This New Year, master a classic recipe and make the ultimate chocolate chip cookie.
This recipe is so delicious, you’ll have everyone begging you to write it down for them after the first bite. The browned butter adds an unexpected and irresistible depth of rich, toasty flavor. By using chopped chocolate bars instead of chocolate chips, these cookies have pockets of rich milk chocolate chunks in every bite. Truly a blue-ribbon worthy cookie that’s sure to make you look like an expert baker.
Ingredients:
½ cup + 2 teaspoons butter
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon hot water
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
12 oz milk chocolate from chocolate bars
Instructions:
The night before you make your cookies, you’ll need to brown your butter.
Add your butter to a pot and bring it to medium-high heat.
Stir the butter gently as it melts.
Once melted, whisk the butter continuously.
The butter will start to foam in 2 minutes or so. If it doesn’t, bring up the heat until it foams.
Keep whisking as the butter foams and spits. It will eventually subside, and when it does, keep an eye on the bottom of the pot.
You will soon see small, dark flecks at the bottom and the butter will get darker. Keep going, until the butter is fragrant and the specks are almost black but the butter is still a rich brown.
Remove the butter from heat and pour into a container that you can seal with a lid.
Allow the butter to cool to room temperature before sealing it and putting it in the refrigerator. Allow it to sit overnight and firm.
The next day, when your ready to make your cookies, remove your butter and bring it to room temperature, like you normally would when baking.
Preheat your oven to 375.
Prepare two large cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Sift together your flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
Chop up your milk chocolate bars into chunks, and set aside.
Cream together your brown butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar with a hand mixer until fluffy and combined.
Add your egg and vanilla extract to the butter mixture and blend well with your hand mixer.
Add your flour mixture and fold everything together with a wooden spoon or the like, until it’s slightly incorporated.
Add the hot water and mix again.
Toss in your chocolate chunks and mix everything together. I recommend clean hands, as it helps you really work the dough together and evenly distribute the chocolate.
Take large dollops of the cookie dough and round them out with your hands. Place them on the cookie sheet, evenly spaced. These cookies will spread, so make sure to leave lots of room between them.
Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, depending on your oven. They’ll still be a little gooey in the center, but they’ll firm up once they’ve cooled.
Once baked, transfer them to a cooling rack and let them cool and set up.
Enjoy them right out of the oven, or anytime, really. They keep for two weeks in an airtight container, but I’ve never seen them last more than two days without disappearing.
