Vexing and fattening

With all the cold and snow I've been inspired to bake, it's a good thing to do after being outside sledding for what feels like forever but Sam never ever wants to go back inside. Baking is warming to the soul, right?

The other day I noticed that in "Cooks Illustrated" there is a recipe for brown sugar cookies. What's not to like? Well, besides their relatively convoluted method of writing the recipe. I've modified the directions somewhat to de-fuss them a bit and wonder if I could do more.


Brown Sugar Cookies

350
2 dozen (ha! I made more than 3 dozen cookies and they were plenty big)
10-14 minutes


Melt and heat until golden brown:

10 tbsp butter

Remove from heat and move to heatproof bowl. Add:

4 tbsp butter

And allow to cool about 10 minutes


Mix thoroughly for topping (although I don't know that a topping was necessary at all):

1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c white sugar


Whisk:

2 c + 2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder


Add these to the butter and mix until there are no lumps:

1 3/4 c dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp vanilla

Then add the flour mixture, mixing until just combined.

Roll dough into balls (I did about 1" diameter, recipe calls for 1.5" diameter), roll in the sugar mixture and bake on parchment-covered cookie sheets. They recommend doing just one pan at a time in the middle of the oven and I did that with good, but slow, results. Cookies will have cracks on the surface and will look raw and underdone when you pull them out. Let cookies cool on the cookie sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Oh, if you're making cookies with a small child, decorate each one with a cinnamon heart candy before baking....


The verdict? Very very sweet, almost overwhelmingly sweet. But somehow addictive even while requiring copious amounts of fluids followed by something overwhelmingly salty. They're hard to leave alone and the cookies were gone within three days but probably more accurately within 48 hours spread over three days but I don't want to admit that.

As Ben says "These cookies vex me."

The recipe is pretty picky and I wonder how well it would work to make them like I make other cookies. Do the butter first, let it sit in the mixing bowl, then add the sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt, soda, powder, and vanilla. Mix in the flour. Skip the sugar mixture entirely. Bake two pans at once, to hell with the consequences. Any volunteers to give it a try and report back?