Brown Butter Malted Cadbury Egg Cookies

If you follow me on Insta Stories, you may have seen the poll I asked a few weeks ago on whether Peeps or Mini Cadbury Eggs are the superior Easter candy. I was actually shocked to find out some of you voted for Peeps! What?! To be honest, I'm not a fan but to each his own! As evidenced by these cookies, I'm obviously a fan of the eggs. Normally I prefer dark chocolate but I think it's the crisp, vanilla-flavored candy shell that gets me. And the softest pastel hues. The blue ones are my favorite. It's also kind of a nostalgic candy for me, too. It was always my favorite thing in my Easter basket, even more than the giant chocolate bunny and those little bubble gum eggs that came in a mini egg carton. Remember those?? Did you guys get Easter baskets growing up?

This recipe is basically the same as my Malted Butterscotch Chip Cookies with mini cadbury eggs swapped in for the chips! Oh, and brown butter. If you've never browned butter before, what are you doing with your life? You've been cheating yourself of some serious flavor. In French, brown butter is known as 'beurre noisette', literally translating to 'hazelnut butter'. When butter is browned, the milk solids toast and caramelize and take on a rich, toasty nutty flavor, hence hazelnut butter. It's the easiest thing to do and the perfect way to instantly add more flavor to most things calling for butter. An excellent application: cookies. And these cookies, in particular! Brown butter, malted milk powder, and those little creamy cadbury eggs create the most addictive cookie. Enjoy!

makes about 3 dozen cookies

1 c + 2 T butter (2 sticks + 2 T) unsalted butter*, roughly cubed
2 c brown sugar
1/2 c granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 t vanilla extract
3 c all purpose flour
3/4 c malted milk powder
1 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t Himalayan pink salt
1 10 oz bag mini cadbury eggs, roughly chopped
flaky sea salt for topping

brown the butter
In a small saucepan over medium heat, add the cubed butter and allow to melt then continue to let it cook, swirling the pan often to ensure even browning, until the butter bubbles and foams and settles into a deep golden color and gives off a nutty aroma. Do not walk away from this! Perfectly browned butter turns into bitter, burnt butter in a heartbeat. Immediately remove from heat and pour into a bowl to cool slightly. Be sure to scrape all the brown bits from the bottom of the pan, too! Those are little flavor bombs.

make the dough
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat sugars and butter together on medium-high speed for about 2-3 minutes, until light and fluffy and pale in color. Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, malted milk powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl and set aside. Scrape down the bowl and beat the eggs in one at a time. Add the vanilla and mix to combine. Slowly add in the dry ingredients until just combined. Stir the the cadbury eggs in by hand. This is a very thick cookie dough so don't worry if you gotta use some elbow grease to stir in the cadbury eggs!

bake the cookies
Preheat the oven to 350 °F. While the oven is preheating, use an ice cream scoop or two large spoons and drop 1 inch balls onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet, leaving about a 2 inch border between balls. Sprinkle each a pinch of flaky sea salt. Bake cookies for about 10-12 minutes, until golden brown and tops are slightly crackly.

*Notes:
The extra two tablespoons of butter sounds fussy but it's necessary because a certain percentage of moisture is lost in the process of the butter being browned so the extra butter ensures you end up with moist cookies! No one wants a dry cookie.