Brown Butter Sea Salt Cookies
Inspired by the great Chris Morocco from Bon Appetit, this recipe will satisfy your chocolate cravings and more so.
This recipe tastes a bit too good to be true or convince your family that you in fact made it. It has a toffee almost caramel flavour from the brown butter, a chewy inside from the brown sugar and can be a great base for any type of cookie you want to make!
Ingredients:
1½ cups (200 g) all-purpose flour (spooning into measuring cups, then leveling)
¾ tsp. (4 g) kosher salt
¾ tsp. (4 g) baking soda
¾ cup (1 stick; 169 g) unsalted butter, divided
1 cup (200 g) (packed) dark brown sugar
¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 tsp. vanilla extract
6 oz. (170 g) bittersweet chocolate (60%–70% cacao), coarsely chopped (could also use semisweet chocolate chips, nuts, candy etc.)
Method:
Place racks in upper and lower thirds of oven; preheat to 375°. Whisk flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl; set aside.
Cook ½ cup (1 stick; 113 g) butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, swirling often and scraping the bottom of the pan with a heatproof rubber spatula, until butter foams, then browns, about 4 minutes. Transfer butter to a large heatproof bowl and let cool for 1 minute. Cut remaining ¼ cup (½ stick; 56 g) butter into small pieces and add to brown butter (it should start to melt but not foam and sizzle, so test with one piece before adding the rest).
Once butter is melted, add both sugars and whisk, breaking up any clumps, until sugar is incorporated and no lumps remain. Add egg and egg yolks and whisk until sugar dissolves and mixture is smooth, about 30 seconds. Whisk in vanilla.
Using a rubber spatula, fold reserved dry ingredients into butter mixture just until no dry spots remain, then fold in chocolate (you can fold in anything you wish, just make sure it is the last step you do before the oven)
The dough will be soft but should hold its shape once scooped; if it slumps or oozes after being scooped, stir dough back together several times and let rest 5–10 minutes until scoops hold their shape as the flour hydrates. Additionally, for a better flavor, refrigerate the dough for at least 10 hours and up to 2 days.
Using a 2-oz. scoop (4 tbsp or around 58g), portion out 16 balls of dough and divide between 2 parchment-lined rimmed baking sheets. Bake cookies, rotating sheets if cookies are browning very unevenly (otherwise, just leave them alone), until deep golden brown and firm around the edges, 10–12 minutes. Let cool on baking sheets.
I usually bake my cookies for about anywhere between 11-14 minutes. it's usually easier to set a timer and keeping an eye on them. Once the cookies have become golden around the sides and are starting to get some colour on the top, i usually take them out not shortly after as they will continue to bake on the hot sheet.
All cookies will be very soft when you take them out of the oven, but make sure that they are put to cool on a wire rack. After 10 minutes, move to a plate. You don't want to put them directly on a plate because the condensation from the hot cookie will make it soggy and not crispy.
Enjoy alone or with ice-cream