These gigantic brown butter chocolate chip cookies will make you question everything you thought you knew about chocolate chip cookies!
Philip and I are one of those rare couples who agree on most things. There are a few points of disagreement that we have, one of them being pretty major: chocolate chip cookies. I like them thick and chewy, Philip likes them thin and crispy. Lucky for me, since I’m the one baking them I usually get my way (he did win when I made these malted milk chocolate chip cookies a while back).
Making consistent chocolate chip cookies the way I normally do-using the recipe from the back of the Toll House chocolate chips bag-isn’t always easy. Cookie dough is persnickety, dependent on the temperature in your kitchen and the meltiness of your butter. Years ago on Good Eats, Alton Brown shared recipes for three different kinds of chocolate chip cookies: The Thin, The Puffy, and The Chewy (there’s also a gluten-free version of The Chewy). Tessa from Handle the Heat broke it down even farther in her Ultimate Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies. And Joy the Baker reeled me in with these brown butter chocolate chip cookies.
However, I didn’t find the perfect recipe for brown butter chocolate chip cookies until I made The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie from my Cook’s Illustrated Baking Book (<–affiliate link). The method is unconventional, but the results are out of this world. Amazing. Delicious. Thick and chewy and perfect. I do recommend that you briefly refrigerate the dough, which will minimize the spread (I didn’t refrigerate the dough for these and they were a little thinner, though still chewy and delicious).
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Mary
Yield: 16 cookies
This recipe is from The Cook's Illustrated Baking Book.
20 minPrep Time:
40 minCook Time:
1 hrTotal Time:
Save RecipeIngredients
- 8 ¾ ounces all-purpose flour (1 ¾ cup)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 14 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 ½ ounces granulated sugar (½ cup)
- 5 ¼ ounces brown sugar (¾ cup packed)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 ¼ cup chocolate chips (I like the 60% cacao Ghirardelli chips)
Instructions
- Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with Sil-pats or parchment paper. Whisk the flour and baking soda together in a bowl and set aside.
- Place 4 tablespoons of the butter into a large bowl. Heat a large pan (preferably not dark, which will prevent you from being able to see the color of the butter) over medium heat. Add the remaining 10 tablespoons of the butter to the pan. Cook and stir, watching closely, until the butter browns. Pour the browned butter into the bowl with the rest of the butter and let it sit, stirring occasionally, until the remaining butter melts.
- Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, vanilla, and egg/egg yolk to the bowl with the butter and whisk for thirty seconds. Let stand for three minutes then whisk for another thirty seconds. Repeat the standing and whisking two more times. Use a rubber spatula to stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture, then fold in the chocolate chips.
- You can bake the cookies now, or you can refrigerate the dough for 15-20 minutes to thicken it up a bit before proceeding with step
- Portion the cookie dough in three-tablespoon portions onto the prepared pans, about two inches apart. You should be able to fit 8 cookies onto each pan. Bake one pan at a time for 10-14 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking, until the cookies are set with golden brown edges but still soft in the center. Remove from the pan to cooling racks. Cool completely before serving.
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