Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

These brown butter chocolate chip cookies are the perfect elevated chocolate chip cookie with a toffee flavor coming through from the brown butter, and a lightly crisp edge and gooey center. Top it with some flaked sea salt and you'll never look back.

HOW TO BROWN BUTTER

Browning butter may sound like a daunting task to someone who’s never done it before, but it’s not hard at all. And I promise once you try it and smell it you’ll never want it another way again. 

Put 1 cup of butter (2 sticks) in a large saucepan over medium heat. You are going to want to stir it at first while it melts, then let it go past boiling, and past foaming, til it turns a nice golden brown with a nutty smell. Make sure you are keeping an eye on it because it goes from the perfect brown to burnt fairly quickly. 

Once you have finished browning the butter, pour all of it, even the brown bits on the bottom, into a glass bowl. Put into the fridge and let it solidify until it is a nice soft butter. This should take about an hour.

HOW TO MAKE BROWN BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1. Place browned butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes.
2. Add eggs one at a time, mix until smooth on low speed, anout 30 seconds each egg. Beat in the vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt. And flour mixture to bowl and mix on low, being careful not to overmix. I usually like to stop mixing when I still have flour remnants around the bowl. Fold in chocolate chunks, saving a handful to stick on top of the dough balls.
4. Scoop the dough into large balls. I like to use a ¼ cup cookie scoop. At this point I usually like to chill my dough for a few hours.
5. Place 8 cookie balls on your baking sheet. Bake the cookies for 13-15 minutes. You're looking for a nice golden brown outside rim.
6. Sprinkle with a little flaked salt if you like that kind of thing. You know I do.

TIPS FOR MAKING THESE BROWN BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

• Allow butter to solidify again. This will help to keep the texture intact as you make the cookie dough. When its still a liquid it makes the dough feel a lot more crumbly.
• Chill the dough. I know it can be hard to have to wait for the cookie dough to chill, but it makes a difference in the spreading of the dough. This helps them to keep there shape better.
• Use chocolate bars. Chocolate bars cut into chunks are so wonderful to use in cookies because there are no stabilizers in chocolate bars, therefore they are able to melt. Chocolate chips are meant to hold their shape, so they don't allow for melty chocolate puddles like in the pictures of these cookies.
• Bake cookies on parchment paper. Parchment paper also helps cookies from spreading, and helps cookies to bake more evenly.

FREEZING THE DOUGH AND/OR COOKIES

I love having frozen cookie dough balls ready to bake at anytime in my freezer. To do this, just chill the cookie dough as mentioned above in individual balls. When totally cold, place however many dough balls you don't want to bake into a ziplock bag. Label the bag with the name, temperature and bake time so you don't need to look it up later. Then when you just want a few cookies, bake as directed. No need to alter the temperature, or the bake time.

These cookies can also be frozen after baked. Just make sure they have come to room temperature so that the chocolate doesn't get all over each of the cookies. They can be stored in an air tight container for a few months, not that they'll last that long.

OTHER BROWN BUTTER RECIPES TO TRY:

Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Brown Butter Salted Toffee Blondies

Carrot Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

For more yummy treats follow me on instagram @thesaltedsweets. And be sure to tag me and comment below if you make them and love them as much as I do.