My friend Monique is off work for the next two weeks. Lucky her! Except for the fact that she’s off work because she just had eye surgery (don’t worry – she’s A-OK). She texted me yesterday and said she would pay me to make her homemade chocolate chip cookies, to which I laughed. I wouldn’t accept money from a sick friend who wants something homemade. But I would make a friend cookies and drop them off on my way home from work on Monday…
For Christmas my grandma got me what appeared to be an ice-cream scoop. When I emailed her to thank her for the ice-cream scoop she corrected me saying it was a cookie dough/meatball scoop. (I’ve never heard of a meatball scoop!) I kind of thought I’d rather use the scoop for ice-cream but decided to try it out on cookies first – as my grandma had intended.
It rocked! Especially for this recipe. Whenever I make brown butter cookies the dough always turns out a little crumbly. The scoop allowed me to pack the dough down into perfect little mounds that ended up being just the right size. I guess I will be using the scoop for cookie making after all!
It’s my unbiased opinion that brown butter makes any cookie better. I swear it makes cookies caramel-y tasting with a crispy yet simultaneously chewy texture. So good!
ingredients.
- ½ c. butter
- ½ c. vegetable shortening
- 1 ½ c. packed brown sugar
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 3 c. flour
- 1 c. chopped walnuts
- 2 c. chocolate chips (semi-sweet, bittersweet and milk)
directions.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium-size pan, heat butter over medium-low heat, swirling the butter in the pan over the heat.
- Cook the butter continuing to swirl the butter around in the pan. The butter will foam and then slowly settle. The butter should be turning a golden color and you’ll see specks of brown forming. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
- Beat the shortening in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Beat in the granulated and dark brown sugar until creamy, then add the browned butter, egg and vanilla and beat until combined.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low; add the flour mixture in two additions, scraping down the bowl as needed, until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Scoop onto cookie sheets using ice cream scoop (yield 5 or 6 cookies per cookie sheet). Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
- Let the cookies cool 2 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 