Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Crisp edges, chewy insides, puddles of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and a sea salt topping – plus nutty, caramel notes from the browned butter. These chocolate chip cookies are what dreams are made of!
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups (286g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter (2 sticks)*
- 1½ cups (300g) packed brown sugar**
- ¼ cup (48g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 additional egg yolk, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon (15g) plain Greek yogurt***
- 1½ cups (255g/9oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips****
- Maldon or other flaky sea salt, for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Brown the butter: Add the butter to a saucepan and place over medium heat. (Helpful hint: A light-colored pan is helpful. Otherwise, it will be difficult to tell when the butter is done.) The butter will begin to crackle and eventually foam. Whisk constantly during this process. After a few minutes, the butter will begin to turn a golden amber color. Remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown (see photos) and give off a nutty aroma and immediately transfer to a heat-proof bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool.
- With an electric mixer, beat the brown butter and sugars until well combined, about 1 minute. (No mixer? Thanks to the melted butter, you could mix this batter by hand.)
- Beat in the egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and yogurt.
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients (I do this in two additions) and beat on low speed just until combined.
- Add the chocolate chips and mix on low speed until incorporated. Or fold the chips in by hand.
- Refrigerate the dough for 10 minutes and then roll into 24 balls (I use 2 heaping tablespoons/48 grams dough per ball). Cover and refrigerate the dough balls for at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours. (Helpful hint: Refrigerating up to a few days is fine and the dough balls freeze well too.) Do not rush this process. The dough must chill to be perfect.
- Once the dough is chilled, preheat the oven to 350℉ and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart.
- Bake 9-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. (When making gluten-free cookies, I’ve cooked up to 12 minutes.)
- Remove from oven, sprinkle cookies with sea salt, and cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
*If using salted butter, omit the ½ teaspoon salt in the batter but keep the sea salt topping.
**For a stronger molasses flavor, Steve uses dark brown sugar. I use, and many of the taste testers preferred, light brown sugar. Visually, the light brown sugar produces a more traditional looking cookies, while the darker variety does deepen the color of the cookies.
***Why Greek yogurt? The acid in the yogurt activates the baking soda, resulting in a moister cookie with nice, crinkly tops. No yogurt? I’ve subbed sour cream with good results.
****Dark or milk chocolate chips may be used for half of the semi-sweet chips. Also, note that a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe (like Tollhouse) has 2 cups chocolate chips. These cookies do not feel lacking, but if you prefer more chips, you may add accordingly.
Prefer smaller cookies? For a yield of 36, roll two tablespoons (not heaped) or 32 grams of dough per cookie.
Gluten-free adaptation: To virtually eliminate any grainy texture or "gluten-free" flavor, I replace one-quarter of the GF cup-for-cup flour with super fine almond flour. This translates to 1½ cups + 3 tablespoons (214g) GF flour and ½ cup + 1 tablespoon (63g) super fine almond flour.
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