The very BEST Amish Sugar Cookies — soft, puffy, and melt-in-your-mouth texture, now made with brown butter in both the cookie dough and the icing! Brown Butter Amish Sugar Cookies are next-level incredible, but no surprise there: brown butter makes everything better.
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Amish Sugar Cookies in original form were already an amazing cookie, but they’re completely transformed by the substitution of brown butter. Amish Sugar Cookies are given an upgrade, if that’s even possible! Brown butter is transformative to whatever it touches though, and these Brown Butter Amish Sugar Cookies are no exception.
These Brown Butter Amish Sugar Cookies are rich, buttery, fragrant, slightly nutty, a little caramel-like, and altogether have ultra-delicious taste. They have unmatched flavor, and still retain the wonderful, exceptional texture of original Amish Sugar Cookies: pillowy soft, thick and puffy, and 100% melt-in-your-mouth.
But now, their flavor is enhanced and overhauled. Brown butter is a miraculous thing. I’m very serious: miracle food. All you have to do is melt butter low-and-slow to the point where it turns golden brown and develops little brown flecks, and you’re basically looking at the 8th wonder of the world.
Who knew?? Whoever discovered brown butter is a genius. Surely it was an accidental discovery — someone meant to melt butter, and they just took it too far, but it turned out to be the best thing ever.
It’s hard to describe the essence of brown butter, but I guess it’s like caramelizing butter?? And imagine how wonderful that would taste. It’s epic.
If you have never tried brown butter, I implore you, you MUST. It’s magical and life-changing. Seriously! Start with these Brown Butter Amish Sugar Cookies. You’ll see what you’re missing, and you’ll never look back! You’ll want brown butter in and on everything. “Brown butter all-the-things,” you’ll say.
Another thing to love about these Brown Butter Amish Sugar Cookies is that they are made with common pantry ingredients. I mean, extremely common pantry ingredients. These cookies don’t call for anything that you don’t already have in your kitchen if you have simple baking staples on hand. Butter, sugar, flour, vanilla, eggs….
Oh… cream of tartar. That’s the only one that’s a little off the beaten path, but still an easy-to-find, accessible ingredient.
These Brown Butter Amish Sugar Cookies do have a few extra steps. They’re slightly high-maintenance and a little needy. They’re not difficult to make, but you have to brown butter twice — two separate batches, and you also have some chill time required, as well as bring-back-to-room-temperature time required.
I feel they are worth it to get the benefits of brown butter in both the cookie dough and the icing. But that’s me, I wanted brown butter everywhere. If you must simplify, then you can make classic Amish Sugar Cookies, which are supremely easy, and just top them with Brown Butter Frosting.
You’ll shave off a good bit of time if you don’t use brown butter for the sugar cookie dough, and you’ll still get lots of brown butter goodness with the icing alone.
But the Brown Butter Icing is essential. I’ve reached the point where I keep it on hand at all times, whether I need it or not. I can’t be without it. I freeze batches of it so that it’s on-hand “just in case” I want to douse something in it. Like animal crackers or Golden Oreos or glazed donuts or…. ANYTHING really.
Some of my favorite recipes with brown butter are these Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing, these Brown Sugar Maple Bacon Scones, these Zucchini Bars with Brown Butter Frosting, and these Brown Butter Spritz. I have used brown butter in soooo many other recipes though.
We are still polishing off this Pumpkin Zucchini Bread with Brown Butter Icing that I posted a few days ago, and holy moly, I can’t get enough. It’s fabulous.
As for Amish Sugar Cookies, I think y’all know the history by now, but a few years ago, they were love at first sight for me. In a magazine photo, they looked so puffy, pretty, and delicate. They were a hit from the first batch, and they became an instant classic. That’s very rare — I can’t think of many other recipes where I knew immediately that it was a classic at the outset.
In a few years time, I’ve made DOZENS of batches. Their texture is unparalleled, and they’re super, super easy to boot.
Besides all that, they just happen to be unbelievably versatile, perhaps one of the most versatile cookie recipes EVER, so they’re the perfect canvas for inventing new versions.
I’ll leave a list of the MANY versions right here for you:
- Iced Vanilla Amish Sugar Cookies
- Cherry Almond Amish Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate Cherry Amish Sugar Cookies
- Pecan Praline Amish Sugar Cookies
- Iced Maple Amish Sugar Cookies
- Pumpkin Spice Latte Amish Sugar Cookies
- Iced Chai-Spiced Amish Sugar Cookies
- Thin Crispy Amish Sugar Cookies
- Iced Almond Sugar Cookies
- Iced Lemon Amish Sugar Cookies
- Toasted Coconut Amish Sugar Cookies
- Coconut Oil Amish Sugar Cookies
- Peppermint Amish Sugar Cookies
- Butter Pecan Amish Sugar Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Amish Sugar Cookies
- Pistachio Coconut Amish Sugar Cookies
- Eggnog Amish Sugar Cookies
- Cranberry Orange Amish Sugar Cookies
Nice, huh?
Brown Butter Amish Sugar Cookies with Brown Butter Icing
Ingredients
For Brown Butter Amish Sugar Cookies:
- 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter cut into cubes
- 1 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. cream of tartar
- 1/4 tsp. salt
For Brown Butter Icing:
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter cut into cubes
- 3 - 4 cups powdered sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 - 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions
For Brown Butter Amish Sugar Cookies:
- Melt butter in a small saucepan over low-medium heat, stirring frequently, until it foams, the foam dissipates, it turns a deep golden brown, and develops brown flecks and a nutty fragrance, about 10 minutes or so. Toward the later stages, around the time it begins to foam, watch the brown butter very closely. It can go from 'brown' to 'burned' very quickly.
- Remove from heat, and cool for 10 minutes.
- Carefully transfer to a heatproof jar or bowl, making sure to get alllllll the particles and brown bits from the pan... these are important!
- Refrigerate brown butter until firm.
- Bring brown butter to room temperature... I know, I know.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the brown butter, oil, and sugars until combined.
- Beat in eggs and vanilla.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.
- In two additions, add flour mixture to the butter mixture, beating until just combined. Do not overmix. Dough will be thick and a little crumbly.
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets.
- Bake at 375 for 8-11 minutes, or until edges and bottoms are lightly browned.
- Remove to wire racks to cool completely.
For Brown Butter Icing:
- Following the same instructions above, brown the butter.
- Remove from heat, cool 2-3 minutes, and *carefully* transfer to a heatproof mixing bowl.
- Add 3 cups powdered sugar, salt, 1/4 cup heavy cream, and vanilla, and beat until smooth. The icing could appear to seize or separate at some point, but it just needs mixed thoroughly to emulsify it. Keep beating til smooth if you encounter texture issues -- it's not ruined, just needs a good mixing. Icing should be thin enough to spread, but not runny or drippy. Add additional milk or powdered sugar, as needed, to achieve desired consistency.
- Ice cookies, and allow to set.
- Store cookies in an airtight container with parchment paper or foil between layers of cookies. At room temperature, cookies will keep for 4-5 days. They'll keep for about a week if stored in the fridge. They freeze beautifully if well-wrapped!
Notes
Simply amazing, great utilization of resources.
Thank you for posting this!! My father in-law used to bring us these cookies from an Amish store when he went out of town for work. He would make a trip to our house just to drop them off to us. Sadly he passed away last Christmas. We have a ton of sweet memories including the cookie memory. I wanted desperately to learn how to make them for my kids but couldn’t find the right recipe until you posted. Thank you once again!
Awww, that’s such a nice memory. He sounded like a really wonderful man. I’m so glad you found a similar recipe so that you can replicate the cookies he used to bring you all. Hope you have a happy holiday season!
Oh my God – my family and I agree these are The Best Cookie we have ever tasted, We also like them frozen.
Omg, yayyyyyy!!! I’m SO SO happy to hear that! Anything you’d change? Anything you’d do differently or that didn’t work out? I love all things brown butter, and these are one of my very favorite cookies of all time, so I agree — such a hit. Happy holidays!
Hi! Wonderful cookie. What is the nutrition?
Hi there! Unfortunately, I don’t know! I am in the process of adding a nutrition calculator to my site, but it may be another month or two. I apologize for the inconvenience. There are calculators online that you could use for the meantime!!
I just asked you about a brown butter version, and here it is! Can’t wait to make them. I just discovered brown butter this summer, and now ALL the things must have it!
Thanks,
Sharon
Omg, I know, I totally agree! Brown butter is nectar of the gods!!! I will say that it’s a good bit of work to do brown butter for BOTH the cookies and the frosting too. If you decide to cut a corner, it’s much more return on your time to do the brown butter icing than brown butter for the cookies too. Just a heads up! But I adore these cookies through and through, and it doesn’t change the texture. Good luck!