Brown Butter Snickerdoodle Cookie Tart
Ever wish you could just once have a hot, giant, gooey cookie full of rich caramel and vanilla and cinnamony flavors that you could dig right into with a spoon, alongside some cold, creamy ice cream?
Today I am so pleased to inform you that this brown butter snickerdoodle cookie tart may just make all your cookie dreams finally come true.
Not only is this snickerdoodle cookie dough recipe epic, it's also made with brown butter, which we will get to in a moment. And it's also baked straight into a tart pan instead of being portioned into individual cookies, the tart method yielding a cookie recipe that's far quicker to make and far gooier and more fun to consume.
So, let's get to the brown butter. Since my discovery of brown butter a couple years ago, my life has been transformed. As have many of the recipes I posted to this blog. Because I started posting quite a few desserts made with brown butter.
And if you have no idea what brown butter is, it's simply butter that you melt not until it turns to liquid, but a few minutes longer, until it starts turning golden and emitting a nutty, irresistible aroma. And the flavor that results from those extra few minutes of cooking is SO flippppin amazing - caramely and hazelnuty and butterscotchy and incredible.
I've also got a video tutorial on browning butter right here, just in case that might be helpful for you.
To make this snickerdoodle cookie tart, I used my original no-butter snickerdoodle cookies as inspiration and then made some changes to that recipe to transform it into a brown butter tart recipe.
Like, for example, unlike the original cookies, this recipe uses only brown sugar and no white sugar. White sugar helps give cookies more stability, but being that you don't need to worry about the shape of these cookies, seeing as they're not being shaped at all, you can use all brown sugar, which imparts a deeper, richer flavor than white sugar does.
Another example: I used less flour for this snickerdoodle tart than for those snickerdoodle cookies. I wanted the tart to be gooier than the cookies, and again, because the dough was baked in a tart pan, I was able to do that without worrying about the cookie's shape and structure.
And of course, there's the brown butter. But since browning butter causes a loss in water content in the butter, which would then result in a lack of moisture in the dough, I added some Greek yogurt to the recipe to amend that issue.
May I suggest pairing this snickerdoodle tart with ice cream, but coffee ice cream in particular?
When I went to my freezer to look for some ice cream to photograph with the tart, I noticed that I was out of vanilla ice cream. So I shot the tart with coffee ice cream instead. And let me tell you, a happy discovery that was for me. Because the coffee flavor in the ice cream paired impeccably with the cinnamon and caramel flavors in this cookie tart.
Not that I'm saying vanilla ice cream wouldn't be delicious with this snickerdoodle cookie tart too. Pssssh, don't be silly. We both know it would be amazing as well. Obviously.
Brown the butter. Mix in the wet, then the dry ingredients. Dump the dough into the tart pan and flatten it till the edges. Sprinkle a cinnamon-sugar mixture generously over the dough. Bake the cookie tart until the edges are just set but the center is still gooey and slightly under-baked and cookie-doughish.
Grab some spoons. Pass them around. Grab a tub of ice cream. Dig in, first into the tart, and then into the ice cream. The order of tart to ice cream or ice cream to tart not being particularly crucial though.
Ingest. And most importantly, enjoy!
Brown Butter Snickerdoodle Cookie Tart
Yield: 9'' tart
1 stick (4 oz.) butter
1 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
1 1/4 cups packed flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a 9" tart pan.
In a light-colored (so you can observe the browning) skillet, brown the butter: chop up butter and place into skillet over a medium flame. First, the butter will melt. Once butter melts, it will foam and bubble. Make sure to stir the butter frequently with a rubber spatula. After a few minutes, the bubbling will subside and golden specks will appear on the bottom of the pan and the butter will start smelling nutty. This means your butter is browned! (Click here for a video tutorial on browning butter.)
Remove skillet from flame right away and pour the browned butter into a mixing bowl to stop the cooking. Make sure to scrape in all the browned specks from the bottom of the pan. Warning: butter should have golden/amber specks, not completely brown ones. If the butter is too browned, your tart may have a burnt/bitter taste.
Stir brown sugar into the browned butter. Next, whisk in the egg and vanilla extract vigorously until mixture is smooth. Mix in yogurt/sour cream.
Pour flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt over wet ingredients and mix everything together until just combined.
Drop dough into prepared tart pan and flatten to spread evenly. Mix together the granulated sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and then sprinkle over the tart.
Bake snickerdoodle tart for about 20 minutes, or until the edges are set and release slightly from sides of pan. Middle should still be gooey.
Dig right into tart or wait till it cools to cut gooey slices.
