Brown Butter Thumbprint Cookies

These beauties were first made by the lovely, Lindsay at Fleur De Sel. They have been patiently waiting on my "to bake" list over Christmas break. I decided it was finally time to make them at about 11:30 on Saturday night. I had been watching Food Network all night and suddenly had the urge to bake. These cookies have 4 ingredients and are so easy to make!

You can use any kind of jam or fruit preserves you want. I was lucky we had this delicious stuff lying around from Christmas. This yummy raspberry and pomegranate jam is all the way from Australia, kudos to sister Claire for bringing it home!

First step in making the cookies is browning the butter. If you haven't browned your butter yet, you haven't lived. The smell is reason enough to do it. Lucky for you, I like to simplify everything and discovered this quick trick on how to brown butter in the microwave so you can cut the time in thirds. No onto the rest of the recipe

Brown Butter Thumbprint Cookies
yields about 30 cookies (can be easily halved)

Ingredients:
16 tablespoons of unsalted butter (2 sticks)
1 cup of sugar
2 cups of flour
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:
Cut up your butter and place it in a microwave safe bowl, then cover with a plate to avoid it from splattering. Microwave on high for 5-7 minutes until golden brown. Refrigerate or freeze your butter until it solidifies again.

Once your butter is firm, beat with sugar until light and fluffy. Add flour and salt slowly until combined. {My dough was slightly crumbly, so I added a few tablespoons of milk and it came together perfectly. This may not happen, but if it does, know you can add some milk and they will still turn out}.

Using a 1 in. cookie scoop, scoop balls of dough onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Press your thumb into the middle creating the perfect thumbprint cookie! Refrigerate dough, on the baking sheet, for at least an hour or throw in the freezer for 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take cold dough out of the fridge and scoop a small amount of jam into the cavities. **If you are filling your cookie with lemon or lime curd, wait until after the cookies are baked to fill.

Bake for 14 minutes until perfectly golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the baking sheets then enjoy!

Like I said, I made these guys at about midnight on Saturday. I baked them, then went right to sleep without having one. I woke up the next morning to a half eaten plate of cookies....