Baking with Brown Butter?

[kjonyou]

So I have been experimenting with brown butter. Tried making cookies the normal with only brown the butter and cool before creaming. My question is, butter looses water during this process. I measured, it was 20 or 30 percent. Thats about 2 Tbsp lighter on the scale per stick!.

Cookies taste great, but now they are dryer. I figure its the lost of water but I dont want to add straight water to cookie dough because it will make them too crips which is not what I am looking for.

Should I compesate by browning extra butter, or should I find another way to add moister? I am looking for a chewy cookie with brown butter.

I am thinking extra butter is not the answer becuse itreally concentrated fats I am adding and not the loss of water. Any thoughts?

Milk? Egg yolks? Sour Cream? Heavy Cream?

FYI if you try this, dont strain out the solids, they are important, trust me I tried....oil slick.

[Krislady]

Do you subscribe to Cook's Illustrated? A while back they featured a "Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie" that used browned butter. They made a few other tweeks (like more brown sugar, less flour, an extra egg yolk), and, as I recall, the cookies were, in fact, darned close to perfect.

[jenhen2]

I agree. Those are the best cookies ever! I would not add vanilla when looking for moisture. It is mostly alcohol that will evaporate during cooking. I've seen whole milk used to good effect in cookie recipes - just a tablespoon or 2 usually helps, adds some richness, and lots of moisture. But Cooks Illustrated has done lots of testing and their recipe is by far the best.

[kjonyou]

You know, I did try thier cookie, and it was good out of the oven, but next day it was hard and dry not crisp and chewy the day before. I read a similar opinion on another board somewhere so I dont think I was off the recipe.

I guess I should have added that to my post, looking for a cookie to hold up the next day.

[goodhealthgourmet]

take them out of the oven a minute or two early, and store in an airtight container *along with* a piece of soft bread or a damp paper towel. the sugar in the cookies is hygroscopic, so it absorbs the moisture from the bread or towel, keeping the cookies soft & chewy. just be sure to replace the bread or towel every 2 or 3 days...if the cookies last that long ;)

[chowser]

I do the bread trick if cookies are hard but find they take away the chewiness of them.

OP, I love the browned butter cookies from Cooks Illustrated--chewy and soft the next day. And, while not a cookie, I love Martha Stewart's brown butter toffee bars. Overall, I think it's easier to find a cookie recipe that starts w/ brown butter and has been formulated for it. However, weighing ingredients, instead of measuring would help in this case.

[kjonyou]

Browned butter adds a whole new layer of complexity for me and baking. Compesating for the water loss, seperated solids, quick absorbtion with flour, different texture for creaming method. Those are just the ones I can think of.

FYI for those of you who reallly like the butter flavor in your cookies but have the flat thing hapening, dont use shrotening. Its the standandard solution but there is a better way. Raise the acid of the batter. Higher acid causes the flour to set at a lower melting point then the butter. So by the time the butter starts to melt, the struture of the cookie is already set.

[jerry i h]

as you discovered, didling around with a baking recipe is not so simple or easy. In your case, I would suggest that you experiment with dramatically reducing the baking time.
So, if you normally bake for 12 minutes, try 6 minutes. Yes, they will soft, droppy, and a real pain to get off the cookie sheet and onto the cooling rack, but try.
Do this with only a portion of the batter, and store the rest in the frig. If it does not work, try again but increasing the baking time by only a minute or so.
This is how I 'adjust' cookie recipes that do not come out quite right.

[chefj]

Have tried to reintroduce the water to the butter. If it can be whipped back in it should return the cookies to their original texture.
Adding 2 Tbls or water or milk when you are creaming the butter should work fine.

[kjonyou]

Ok, will give that a try, thanks

[chowser]

You could also try starting with a higher fat butter, like Plugra. For some of the liquid, add vanilla instead (I normally double vanilla).

[dave_c]

I would just go ahead and add a little extra butter and not worry about the fats.
The suggestion of using brown sugar is a good one too.

[kjonyou]

yes, I am already doing the brown sugar thing, question was more about the moisture loss from butter?

[goodhealthgourmet]

I am looking for a chewy cookie with brown butter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
use brown sugar instead of white, and add a couple of tablespoons of water.