Known in our family as Melt-in-your-Mouths, these “thin, crisp, brown sugar cookies” are my absolute favorites. This cherished recipe originated with my maternal grandmother (aka Grandmommy) who passed it down to my mother and now on to me and my siblings. After some research it appears that Grandmommy got the recipe from the December 1964 issue of Woman’s Day Magazine, though it’s entirely possible that she started making them earlier, perhaps after seeing them in the December 1953 issue.

Melt-in-the-Mouth Cookies

Makes about 5 dozen (each cookie has about 40 calories and 0.5 g of protein)

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup (90 g) flour
• 1 tsp (4 g) baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt (3 g) or 3/4 tsp (4.5 g) if using unsalted butter)
• 1 stick (113 g) soft salted butter (do not microwave/melt)
• 1 cup packed light (aka golden) brown sugar (if brown sugar is fresh & moist use 220 g; if old & dry use 190 g plus 30 grams or 2 tbsp of water)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (60 g) finely chopped pecans (or walnuts)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F (205°C)
2. Sift together into bowl and reserve: flour, baking powder, and salt
3. Put soft butter in large bowl of mixer
4. Add brown sugar, egg, and vanilla extract
5. Beat with mixer until mixture is light and fluffy
6. Beat in flour mixture with mixer, blending until smooth
7. Stir in nuts
8. Drop by scant measuring-teaspoonfuls (about 2 inches apart, resulting in a 4×6 grid of about 24) onto ungreased cookie sheets (many people recommend using parchment paper for easier removal)
9. Bake about 5 minutes (keep a close eye on them through the oven door with the light on, remove when a majority of the cookies’ gooey centers have dropped)
10. Cool for a minute or two
11. Remove carefully to wire racks (using a flat spatula)
12. Store in an airtight container (separating each layer of cookies with wax paper)

Future Things to Try

• Compare a batch made with baking powder alone, with baking soda alone, with some combination of both
• Per Christina Tosi: use unsalted, cultured European-style butter (e.g. Plugra)
• Also per Christina Tosi: cream the butter, brown sugar, and vanilla together for 10 minutes (in a stand mixer, which I do not own), then add the egg at the end—technically this technique helps build volume, so maybe this is a bad idea for Melt-in-the-Mouths (from the Milk Bar Bake Sale episode of The Chef Show with Jon Favreau and Roy Choi, Season 2 – Volume 1 and Momofuku Milk Bar’s Christina Tosi shares her cookie tips)
• Make my own light brown sugar using 1 cup (200 g) of white granulated sugar and 1 tbsp (20 g) of molasses.

Bonus: Melt-in-the-Mouth Cookies “for Engineers!”

(courtesy of my father)