brown butter cadbury mini egg cookies

With one week to go, it's time to debate who wins the title of the best Easter candy.  For me, it's a close call between the Cadbury Creme Egg or the Cadbury Mini Eggs, but the Mini Eggs are winning by a small margin.  The Mini Eggs are down right dangerous to have around the house.  I've noticed that Cadbury has come out with a variety of flavors, but the classic milk chocolate is the way to go.  I'm a huge dark chocolate fan and I was so excited to see a dark chocolate version of this favorite, but it just wasn't the same.  The pastel candy shell just doesn't work as well with the dark chocolate, in my humble opinion, so I'm sticking with the classic.

With mini-eggs on the brain, I couldn't help but jump on the bandwagon of smashing them to add into baked goods.  You don't have to look far on the internet these days to find these little darlings crushed up into cookies, cupcakes, brownies and more. Their pretty pastel colors add a festive Easter decor to your treats and the milk chocolate center is rich and creamy.  This week, I made a brown butter cookie recipe to add to your Easter menu and these came out soooo good.  One of my favorites.  I can't eat just one.  I used to hear about browning butter and wonder why I would want to add yet another step to baking cookies...until I tried it.  I'm sure there is a fancy chemistry explanation that I'm not aware of, but my version of the argument for taking the extra few minutes to brown some butter in the recipe is super simple: it packs flavor.  It kicks the buttery flavor in the cookies up a notch and it's. so. worth. it.

Whip up a batch of these festive Easter cookies to throw on the Easter buffet table and enjoy!

Brown Butter Cadbury Mini-egg Cookies
(makes approx. 2 1/2 dozen cookies)

Ingredients
-1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-1 cup sugar
-2 eggs
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-2 cups flour
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-1 cup smashed Cadbury Mini-eggs

Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Add 1/4 cup of the butter to a small pot and place on medium heat. Stir regularly until melted and continuously stir once it begins bubbling.  Within 2-3 minutes you should see the butter turning brown in color and see brown bits form at the bottom of the pan.  Once this occurs, remove from heat and stir again for 30 seconds to a minute and it's ready to use.

In a large bowl of a stand mixer, add the 1/4 cup brown butter, the 1/4 cup regular butter, the brown sugar and white sugar.  Cream together on low to medium speed.  Add in the 2 eggs, vanilla and continue to mix until incorporated.  In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.  With the mixer on low, slowly pour dry ingredients into bowl with the wet ingredients and stir until a cookie dough forms.  Place the Cadbury Mini-eggs into a freezer bag and use a rolling pin to smash them into smaller pieces (this part is fun!). Fold the crushed up chocolate eggs into the cookie dough.

Using a mini-scooper or small spoon, scoop the dough onto a parchment paper lined baking tray and bake at 350 degrees for 11-12 minutes.  Allow to cool on the pan for a couple of minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling. Let everyone in your family have one and then hide the rest!