Are you sick of brown butter yet? Obviously, I’m not. After making brown butter chocolate chip cookies and brown butter apple blondies and pumpkin bars with brown butter icing this fall I took a little break. But then I came across this Coconut Brown Butter Cookie by Smitten Kitchen (whose recipe are always the best) and since coconut is one of my other favorite food things, I couldn’t stay away from brown butter any longer!

The weekend before I had tried a cookie recipe that sounded so promising and was just so disappointing (overly sweet, crumbly and dry, blech) so I was thrilled when I took my first bite of these crisp on the outside, soft and buttery in the center, packed with chewy coconut cookies. The dough was totally delicious as well. My husband claims to hate all things coconut but ate quite a few. My kids went nuts for them too.

A couple things to note: Don’t try and use shredded sweetened coconut here, you want the unsweetened coconut flakes. You can make these cookies bite-size and petite or huge (I went with something in the middle and yielded ~2 dozen)- approx. baking times for different sized cookies are listed below. And see the explanation in the note as to why we’re adding a little water to the dough, and how to adjust yours if needed.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. water
1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. sugar
3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups + 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
slightly heaped 1/2 tsp. flaky sea salt (such as Maldon) or 1/4 tsp. table salt
4 cups dried, unsweetened coconut chips (I used these)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. It will melt, then foam, then turn clear golden and finally start to turn brown and smell nutty. Stir frequently, scraping up any bits from the bottom as you do. Don’t take your eyes off the pot as it seems to take forever (more than 5 minutes) but then turns dark very quickly. Once it is a deeply fragrant, almost nut-brown color, remove from heat and pour butter and all browned bits at the bottom into a measuring cup. Adding 2 tablespoons water* should bring the butter amount back up to 1 cup. Chill browned butter in the fridge until it solidifies, about 1 to 2 hours. You can hurry this along in the freezer, but check back and stir often so it doesn’t freeze unevenly solid.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat.
3. Scrape chilled browned butter and any bits into a large mixing bowl. Add both sugars and beat the mixture together until fluffy. Add egg and beat until combined, scraping down bowl as needed, then vanilla. Whisk flour, baking soda and salt together in a separate bowl. Pour half of flour mixture into butter mixture and mix until combined, then add remaining flour and mix again, scraping down bowl if needed. Add coconut chips in two parts as well.
4. Scoop dough into 1 or 2+ tablespoon size balls and arrange a few with a lot of room for spreading on first baking sheet; use the back of a spoon or your fingers to flatten the dough slightly. Bake first tray of cookies; 1 tablespoon scoops will take 10 to 11 minutes; 2 tablespoon scoops, 12 to 14 minutes, the 2-inch scoop used at the bakery, 14 to 16 minutes; take the cookies out when they’re deeply golden all over. If cookies have not spread as much as you see above, stir 2 teaspoons more water into cookie dough, mixing thoroughly, before baking off another tray. (See note below for full explanation.) This should do the trick, but if it does not, repeat the same with your next batch. Once you’ve confirmed that you have the water level correct, bake remaining cookies.
5. Cool cookies on baking sheet for 1 to 2 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cookies keep for up to one week at room temperature. Extra dough can be stored in the fridge for several days or in the freezer for a month or more.

*About the water: Browned butter is one of my favorite things to eat in cookies like things and least favorite things to write cookie recipes for, because when you brown the butter, water volume is lost, but not all types of butter contain the same amount of water. I find that for most standard American grocery store butters (I was using Trader Joe’s store brand here, but the equivalent would be any non-European style butter), 1 tablespoon of water per stick (1/2 cup) of butter is a sufficient replacement. However, should you find that your first batch of cookies is too thick, a little extra water is all you’ll need to get the texture right. It sounds scary, but I promise is as simple as can be.

Makes 1-3 dozen cookies, depending on size.

(Recipe from Smitten Kitchen, originally from The City Bakery)

Early every summer the roadside cherry stands show up in Washington and we stop and buy local cherries by the bagful. I don’t like pitting them (but this little tool helps a lot) or cleaning up the mess after my kids cover themselves in cherry juice, but we LOVE fresh cherries. I’ve been making this dessert the last couple summers and it’s time I shared it here. These cherry pie bars have a base/crumble similar to a sugar cookie, a juicy cherry-almond filling, and a sticky sweet lemon glaze. It just crossed my mind how sprinkling sliced almonds on top would make them extra beautiful/delicious!

The hardest part of this recipe is making sure the bars get cooked through. Because the cherries release a lot of moisture, I pre-bake the crust a bit before adding the filling. I also added more cornstarch to help it thicken. Even if it takes longer than the suggested baking time, don’t take the bars out of the oven if the center is still doughy. I’ve made that mistake before and had to toss the center of the dish. The bars will set up more as they cool. They’re the best served with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

Cherry Pie Cookie Bars

INGREDIENTS

Cherry Pie Filling:
5 cups fresh Bing/sweet cherries, pitted and halved (about 1 1/2 to 2 lbs., you can use frozen cherries, but make sure they are thawed and the juices drained off)
1/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. almond extract

Cookie Dough:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

Lemon Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. lemon zest
~1 Tbsp. milk + extra to thin glaze

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. For easier cleanup, line a 9X13-inch baking pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Lightly grease the parchment/foil with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the cherries, sugar, cornstarch, and almond extract. Let sit while making the crust.
3. For the cookie dough, with an electric mixer (handheld or stand mixer), cream together the butter, sugar, milk, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and egg yolk. Mix until well-combined. Add the flour and mix until just combined and no dry streaks remain.
4. Take 2/3 of the dough (more or less) and press into the bottom of the pan. It helps to drop pieces relatively evenly across the bottom before spreading into an even layer. You can use your hands or a knife to spread the dough as it’s a bit sticky.
5. Par-bake the bottom crust in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, it should puff and start to set but not be cooked through or brown. Remove from the oven,
6. Give the cherry filling a good stir and pour over the top of the bottom crust. Pinch off quarter-size pieces of the remaining dough and drop on top. It won’t cover the cherry filling all the way but will puff and spread while baking.
7. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the cherry filling is bubbling and the edges of the dough are golden. (Test to center with a knife to make sure that it’s not still doughy. If the bars are browning too fast before the center sets you can lightly tent them with foil while they finish baking.) When the bars are done, remove them from the oven and set them aside to cool.
8. For the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar, lemon zest and milk until thick and pourable (add milk a little at a time if needed to thin the consistency).
9. Drizzle the glaze over the top of the bars. Serve the bars at room temperature or slightly warm with vanilla ice cream.

Makes a 9×13 pan of bars.

Adapted from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe