these are an all time favourite from my pre-vegan times. it’s a recipe from Orangette “brown butter cookies”. quite frankly i’m not sure if browning the earth balance did much, but these cookies are still sooooo good.

COOKIES

1 c. cold earth balance butter sticks, cut up

3/4 c. sugar

2 tsp good vanilla (if there were ever a time for quality vanilla, it is now)

2 c. flour

1 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1/3 c. not-too-sweet jam

in a saucepan melt butter over medium heat. stir frequently and wait until it takes on a golden colour (10 minutes-ish). remove from heat and place the pot in a sink filled with a few inches of cold water. cool for 5 minutes. take your pot out of the sink, and stir in the sugar and vanilla. mix dry ingredients and incorporate into mixture. split it up into 2 and wrap in plastic. let sit overnight (or a couple hours). bring back to room temp and get ready to shape your cookies.

preheat oven to 325.

this part is time consuming so have a nice set-up. rum and soy nog, a good record. take a bit of dough and press it into the bowl of a teaspoon (try to use one that has a deep bowl), flatten the bottom and slide it out of the spoon. then i clean up the edge of the cookies with the blunt part of the spoon. place flat side down on a parchment lined baking sheet. bake until just golden around the edges, for about 12 minutes, turning the pan halfway. cool completely.

while the cookies are baking, heat jam in a small saucepan. any jam is good but i like to use raspberry. it’s nice to use something tart to cut the richness of the cookies. if you only have a sweeter jam, add a squeeze of lemon and zest it. cook on low until it goes runny then take it off the heat. pour jam through a fine sieve to remove seeds and let cool.

once everything is cool, assemble the cookies. put 1 heaped tsp of jam on the flat side of half the cookies, then top with the other half. press together so the jam spreads between the cookies. let set. eat!