Brown Butter Toffee Sandwich Cookies
The toffee in the crisp cookies gives a rich caramel flavor that pairs well with the nuttiness of the brown-butter icing for a combination that is sure to please.
Servings 36 Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Food Processor
- 1 Stand Mixer Hand mixer works too
- 1 piping bag Optional
- Rolling Pin Wine bottle works too
- 2" round cookie cutter
Ingredients
- 226 grams Toffee bits (1-½ cup, If you want to make your own Toffee)
- 112 grams Sugar (½ cup + 1 tbsp)
- 4 grams Baking Soda (1 tsp)
- 6 grams Kosher Salt (½ tsp)
- 42 grams Unsalted Butter, room temp (3 Tbsp)
- 1 egg Yolk and white separated
- 8 ml Vanilla Extract 1-½ tsp)
- 224 grams AP Flour (1-¾ cups)
- 40 grams Sliced Almonds (½ cup)
Frosting Ingredients
- 170 grams Unsalted Butter, cut into pieces 12 tbsp worth
- 5 ml Vanilla Extract (1 tsp)
- 3 g Kosher Salt (¼ tsp)
- 240 grams Powdered Sugar (2 cups)
Instructions
Cookie Dough Instructions
- In a food processor, combine the toffee, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Blitz until the toffee is finely ground and the mixture looks like sand.
- Move the toffee mixture to the bowl of your stand mixer and add the butter, egg white, and vanilla. Using the paddle attachment, mix until light and fluffy, around 2 minutes
- Add the flour and mix on low until a soft dough comes together.
- Divide the dough in half and pat each into a disc. Place in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes. Line three baking trays with parchment paper.
- Dust your work surface with flour and place half of the dough on there. Roll out the dough, turning frequently until the dough is the ⅛" thick.
- Once the dough is rolled out, use a 2" round cookie cutter, dusted in flour to cut out rounds from the sheet of dough and transfer the rounds to the prepared baking trays, leaving around ½" between the cookies.
- Repeat with the other half of the dough and continue rerolling scraps of dough until all of the dough is cut into rounds. You should have around 72 rounds, if you're a little under, that's fine too.
- Place the trays with the prepared rounds in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. Once firm, the cookies can be baked or stored in the fridge for use later. If storing, place parchment between the rounds and place rounds in a ziploc bag.
Cookie Baking Instructions
- Place racks in the oven on the upper and lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Whisk the egg yolk with a tablespoon of water and brush on the top of half of the cookies. Sprinkle the sliced almonds on top of the yolk-brushed cookies and press almond slices slightly into the cookies.
- Bake the cookies until a deep brown, around 10-14 minutes. Switch the trays from top to bottom and front to back halfway through. Let cookies cool completely on the baking trays.
Icing and Assembly Instructions
- While the cookies are cooling, prepare the brown butter icing. Set a piping bag in a large narrow container. I like to use my wife's reusable starbucks venti iced coffee cup.
- Once the cookies are cooled, flip over the cookies without almonds on them. These are the cookies that will get the icing.
- In a sauce pan over medium-low heat melt the butter until foamy. Continue cooking, stirring and scraping frequently with a spatula until the butter stops sputtering and the butter solids look nice and brown.
- Transfer the butter to the bowl of your stand mixer and stir in the vanilla extract and salt. Sift in the powdered sugar.
- Using the paddle attachment, mix on low speed until the mixture is creamy and combined.
- Let the icing cool a bit and then transfer the icing to the piping bag and cut a 1" hole in the bottom of the bag.
- Pipe a small spiral of icing on the flipped cookie and top immediately with an almond-topped cookie. Repeat with the rest of the cookies.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one month. They probably won't last that long.