Brown butter brown sugar shortbread

Photo: Smitten Kitchen

Deb browns the butter, freezes it solid, then makes shortbread with dark brown sugar. It tastes like butterscotch. Cut into diamonds with a lemon squiggle on top, it's the prettiest thing on the swap table.

From Deb Perelman at Smitten Kitchen · @smittenkitchen

Browned butter frozen solid, beaten with dark brown sugar and flour, pressed into a pan and baked low, scored into diamonds halfway, finished with a lemon icing squiggle.

You need

• 1 cup (225 g) unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 tbsp water
• 2 cups plus 3 tbsp (290 g) all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup (145 g) packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
• 1/2 cup (60 g) powdered sugar, for the icing
• 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, for the icing

How to make it

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. It will foam, go clear and golden, then show toasted brown flecks. Pull it off the heat right then; it finishes browning in the pan. Scrape it, flecks and all, into a bowl.
2. Freeze 30 minutes, stir the soft center into the set edges, and freeze 30 minutes more until solid. Cut it into chunks in the bowl.
3. Heat the oven to 300°F. Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment that hangs over two sides.
4. Beat the butter chunks, brown sugar and salt until evenly mixed (or pulse everything in a food processor). Add the vanilla, water and flour and mix just until it comes together.
5. Press the dough into the pan in an even layer and smooth the top.
6. Bake 30 minutes. Take it out, score diamonds about 1 1/2 inches apart, then cut along the lines to the bottom of the pan with a thin knife.
7. Bake 15 to 20 minutes more, until deeper golden at the edges. Cool in the pan, then lift out and break apart along the cuts.
8. Stir the powdered sugar with 1 tbsp lemon juice into a thick but drizzly icing (add more juice a few drops at a time). Pipe thin squiggles over the shortbread and let it set an hour.

For a swap: Sturdy, and it keeps a week.

Written in our own words from Deb Perelman's recipe, with their quantities. The original: Brown butter brown sugar shortbread, Smitten Kitchen.

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