Vegetarian

The Perfect "Three-Sugar" Sugar Cookie

April  2, 2010
4
3 Ratings
  • Makes 24
Author Notes

My version of the Perfect Chewy Brown Sugar cookie starts out with a lot of butter, and a lot of brown sugar for that deep, caramel-like flavor. There’s bread flour too, which contains more gluten than regular all-purpose flour, for extra chewiness. This cookie has a touch of demerara sugar and vanilla salt sprinkled over top for a salty crunch. A soft, yielding middle. A golden brown bottom. A bit of crispness to the edge. It's sublime with frosty glass of milk. This recipe is a staple in our household.

I hope you like these as much as I do. —thecookbookchronicles

Test Kitchen Notes

These are a nice, salted caramel-esque cookie. The vanilla gives them a wonderful scent. They spread out to be a very thin, super chewy cookie. The bottom is crispy while the inside is chewy and dense. The complex brown sugar flavor is cut nicely by the salt in the cookie and on top. Worth noting: they make a great sandwich with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. - Stephanie —The Editors

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup demerara sugar (or light brown sugar)
  • 1 3/4 cups dark brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup
    2 tbsp. bread flour


  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla salt, or kosher salt
Directions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars on medium speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, and beat well after each addition.
  2. Add the vanilla extract, the flours, the baking soda, baking powder, and salt. On low speed, beat the mixture until the dry ingredients are well-incorporated, about 1 minute.
  3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or a Silpat. Scoop a heaping tablespoon of dough and roll it until it forms a sphere between your palms. Place the dough on the baking sheet (8 cookies per sheet), giving them room to spread. Dust the tops of each ball of dough with a little demerara sugar, and a tiny bit of fleur de sel or vanilla salt.
  4. Bake in a 350 degree oven on the middle rack for 12-15 minutes. (Do not bake these on the bottom rack in the oven–the high proportion of brown sugar will cause the bottoms to darken too much.) At this time, the cookies should have taken on a golden brown color all around the edge, but still look very soft in the center–like hot cookie dough. Remove the tray from the oven, and allow the cookies to cool directly on the tray for 10 minutes before eating.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

1 Review

Tokyo Y. September 29, 2011
I can't believe that these cookies have not elicited comment! They are the most fantastic cookies ever. I keep balls of this dough in the freezer so that we can have them any time! Should really be named Salted Carmel Cookie. Thank you for sharing! I've made these several times in the last couple of months and am pretty sure that they directly contribute to any weight gain in our family.