Brown Butter Bitttersweet Chocolate Chip Cookies {w/sea salt}

I was browsing through my “drafts” folder and came across this recipe that I apparently tried in January 18, 2014 without including any photos in the draft. Here’s what I said back in January 2014:

This past week I leaned heavily on one of my coworkers for a rather urgent issue and she totally came through. I promised her cookies or brownies as a thank you. When I asked her what she likes she said nothing fussy or fancy: brownies or cookies would do.

I’m not quite sure what happened in 2014 that prevented me from going the extra mile to add some photos and publish the blog. I mean I even rated the cookies! So I decided to try the recipe again but made a few modifications. I noticed I had some weird quantities listed, like 4 eggs and ginormous amount of flour, even though the butter portion didn’t appear to be unusually larger (larger, yes, but not unusually large). So I pared down all the ingredients to make them more standard.

The result? A cookie that both my dad and sister exclaimed to be amazing.

ingredients.

½ c. butter, browned and cooled to room temperature consistency
½ c. vegetable shortening or margarine
¾ c. granulated white sugar
¾ c. dark-brown sugar, packed
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 c. all purpose flour
¾ c. whole wheat flour
1 ½ c. Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate pieces, plus more for garnish
Flakey sea salt, for garnish (optional)

directions.

Cream vegetable shortening or margarine with brown butter. Mix in both sugars until combined. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla.
Add flours, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, mixing until just combined. Add chocolate chips. Refrigerate overnight.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Scoop batter by the tablespoon full onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Leave about two inches in between cookies. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove cookies from oven and add additional chocolate chips to the tops to make the cookies pretty. Once the chocolate chips you added have warmed and have started to glisten, sprinkle with flakey sea salt. Let cool completely on your cookie sheet. (I just leave them on my cookie sheet because I don’t like the indentations a rack makes on the bottom of a cookie.)

Here’s more of what I said about these cookies in 2014:

Because of the melted brown butter, this dough will have a different texture than your normal chocolate chip cookie.

I’m not normally a fan of whole wheat flour in baked goods but I thought I would add a little bit to this cookie (along with some unsweetened cocoa) to add more depth in flavor. I’m not sure any brown butter cookie needs anymore depth in flavor and I can’t say I noticed any sort of huge difference from adding either of these “flavors” to the cookie.

I discovered a work around for that funky texture that brown butter lends to cookies: let the browned butter harden again to room temperature. It yields a normal texture cookie dough and the best part about baking cookies is getting to try the dough!

Recipe rating: