This recipe for Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies was inspired by a conversation I had with a local store owner about his favorite kind of cookie. As a self proclaimed “baker” I embarrassingly had to admit I’ve never had browned butter chocolate chip cookies. It’s not like I haven’t baked with browned butter before. My Browned-Butter Macadamia Nut Shortbread is pretty tasty. So how is it, it’s never occurred to me to make chocolate chip cookies with it? They are amazing! They come together easily and by hand. So no mixer or special equipment is required for this one. One thing you will discover about me is that I only like a soft chewy cookie. Unless we are working on biscotti I don’t enjoy a crispy cookie. These are perfect.
How many batches of Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies did this recipe take?
SEVEN…seven batches of this cookie to get this recipe where I wanted it. I read so many recipes and tried so many techniques. Several bakers out there have their own recipe that they stand by as the best for a browned butter chocolate chip cookie. Here is my opinion, they are all really good. Mine included. I tried a couple of different things to bring out the nutty toffee like flavor of the browned butter.
We are going to brown the whole stick of butter and add it to your sugar and cream cheese while it’s still hot to dissolve the sugar and melt the cream cheese. The cream cheese along with a little vegetable oil (to replace the moisture we lose browning our butter) help to make this cookie chewy and soft. Using the heat from the butter to dissolve the sugar eliminates the need to cream them together which means we also can just stir this cookie dough together by hand. I really like baking with Guittard baking chocolate. It’s a little pricey but a nice quality chocolate. You can totally use Nestle chips and these will still be great. Then to gild the lily we are going to add a little Heath toffee bits to enhance that toffee flavor.
Let’s do it…
Step by Step
Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2¼ cups all purpose flour (338g)
- 1 teas baking powder
- ½ teas baking soda
- ½ teas salt
- 1½ cups sugar (300g)
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp whole milk
- 2 teas vanilla bean paste (or extract)
- ½ cup Guittard bittersweet chocolate baking wafers (or dark chocolate chip of your choice) (90g)
- ½ cup Guittard milk chocolate baking wafers (or milk chocolate chips of your choice) (90g)
- ½ cup heath toffee bits (90g)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°, line two baking sheets with parchment paper
- Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl
- Roughly chop chocolate wafers (skip this step if you are using chocolate chips)
- Combine dry ingredients, chocolate (chips), heath toffee bits and set aside
- Cut cream cheese into 6-8 pieces and add to sugar
- In a skillet melt butter and cook over medium heat until amber in color and fragrant
- Pour hot butter over cream cheese and sugar and combine until smooth
- Add egg, milk, oil and vanilla to the butter and combine until smooth
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and combine by hand with a spatula until no more flour is visible
- Using a 1½ – 2tbsp cookie scoop drop dough on to baking sheet and slightly flatten with the bottom of a glass
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, until golden brown
- Let rest 2 min on baking sheet then transfer to cooling rack to cool completelyEnjoy!
