Brown Butter Sandwich Cookies with Rosemary Caramel

Three out of the four in our family have a sweet tooth (can’t say anything about the fourth one yet, he is not even one, we’ll have to wait and see). We have chocolates, kajukathlis and pedas (Indian sweets) in the fridge and freezer, candies and cookies in the pantry and pies on the kitchen counter. There's seemingly a sweet treat on every corner of the kitchen. When it looks like our sweets stash is diminishing, I bake even more. If I ever feel guilty, I soothe my conscience with my belief that I bake 'cause I like baking.

I got this recipe from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board. I didn’t make the caramel as I had a jar of dulce de leche that was waiting to be finished. So these cookies were a perfect way to finish them.

The butter in the cookies make it really soft and rich, the caramel makes it chewy and gooey and the savory taste of rosemary gives these cookies a new dimension. These cookies won’t stick around for too long.

For the cookies:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup/2 sticks butter, divided
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 egg beaten
• 1tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• ½ tsp baking powder

In a small saucepan, over low heat, heat ½ cup butter until nut brown in color, (after foaming subsides) being careful not to burn. Remove from heat to cool.

In a bowl cream together remaining ½ cup butter and sugar, until light and fluffy. Add brown butter and mix well. Add flour, baking powder and mix until blended. Flatten dough into disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill dough until firm, around 1 hour or more.

Pre heat oven to 350F/180C

Roll out dough and cut into small (2 inch) scalloped rounds with a cookie cutter. Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet, around 8-10 minutes, or until edges begin to brown. Cool completely on a wire rack.
Rosemary Caramel:

• ½ cup butter
• 4 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 1-cup brown sugar
• ½ cup corn syrup
• 1 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Melt butter over low heat in a heavy saucepan.
2. Place sprigs of rosemary between 2 sheets of waxed paper and pound until flattened.
3. Place the sprigs in butter and cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Remove the sprigs from butter. (At this point, I used 3/4 cup of Dulce de leche from the jar *)
4. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Increase heat to medium high and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring frequently.
5. Reduce heat to medium and continue boiling, stirring frequently until caramel reaches 242F(use a candy thermometer) remove from heat.

Spread the rosemary caramel on a cookie and top with another. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to one week.

* The recipe above calls to use a candy thermometer. If you don't have one and don't want to invest in one, then there are a couple of other ways to make Dulce de leche. A recipe and link follows.

Caramel:

225g/8oz light brown sugar
142 ml pot single/light cream
50 g/20z butter, cubed
100 ml water
1/2 tsp salt

Put the sugar and 100 ml water in a heavy based pan, heat gently until the sugar dissolves, turn up the heat until it turns dark amber. Stir in the cream in four additions until smooth and shiny - take care as it will bubble up. Melt the butter with the sprigs of rosemary in a different pan(follow the steps 1-3 from the recipe above). Stir in the butter and 1/2 tsp salt to the caramel. Spread over the cookie and top with another.

or

Please see David Lebovitz's recipe.