Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

by Shumaila

You know you are doing good with your exercise regime, when instead of avoiding to wash your jeans (since they get tight after a wash and you lose the “loose” fit), you actually prefer washing them so that they fit you better.

And that’s what I had been doing and felt good about my weight loss (of course there is a long way to go, but the jeans are getting looser, so I was happy).

But all this happy feeling went down the drain this past weekend.

All because of these damn browned butter chocolate chip cookies.

(I know I shouldn’t swear, but these damn cookies, they are just so good that they are no good!)

Now, V never requests for anything sweet, but that habit has been changing.

There have been instances in the past, when he has suddenly come up to me and said he has this sugar craving. When he does that, so happy that he is hinting that I should bake something, I run to the kitchen to whip up something sweet. (Yes, V is a very lucky man!)

So, on Saturday, when he felt like eating something sweet, I thought of making this new recipe of chocolate chip cookies I had tried the other day (which V absolutely loved). They are a breeze to make and with my method you only use one pan to make the whole thing. Yay! Less dishes to wash!

Now, while I love the NY chocolate chip cookie, the 24- 36 hr long wait for the cookies never fits the bill when I want a quick cookie fix. Looks like this recipe will be replacing the NY cookie recipe. Sorry Jacque Torres!

I had tried this recipe a week back as well, when I made it for V’s Office Thursdays meetings. His colleagues loved them. And I trust these people on their words, because I loved these cookies too.

Fortunately, last time I had sent all the cookies away, keeping only 2-3 for V and me. Unfortunately,  this time, since I baked them on a Saturday, I can safely say it was the biggest mistake I made this weekend. I was eating these small bytes of heaven like they were chips. And I am not exaggerating. Like chips. One after the other. Thankfully, not two at a time, because that would be INSANE!

First thing Monday, whatever was left of the cookies (the Mascarpone Meringue Cake kept me off the cookies on Sunday, if that’s any condolence to my stomach), I made sure they went with V in his tiffin to office. V left the cookies next to the coffee machine in his office for his colleagues to take. And when he came back after half an hour, they had all vanished.

Yes, these are that good. And being so easy to make, they are just the best (or well, the worst thing ever if you are on a strict “I have to lose weight” regime- which if you know me, I always am!)

BROWNED BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

These cookies are GOOD. And, you can make the whole thing in a single pan, if you are like me, and hate washing dirty dishes. I add the sugars to the saucepan in which I melt the butter, instead of dirtying another dish. Also, (by-the-book-bakers do not read further), I do not use a bowl to mix the flour with the baking soda and salt, before adding it to the wet ingredients. I know you should technically mix the flour with the baking soda, so that it is mixed in the flour thoroughly. But I get lazy, and have found that heaping the flour and soda and salt in the saucepan works as well. The trick is to heap the flour so that it isn’t mixed in with the wet ingredients.

And you just add the baking soda and salt to the heaped flour and gently run a fork through the heaped flour, being careful not to touch the wet ingredients. This way the baking soda is equally distributed in the flour and no extra utensil is dirtied. This technique has worked for me, but you could always go with the regular way of doing it- combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and mix it with the wet ingredients.

Another thing, the recipe calls for the batter to be cooled completely before adding the chocolate chips. And when I mean wait, I mean really wait. Even though the batter will call to you to “just mix the damn chocolate chips in” and “bake them already”, you must wait. Though personally I do not mind a little chocolate melting in the batter, if you want the chocolate chips to distinctly stand out, you will have to wait for the batter to cool completely. It takes about 10-15 minutes for the batter to cool. You could also speed up the process by putting the pan in the refrigerator.

I generally half the recipe and get 30 cookies, each about 1 1/2 inches to 2 inches in size.

Source: Babble.com

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1cup brown sugar
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 ½ cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 ½ cups semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips/chunks
• sea salt, for sprinkling on top

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line baking trays with parchment paper.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, whisking frequently. Whisk till the butter turns a little light brown. Takes about 5- 8 mins. Let cool to room temperature.
3. Though this step in the original recipe is done in a separate bowl, I just add both the sugars in the pan that has the melted butter and whisk until smooth.
4. Add in the eggs and vanilla essence
5. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and kosher salt.
6. Add the dry ingredient to the sugar-butter mix until just combined. You do not want to over mix and work the gluten as that will result in tough cookies. Let cool completely before adding the chocolate chips. See note in blog post
7. Once completely cool, fold in the chocolate chips in the batter.
8. Scoop 2 tsp size portions on to the tray and flatten slightly. Sprinkle with sea salt.
9. Bake for 8-10 minutes (mine took 10 minutes) and remove from the oven.
10. Let cool on the trays till they can be transferred to a cooling rack.
11. Eat and enjoy!