Brown Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies + Apple Pie!

Adding milk powder when you're toasting your brown butter makes it even better!

I remember when I first tried brown butter—beurre noisette—drizzled over pumpkin and sage pasta, and I just wanted to drink it! It’s funny how a small step of toasting the milk solids in the butter can bring so much extra flavour to ordinary butter. Now, I can’t get enough of it, and I use it all the time, especially in baking.

To bring out those toasty caramel notes even more, when I’ve got it, I add a bit of milk powder during the cooking process. This adds more milk solids to toast!

I’ve got two recipes to share today - For free subscribers, I’ve got a brown butter oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. It’s sweet, chewy and full of flavour. For my Extra Bite subscribers, I’m sharing a decadent Brown Butter Apple Pie.

Brown Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Find the printable recipe here. Just click the ‘Print Recipe’ button.

• 140 g (10 Tablespoons) unsalted butter

• 7 g ( 1 Tablespoon) milk powder (optional, but so good!)

• 100 g (½ cup) soft brown sugar

• 50 g (¼ cup) granulated sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or vanilla extract

• 125 g (1 cup*) all-purpose flour

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 120 g (1 ⅓ cups) rolled oats

• 120 g (¾ cup) raisins

*The cup sizes given are for US cups. Note that these are smaller than metric cup sizes. For best results, use grams.

Method

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Avoid using a dark pan, as you will struggle to see the caramelization and run the risk of burning it. Once the butter melts, let it cook for 3-4 minutes, regularly whisking.

Once it starts to foam, add milk powder and whisk until it browns into a deep amber color and smells nutty. Pour the melted butter, including all the caramelized brown bits at the bottom of the pan, into a heat-proof bowl and allow it to cool for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C and line large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Once the butter has cooled, whisk in the sugars, egg, and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, rolled oats, salt, and baking soda. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, followed by the raisins. Let the dough sit for 10 minutes at room temperature.

Roll a tablespoon and a half of dough per cookie into a ball. Place the cookie dough balls around 2 inches/ 5 cm apart on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until the cookies are golden brown around the edges but still a little soft. Use a large round cookie cutter to scoot around the baked cookies to push them into even circles. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before placing them on a wire rack to cool further.

An Extra Bite

If you’re a free subscriber to my Recipe Newsletter, you’ll continue to receive a free recipe emailed weekly. I also have an “Extra Bite" monthly subscription plan for those who crave a bit more! This gives you continuous access to all the recipes in my growing archives—ad-free, plus bonus recipes.

Thank you so much to those who support this newsletter through a paid subscription. This week's extra bite is a decadent Brown Butter Apple Pie - using the pastry I wrote about last week!

This apple pie uses a little lemon zest, a hint of nutmeg, and a lot of brown butter in the filling. It’s rich and decadent, and lets the apple flavour shine.