I don’t remember the first time I heard of browned butter anything.
It’s one of those fads that has slowly crept up on us and it feels like, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you have to know about it. It’s like approaching the old news category now.
I felt like this until I made these the other day and my whole family gave me the blank-eyed stare that says “I don’t speak food blogger gibberish.” when I told them what they were. Yeah, so I figured if there are so many people in my own family that are clueless as to the power that transforming a simple ingredient like butter has on the flavor of a chocolate chip cookie then there are probably some of my readers in the dark too. That’s just not happening.
I may not remember first hearing of it but I do remember the first time that I tried making browned butter cookies and how skeptical I was at first. I thought it was all just a hype over nothing and the cookies would be virtually the same either way, but boy was I wrong. It takes the already perfected chocolate chip cookie to a whole other level of amazing. It’s like adding caramel without actually adding caramel. Basically, just wow.
I used my mom’s classic chocolate chip cookie recipe with a little bit of my own adaptations. Oh, and speaking of adaptations, I wrote this recipe with 2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons of butter in it because that’s the size our butter comes in in Chile. 250 gram squares that do not at all resemble the shape of butter I used growing up in the States. I’m convinced that whoever decided to use different systems of measurement in different countries was trying to ruin our lives. If you’ve made many of my recipes then you’ll notice I do that sometimes.
I switch back and forth, depending on the recipe , between using the equivalent of 2 sticks and just using the whole thing to make things easier. It’s pretty hard to ruin something by adding a bit of extra butter and I usually don’t see much difference. However, with this recipe I think that little bit extra just makes these cookies that much better because more brown butter can only equal more awesomeness, right?
Sorry, that was a lot of words to use apologizing for the randomness of 2 tablespoons worth of butter. I feel like Paula Dean today, hold on, let me add a little butter, Y’all. Love her.
So here’s the bottom line. If you’ve never tried browned butter in cookies then you need to make these to understand any of what I just said. Now, don’t down them the way my brothers do without even tasting them. Savor each bite and just try not to break into spontaneous song. Just really take it all in.
You need to make them anyway but now you have an excuse to thoroughly “test” them out. That way, when someone asks you if you really intend to eat a fifth one, you can blame me and say “Tori said I needed to try these.”
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks) plus 2 tablespoons
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups(350g) semi-sweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F (180 C) and melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until butter is a deep golden brown, it should take about 10 minutes. Pour into bowl of stand mixer or large mixing bowl and allow to cool while you gather other ingredients.
- Add sugar and mix together until sugar is creamed in.
- Scrape sides of bowl, then add eggs while stirring and mix until combined. Add vanilla, soda, and salt. Add flour one cup at a time and beat after each addition. Stir in chocolate (if dough is still very warm you may need to cool a bit longer before adding to prevent it from melting) and line a cookie sheet with parchment.
- Roll into golf-sized balls and place about 2 inches apart on baking sheet. Press them down to flatten them out. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes until edges start to turn golden brown. Remove from oven and cool for about 5 minutes before moving to cooling rack.
Notes
This dough can be a bit dry to work with. If it is too crumbly to roll into balls, try adding a few more tablespoons of butter until it stays together better.
