Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

My new baby… Isn’t it beautiful? 🙂
This past week has been very long and tiring but also pretty awesome. It was the week I turned 21! I celebrated with family and friends with great food and lots of presents, I’ve been so spoilt! As you can see, from my parents I got a beautiful pink Kitchenaid mixer… I have wanted one of these for about the past three years now and I was so super excited when I ripped off the wrapping paper to discover my new mixer! It was a dream to use, and I managed to make some pretty good brown butter chocolate chip cookies. I also got a lot of other baking essentials (and accessories!) which I used to produce the cookies as well. Even though a Kitchenaid is a big investment in New Zealand, it is definitely worth it. Just look at how creamy that batter is!

There’s the browned butter in the other bowl!I found this recipe on Baking the Goods and the sea salt really makes the cookies special, don’t skip it out! Also, with the first batch I put in the oven, I did forget to put the sea salt on the top and got the cookies out of the oven after about a minute to do it and then they melted quite a lot and stuck together a bit so… Don’t do that! The second batch turned out much better, as you can see! The recipe is also below, it makes a great change from the typical chocolate chip cookie, so give it a whirl! Happy baking!

 

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

230g butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 cup sugar

2 tspns vanilla extract

1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tspn salt

1 tspn baking soda

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (bittersweet works best)

1 Tspn coarse sea salt for sprinkling

 

Directions

1. Brown 125g of butter in a medium sized pan over medium heat. Allow the butter to melt completely Just before it starts to brown it will begin to foam up. Slowly whisk or swirl the butter until it begins to turn a warm chestnut colour, tiny brown flecks start to form on the bottom of the pan. Be careful to just brown the butter and not burn it. Once you’ve browned the butter pour it into a bowl and allow to cool, generally this is quicker by sticking it in the fridge.
2. In your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the rest of the butter with the brown sugar and regular sugar. Mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat until incorporated. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically.
3. Slowly add the brown butter, you don’t want the brown butter too warm or it will melt the sugars prematurely and make for thin cookies. Mix on medium speed for another 2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl.
4. Carefully add the egg and egg yolk and mix for another minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl thoroughly.
5. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Add the dry mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low until the flour is just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula or wooden spoon.
6. Cover and chill the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. You must not skip this step, if the dough is too warm the cookies will spread like thin crepes. Once the cookies have chilled, preheat the oven to 180°C. Line baking sheets with baking paper and roll a generous spoonful of dough into balls of dough to place on the trays. Place round 5cm apart and sprinkle each ball with sea salt.
7. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, depending on the size of dough balls. Rotate the trays halfway through.
8. Let cool for a couple minutes and transfer to cooling racks. If you like extra salt, add a little now while the chocolate is warm and melty.
9. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days. You can also refrigerate the dough for up to 5 days and bake more as needed.