt to butter and whisk until smooth. Whisk in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla.
- Combine butter mixture with dry ingredients, stirring until a dough forms.
- Either roll dough out to 1/2-inch thick and use a cookie cutter, or roll into a ball and place on cookie sheet. Sprinkle with sugar.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until cookies begin to set.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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How come the video does not look like the big picture? I would like my cookies to look like the big picture if it all possible. So I was just curious how they were going to turn out like which picture? Thank you.
GURL THIS WAS AMAZING I COULD HAVE IT EVERYDAY OMG I NEED MORE RECIPIES
Love this rcpy!!!!!!
Truly the best of the best! Everyone loves these cookies??. Crisp edges, soft centers, delicious!
These were amazing. I took some over to my grandparents and they asked for more. The whole batch went in the first night between 4 of us lol. Definitely adding these to one of my go-to’s when I want to practice my baking and eat something delicious after.
A question to add to my rave review below: Do you think adding 1 tsp of cornstarch will give these cookies a little more “lift”? Maybe give them a little more thickness?
Hi Paula, I haven’t tested this recipe using cornstarch. Brown sugar cookies are traditionally thin and almost crispy.
Yum!!!! Very, very delicious cookie. My husband asked me for a brown sugar cookie and man, this is the recipe. I am super familiar with browning butter, so no prob. I chose to use a scooper and roll each cookie into a ball. I experimented by rolling some in white sugar and some in no sugar. The ones rolled in sugar, in our opinions were too sweet, and changed the look of the cookie. The had a nice brown edge, but the tops were smooth. The dough balls NOT rolled in white sugar, came out like the “flat” crinkle top cookies that are in the pic. 11 minutes on parchment lined sheets. Brava!
These cookies have a wonderful flavor, but I was really disappointed that they were thick and puffy – not as pictured. I was hoping they would be like the photo and spread with crinkled tops.
Hi Kathie, glad you enjoyed the taste of the cookies. I double checked the photos because these cookies are not thick and puffy. Sorry for that. They do however have crinkled tops.