Thanks to caramelized milk solids, browned butter brings an iconic nutty and toasty aroma to baked goods, cookies, and even pasta sauces alike. The only problem? Browning butter takes extra time (in fact, a lot of people don’t brown their butter enough), not to mention the extra pan to clean.
In the case of cookies and baked goods, there’s a more efficient way to introduce caramelized, toasty flavors to the mix: unrefined sugar products! While you can add toffee or caramel to cookies for a similar effect, those also require extra cooking processes.
Enter: molasses, muscovado sugar, panela, or piloncillo.
- These unrefined sweeteners can be bought at most stores and add rich, caramel-like flavor to your cookies without the extra step. Unlike white sugar, these retain most of the complex flavor compounds produced during the high heat of their production process which mimics the toasty notes of browned butter.
- Just swap in part of the overall sugar content with one of these options, although you might need to adjust and play with the sweetness levels.
Piloncillo is an unrefined Mexican sugarcane product, often found in a hard cone-like shape (after which it's named). It can be grated or melted down and incorporated into your cookie dough, a trick pioneered by the innovative Rick Martinez.
