While I spent much of lockdown baking my way through my carefully curated chocolate chip cookie compendium, I am aware that everyone has their own personal texture, flavour and size preference for what they consider to be THE ultimate recipe. The pressure is real.
These cookies began their life as a version of the Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies from an earlier blog post. I have been experimenting with brown butter recently and all the incredible nutty flavour undertones and buttery richness it adds to both savoury and sweet dishes. So it seemed obvious when thinking about a new cookie recipe to switch out the olive oil for brown butter. The added bonus is that it also eliminates the traditional creaming of the butter and the sugar required for most recipes, making this a one bowl, mixer free recipe.
If you decide to skip the browning butter stage (which I would not recommend), only use 185g of room temperature butter in the recipe and cream it with the sugars before adding the eggs and the dry ingredients. When butter is browned, the water content evaporates, thus reducing the final weight included in the cookie mixture.
In my endless endeavour to find uses for odd bits of flour, I discovered this recipe can handle a little experimentation. Feel free to add 60g of wholemeal flour to the mix, reducing the amount of plain flour by the same amount. The strong/bread flour creates a more stable mixture thanks to the higher gluten content. If you are not part of the current home bread making brigade and do not have any to hand, fear not, these work with all plain flour, but the mixture will be a little softer and the cookies may spread a tad more when cooking.
Feel free to jhuzz up this recipes with toasted almonds, pecans or salted peanuts for crunch. Alternatively for a double chocolate version, replace 40g of flour with 40g of cocoa powder.
The resting time in the fridge is essential here for maximum flavour and cookie shape success. This is a soft mixture which needs time to firm up, limiting their spread when they hit the heat of the oven. The time also allows the flavours to develop for maximum deliciousness.
As we approach warmer weather and sunnier days I feel it is my duty to make you aware that these are the ideal cookie for an ice cream sandwich – the fall back dessert for any al fresco meal. One recipe, many uses. The dream.
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 225g (8oz) salted butter (reduced to 185g (6.5oz) browned butter)
- 160g (1 1/4 cups) plain flour
- 120g (1 cup) strong white flour (bread flour)
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1tsp maldon salt
- 150g (3/4 cup) light brown soft sugar
- 150g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 300g chopped dark chocolate in good sized pieces or chocolate calettes (chunks are good in the cookies)
- Start with browning the butter (this can be done in advance and kept in the fridge). Cut the butter into equal sized pieces and place in a small-ish saucepan on a medium heat. Swirl intermittently and wait for it to bubble and foam (it will tripple in height). When the foam subsides it will reveal a walnut coloured caramel colour with the solids at the bottom of the pan. The butter is browned, be careful not to let it burn at this stage. Pour the browned butter into a small bowl or jar on a scale – it should now weigh 185g.
- In a medium sized bowl, combine the flours, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt. Lightly mix together with a whisk or a fork to combine.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugars, browned butter and eggs until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and whisk a few more times.
- Pour in the flour mixture and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon in one direction until it is a smooth mixture.
- Add the chocolate.
- Cover and allow the mixture to sit in the fridge for at least 3 hours or overnight to harden. It will happily sit in the fridge for up to 3 days so you do not need to bake them all at once.
- When you are ready to cook, preheat your oven to 170C (325F)
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment and scoop the cookies either with an ice cream scoop (I use a 5cm one) or simply roll them in your hands into ping pong ball size. Make sure they are well spaced out on the baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes. They will still be soft but golden on top, so be careful not to overbake. They will harden as they cool. Cool on the sheets for 10 minutes and then remove to a rack to continue cooling.
Have you made this dish?
Let me know what you think, share your efforts and any tweaks you made to the recipe on Instagram, don’t forget to tag #BuildingFeasts or email me on info@buildingfeasts.com
