Grapefruit White Chocolate Brown Butter Cookies

These cookies have my name written all over them. Brown butter-yes, white chocolate-yes, grapefruit-yes yes! The ingredient combination my have your eyebrows squinch at first, but it totally works. The grapefruit comes into play by taking the zest and combing it with the sugar to make a fragrant grapefruit sugar. They are so summery and fresh and you sort of just need to make them to understand!

I haven't baked in over a month. That's a crime, an actual crime. I had the day off last Friday and finally got back into my baking groove. I baked up a storm. First up these brown butter grapefruit cookies and then lavender brownies! Luckily I had lots of friends over and family members with sweet tooth's to help pawn my abundance of goodies off to.

Brown your butter, zest your orange, chop your chocolate, add in some flour, sugar and eggs and you'll be in business. Leave it up to Joy to develop these perfectly unusual cookies!

Pro tip: while your cookies are baking, wash down all the dough you just gobbled up with some juicy grapefruit;)

Grapefruit White Chocolate Brown Butter Cookies

yields 20-24 cookies, adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp. grapefruit zest

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 cup white chocolate chips or chunks

sea salt, optional

Directions:

First you need to make the brown butter. Place one stick of butter in a medium skillet. Melt the butter over medium heat, stirring occasionally. The butter will foam and froth as it heats, it may even snap, crackle, pop! I'm sorry I had to...You will start to smell the butter as it cooks and brown bits will form. Once the butter is an amber color remove it from the stove immediately and pour into a small bowl, along with the brown bits. Allow the browned butter to cool for 20 minutes.

In the meantime, combine the sugar and grapefruit zest in a small bowl. Rub the sugar and zest together with your fingers to really fragrant the sugar! Using an electric mixer, beat the other stick of softened butter with the grapefruit sugar for 3 to 5 minutes until whipped and smooth. Beat in the vanilla.

Pour the cooled brown butter into the bowl along with the brown sugar. Beat for 2 minutes until the mixture is fluffy. Add in the egg and egg yolk and beat for another minute. On low, add the flour, salt and baking soda directly into the mixer.

If you are using a block of white chocolate, chop it up into small bits. With the mixer turned off, use a spatula to combine in the white chocolate chunks or chips.

Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Scoop 2 Tbsp. sized balls of dough onto parchment lined or greased cookie sheets. If you wish, sprinkle the tops with a little sea salt! Leave room between the balls of dough, the cookies will spread a lot when they bake!

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until just brown around the edges!