Brown Butter Cookie Cake

Cookie cake (and icecream cake) ARE THE SUPERIOR BIRTHDAY CENTERPIECE! Sorry sponge cake, but it’s true. This video and corresponding recipe is my way of honoring the classic American grocery store cookie “cake,” a treat as nostalgic as it is semi-dry and hardened… but for $8/cake you can’t complain. Let’s bake 🤘🏼 Adam

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Brown Butter Cookie Cake

Ingredients

Cookie

• 2 sticks Unsalted Butter, plus more for pan (227g)
• 1 cup Dark Brown Sugar (213g)
• ½ cup Sugar (100g)
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract or Paste (6g)
• 2 Eggs
• 2 cups plus 2 Tbsp Bread Flour (325g)
• 1 tsp Baking Soda (4g)
• ½ tsp Kosher Salt (3g)
• 3 cups Semi-sweet Chocolate Chunks or Chips (170g)

Buttercream

• 1 cup Unsalted Butter, softened (227g)
• 2 tsp Vanilla Paste or Extract (12g)
• ½ tsp Kosher Salt (2g)
• 4 cups Powdered Sugar (480g)

Instructions

Cookie

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 12 inch cast iron skillet and set it aside.
2. Add brown sugar, sugar and vanilla to a large heat-proof mixing bowl. Add butter to a medium sauce pot and brown over medium heat. Immediately pour the browned butter into the bowl and cream it into the sugar mixture with a whisk. Add in eggs and continue mixing until the whole mixture is smooth and the sugar is dissolved.
3. Sift flour, baking soda and salt directly into the bowl. Mix with a spatula until a wet-ish dough forms, then fold in chocolate chunks.
4. Spoon the dough into the buttered cast-iron skillet. Pat the dough down to ensure that it’s as even as you can get it. Bake for 22-25 minutes until the edges are golden brown. The cookie should be soft in the center, but set. Allow the cookie to cool completely before decorating.
5. Remove the cookie from the skillet, decorate with buttercream (or whatever else) and slice. Serve with a PHAT glass of whole milk and CRUSH!

Buttercream

1. In a large bowl mash together tempered butter, vanilla paste and salt until creamed. Spoonful by spoonful, add in powdered sugar, mashing it into the butter mixture. Once all the sugar is worked in, optionally, dye the buttercream whatever color you’d like or serve as is.

Adam's Notes

For the cookie:

• Bread flour makes the cookie extra chewy.
• Brown sugar makes the cookie extra moist and rich.

For the buttercream:

• Do this up to a week ahead of time, just seal it up in an airtight container and refrigerate. Let come to room temperature before using.
• Make it easier on yourself by removing the butter from the fridge the night before baking. Set it on the counter to temper overnight for optimal softness.

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