Back in December, the Bramble Berry Office celebrated the holidays with our annual cookie swap. Each person brought in a batch of cookies, and we filled small boxes with everybody’s cookies to take home. It was a fun, sugar-filled day. I crashed by about 2 p.m. after having cookies for breakfast and lunch. I finally had some “real food” around 3 that day and felt a little better! =)

While I’m as much a fan of fudge and gingerbread men as the next person (and for the record, hold the nuts in the fudge), I wanted to bake something a little different. The inclusion of basil in this Brown Butter & Basil Shortbread recipe from Joanne Eats Well With Others was ridiculously intriguing. I changed the recipe a teensy bit (brown sugar instead of traditional sugar) and the revised recipe did not disappoint; it was salty and not too sweet while still having the wonderfully dense mouth-feel of shortbread. Everybody at the cookie swap loved these buttery, basil-flavored cookies. They are not your average cookie and elevate simple shortbread to a foodie’s delight.

They’d be great to take to any upcoming Super Bowl parties! (Yes, the 12th Man lives here. Go Hawks!)

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