The addition of browned butter in these brown butter chocolate chunk cookies adds notes of toffee and butterscotch. They're thick and chewy with chocolate in each bite.
There are a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes out there, but I'm adding my own into the mix. Every baking blog needs one I think, and since this one is still new, why not start with a recipe for one! This isn't just an ordinary chocolate chip cookie either. The addition of browned butter takes it to a whole other level of flavour.
It's a simple cookie recipe though, even with the browned butter. All it takes is a little extra melting time.
Browned Butter
First, let's brown the butter. I use a saucepan for this, as the wider circumference of the pan allows the butter to brown a little faster.
When you brown butter, you simply melt and continue to gently heat it until the milk solids in the butter start to caramelise. It adds wonderful butterscotch-caramel notes to the butter.
Just heat it gently and slowly, for around 6-7 minutes. You'll see the milk solids split away from the butter fat. The solids will sink to the bottom of the pan and these are what will caramelise. Keep stirring and don't let it burn, you just want it to be a dark amber colour. As it's cooking, you will smell the change in the butter. Sweet and nutty.
Once browned, pour the butter into a mixing bowl and allow it to cool slightly.
Cookie dough
To the cooled butter, add in brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla extract, and egg and whisk it well together.
In a seperate bowl, stir together flour, corn starch, salt and baking soda so it's well combined with no clumps. Tip this into the wet mixture and stir well.
Chocolate Chunks
For these cookies I like to chop up a good quality dark chocolate into big chunks and use those, as opposed to smaller chocolate chips. This is a personal preference though and you can use chocolate chips if you wish.
Chilling and Baking
Now the dough needs to chill. This is important because there's a fair bit of melted butter in the mixture so it needs to solidify again before being rolled into balls. Chill it for a minimum of 2 hours, or up to two days.
Once chilled, take the dough from the refrigerator and scoop out around 2 tablespoons of dough for each cookie. Place the dough balls on a lined cookie tray, spaced at least 3cm apart from each other as they'll spread in the oven.
The unbaked dough balls can also frozen for future baking.
Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes until golden brown. As the cookies are removed from the oven you'll see they're still soft. Give the pan a whack down on the bench to flatten the cookies a bit and let them cool a little before removing them from the tray
Have you made these brown butter chocolate chunk cookies? Tag me and let me know! @home_grown_happinessnz
Browned Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- 175 grams butter
- 260 grams all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt increase to ½ teaspoon if using unsalted butter
- 100 grams soft brown sugar
- 100 grams granulated white sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 180 grams good quality dark chocolate or use chocolate chips
Instructions
- Heat a saucepan over low-medium heat and add in the butter. Let it heat it gently and slowly, for around 6-7 minutes, stirring regulary. The milk solids will settle to the bottom of the pan and start to brown. Let it cook until the milks solids become a dark amber colour, but don't let it burn. Once melted, pour the butter into a mixing bowl and let it cool slightly.
- In a seperate bowl, stir together the flour, cornstarch, salt and baking soda until there are no clumps. Set it aside.
- To the cooled butter, add the sugars, egg and vanilla and whisk it well together. Add in the flour mixture and stir well to combine.
- Chop the chocolate up into chunks and stir it into the dough. The chocolate might not stick very well to the dough at this point but don't worry about that at the moment. Chilling the dough will help.
- Place the bowl of the dough in the refrigerator for a minimum of two hours so the butter solidifies again.
- Once chilled, pre-heat the oven to 356°F (180°C) regular oven (lower the heat to 320°F and 160°C if using a convection oven.) Take the dough from the refrigerator and scoop out around 2 tablespoons of dough for each cookie. Use your hands to roll them into balls. Place the dough balls spaced 3cm apart on a lined baking tray.
- Bake for 11-12 minutes until lightly browned. As the cookies are removed from the oven you’ll see they’re still soft. Give the pan a whack down on the bench to flatten the cookies a bit. Then let them cool for 5 minutes before removing the cookies from the tray and letting the cool further on a rack.
Yum!