Brown Butter Candy Cookies

Happy Halloween! Today’s “Back Porch Table” was going to be something cozy and yummy for post-trick-or-treat fun, but instead we are adding sugar to our candy. You might ask why (and I would), but here is the thing: We get very few Halloweens that fall on a Friday. Like one to two per childhood. By falling on a Friday, we get to sugar up without worrying about tomorrow’s crash. It’s Saturday – no harm, no foul. So sugar on top of our candy it is.

When my girls were little, we had the Candy Fairy, who swooped in in the night and took all but their favorite, saved pieces. The Candy Fairy used to donate candy to our troops. But again, this being Friday, we are actually going to use some of that candy in this delish brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe by Jesse Szewczyk for Epicurious. The brown butter is super simple to make and actually makes easier work of the cookies – no mixer is needed because the butter is already melty. And nutty and smelling gorgeous, at that.

Leftover Halloween candy cookies. What a relaxed idea. Be safe and have fun!

Use leftover Halloween candy in the sweetest way: to make delicious cookies. (Photo: Andria Dilling)

Brown Butter Candy Cookies

Adapted from a recipe by Jesse Szewczyk for Epicurious

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks)
1¼ cups light brown sugar
⅓ cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon. vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 large egg yolk, room temperature
2¾ cups flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups mini chocolate candies, cut into ¼-inch pieces (such as Twix, Kit Kat, Milky Way, Snickers, and/or Reese’s)

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring often with a heatproof rubber spatula to prevent burning, until the butter turns a light amber color, smells nutty, and foam has started to settle, 5 to 7 minutes. Immediately pour the browned butter into a large heatproof bowl and scrape in any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Add both sugars and the vanilla to the butter and whisk until it’s all combined and the sugar starts to dissolve. Add the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, whisking after each addition until incorporated before adding more. Add the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda and stir with a rubber spatula until a soft dough forms and there are no pockets of unincorporated flour. Add the chopped candies and mix just until they are distributed throughout. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill dough at least 3 hours and up to 12 hours. (Alternatively, if you want to speed up the process, transfer the dough to a large, resealable plastic bag and flatten the dough to all 4 corners. Close the bag and place it in the fridge for 20 minutes.)

Place the racks in the upper and lower thirds of oven, and preheat it to 350 degrees. Line 3 baking sheets (or what you have) with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats. Using a ¼-cup measure, portion out the dough and roll it into balls. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart.

Bake 2 baking sheets of cookies, rotating them top to bottom and front to back halfway through, until the tops are cracked and lightly browned, 14 to 16 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets. Repeat with the remaining baking sheet of cookies.