I am late to the brown butter game. Missing it is proof I am horribly oblivious and constantly in my own world because Jane makes pretty much every batch of chocolate chip cookies with it and I’ve had more than a fair number of them!
My delayed senses picked up on something last weekend, though, when she made these delicious caramel chocolate bars. I picked one up and my nose perked. Did I smell nuts? She said no. It definitely smelled nutty… And she explained: it was the brown butter.
What is browned butter?
It’s butter that is heated to be more than melted but less than burned. It is not too tricky to make and it smells marvelous. You must whisk it constantly on medium-low heat, and the second you see a bit of golden brown beyond the foam, remove it from the heat.
I’m not a brown butter pro by any means, but I am enjoying learning. From my “research,” I’ve learned it goes with gnocchi and pasta, and I’m going to take my liberties with it for pancakes and hot buttered whiskey and coffee. It has a distinct, nutty and caramelized flavor that is just delightful and adaptive.
Softened or Melted?
In my cookie baking experience, I learned that you soften butter and then cream it. You never melt it. Actually, I haven’t found this to be true for these brown butter cookies.
I tried the first batch (just giant chocolate chunks, thanks to Jane for supplying them!!) with melted/browned butter and mixing it with the sugars. Because I can’t leave well enough alone, the next day I tried the second batch (M&M, chunks, chips, and peanut butter chips) by browning the butter, then cooling it back to a “softened” texture to cream with sugar.
To be honest, the texture of the cookies was the same! Nice and chewy, which is how we like it. Hope you do too!
Brown Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 stick Salted butter
- ¾ cup Brown sugar packed
- ½ cup Sugar
- 1 tsp Sea salt
- 1 Egg
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- ½ tsp Baking soda
- 1¼ cup All-purpose flour
- 8 oz Chocolate chunks, nuts, M&Ms, or chocolate chips or any combination that totals 8 oz
- Flakey salt for topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F / 175°C.
- In a small saucepan, melt butter on medium heat, whisking constantly. It will foam up once or twice, but do not stop whisking. The second you see a light golden color in the center of the pot, remove from heat, continue whisking for another 30 seconds, and transfer to a large mixing bowl.
- Add brown sugar, regular sugar, and salt to the butter, mixing thoroughly with an electric mixer on medium-low speed.
- Crack an egg into the sugar and pour vanilla extract on the egg. Continue mixing on medium-low speed.
- Add flour slowly, a quarter cup at a time on low speed. Do not overmix. Sprinkle in your mix-in of choice (chocolate chunks are our favorite, or chunks, peanut butter chips, and M&Ms!!) and fold them in with your hands, gently squeezing the dough.
- Spread parchment paper onto two cookie sheets. For regular-sized cookies, form 1" balls or cubes of dough, placed 2" apart. This will yield 24 regular cookies, 12 on each pan. For large cookies, form 1½" balls or cubes of dough, placed 3" apart. This will yield 12 large cookies, 6 on each pan.
- Place the first pan for 11-13 minutes. For regular cookies, cool them in the pan, sprinkle with salt, and serve.For large cookies, place a towel on the counter and drop the pan on its bottom 5 times on the towel, causing the puffy cookies to collapse and flatten. Return to the oven and bake an additional 3-4 minutes. Repeat dropping the pan 5 more times. Sprinkle with flakey salt and cool slightly before serving.
Other buttery things...
