12 Days of Recipes - Day 3: Soft Cinnamon Cookies with Maple Pecan Frosting

Cookie Batter

1 & 1/2 cups salted butter, 3 sticks
1 cup white sugar
1 & 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tablespoons Rodelle Pure Vanilla Extract
4 & 3/4 cups all purpose flour, spooned and leveled
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons cinnamon
1 batch Maple Pecan Frosting (click here for recipe)

1. Start by browning butter. Melt 3 sticks of butter over medium heat in a saucepan. The wider the bottom of the pot, the faster your butter will brown.

2. Meanwhile, add sugar and brown sugar to a large mixing blow or stand mixer.

3. Back to the butter. Keep the heat on medium and stir occasionally once the butter has melted. Continue to cook until a foam has formed on top. Keep stirring every now and then so that you can see the color of the liquid. Pretty soon the butter will turn from amber to brown. Not just kind of dark yellow, BROWN, with little browned “bits” or “flecks of holy goodness,” as I like to call them.

4. Once your butter is brown and smells nutty, remove from heat and immediately add to the bowl with the sugar. Your butter might burn if you don’t do it right away.

5. Beat the butter and sugar together. Let cool for a few minutes before you add the eggs. Or, live on the edge like me, and add the eggs while your mixer is on so that they are beat in right away and don’t have time to curdle.

6. Add 2 cups of flour to the top of the mixture, but don’t stir. Add the baking soda, salt, and cinnamon to the top of the flour and gently stir it into the flour using a teaspoon. Then turn the beaters on low and start to mix in the flour. Add the remaining 2 cups and 3/4 cups of flour and gently stir it in until just combined. Scrape the bottom and sides and make sure all the flour is incorporated.

7. Chill the dough for at least an hour, or up to 4 days.*

8. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Use a large cookie scoop to shape the dough into large balls, about the size of a golf ball. Place on cookie sheets lined with a silpat or parchment paper.

9. Bake at 350 for about 12-15 minutes, or until lightly brown on the outside, and still barely shiny in the center.

10. Let cool on the pan for 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Let cool completely.

11. Frost with Maple Pecan Frosting

*Notes
If you are in a hurry shape the dough balls onto a baking sheet or Ziplock and freeze them for 30 minutes, then bake as directed.

---
Photo and Recipe from the Food Charlatan