Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from Tasty

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough January 21, 2025 from Tasty 

1 cup bread flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons kosher salt or 1 1/2 teaspoons table salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup unsalted butter

2 tablespoons water, room temperature

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon espresso powder

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

5 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

1. In a medium bowl, sift bread flour, all-purpose flour, salt and baking soda.
2. In a medium saucepan, add the butter and melt over medium heat. Bring butter to a boil, stirring constantly, until milk solids brown and a nutty aroma ensues. Once butter has browned, remove from heat and pour into a heatproof measuring cup. Allow it to cool for 1-2 minutes, stir then carefully add 2-3 tablespoons water to bring butter up to 1 cup (240 ml) liquid. Cool to room temperature.
3. In the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together cooled browned butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla and espresso powder until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes.
4. Add egg and egg yolk, beating until incorporated.
5. Add the dry ingredients, 1/3 of the mixture at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition until just combined. Fold chocolate chips and chunks into the dough.
6. Portion dough into golf-ball size balls. Cover and chill for 1-2 hours or overnight.
7. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space chilled dough balls.  Bake 12-14 minutes until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Remove from heat and let rest on baking sheets for several minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Someone commented on my blog and provided this recipe for chocolate chip cookies that they highly recommended. So of course I had to try it. Fortunately I was also going to a quilting lesson (quilting, my new hobby obsession) and had a group of quilting friends to help me taste test this recipe.

This recipe has all the ingredients and process for rich, chewy cookies with crisp edges. Using melted brown butter contributes to a richer flavor and more crisp edges. Water evaporates when you brown the butter so this recipe calls for adding water to bring it back to its original, pre-browning volume. Bread flour adds to the chewiness, dark brown sugar add a richer molasses/caramel flavor and the additional egg yolk also adds to the richness of the cookies. The espresso powder brings out the chocolate and chilling the dough overnight (highly recommended) concentrates the flavor.

You can tell from the pictures that these cookies delivered on all the ingredients promised. Those crinkly edges can be achieved by banging the baking sheet halfway during baking to cause the ripple effect but with this recipe, no pan-banging is needed to achieve this look. The darker color comes from both the caramelization and the espresso powder.

And the flavor was indeed richly chocolate-chippy with that brown sugar caramelization. The only thing I think I did "wrong" or could've done better was I didn't let the browned butter cool completely before using it. I was pressed for time to finish making the dough before I had to leave for my volunteer shift at the food bank so the butter was still somewhat lukewarm before I started mixing the dough together.

Which is why (I think) the cookies spread a bit more than I would prefer as the dough was a bit soft when I finished mixing it. It didn't affect the flavor though and this still delivered rich, buttery cookies. My quilting group enjoyed them as well so this recipe delivered.