Chocolate Chip Cookies (Baker by Nature)

Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough July 4, 2019 from Baker by Nature

Another chocolate chip cookie recipe. Yes, I know, I make them a lot. But my sister is a realtor and was holding an Open House last weekend and asked if I could bake cookies for it. I was happy to, as it let me test out another recipe. Since I started working remotely, I didn't have my coworkers anymore to eat my baking experiments. Fine, I'll use random strangers looking to buy a new home instead.

However, since these were for the consuming public, I couldn't default to my usual, let's-make-cookies-as-big-as-my-head size of cookies. These were meant to be dainty samples to be welcoming at an Open House. So I made these a "normal" size. Meaning small dough balls baking into small cookies.

This recipe’s approach to chocolate chip cookies combines the flavor of brown butter with the consistency of solidified butter. Most browned butter recipes have you using the browned butter in melted form as the base of the batter. This one has you brown the butter then chill it until it’s solidified but at “room temperature” or softened. So you will need to plan ahead for a little extra chilling time.

Since I have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, I didn’t worry too much about chilling only until the butter was in the softened state since the paddle attachment could beat the butter into submission if I chilled it too much. 

The cookies were pretty good. The deck was slightly stacked against them though since my usual preference was for behemoth-sized cookies made with milk chocolate chunks or chips. Since these were going to feed strangers at an Open House, I made them smaller and used semisweet chocolate chips. But once I got past that, the cookie itself was moist, had a chewy texture and that caramelized brown sugar caramel flavor of a good chocolate chip cookie.

1 cup (2 sticks or 16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and browned then chilled until room temperature
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup + 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips or chunks

1. Brown the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, cooking for 3-4 minutes until butter has browned. Pour into a heatproof bowl (I used the mixing bowl of my stand mixer), scraping all the browned bits into the bowl. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for 1 hour, or until the butter has solidified.
2. In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt;set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream browned butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla until combined, light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating for 15 seconds after each addition. 
4. Remove bowl from mixer and fold in dry ingredients, mixing with a wooden spoon until the flour has been incorporated. Add chocolate chips. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill for several hours.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space dough balls onto prepared baking sheet. Bake for 9 - 10 minutes or until edges are golden and middles are no longer raw or shiny. Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.