Chocolate chip cookies are arguably the best dessert. I made my first batch with my grandma when I was 6 years old. I helped her mix the dough and shape the cookies. She always comes to Columbia for my birthday and making cookies together is one of my fondest memories. Maybe it’s become a fall tradition for me since my birthday is in October, but it’s one of my favorite childhood memories. It’s taken years to craft the perfect recipe, but eventually, I found the most important ingredient to make chocolate chip cookies one step better. That ingredient is brown butter.

Why brown butter?

Browning butter adds depth to the flavor of the cookie, and it brings out the flavor of the chocolate through its nutty components. I recommend investing in high-quality butter for this recipe since it makes the flavor profile noticeably better; my personal choice is Kerrygold butter.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup or two sticks of butter
• 1 cup chocolate baking disks (I prefer these over chocolate chips because they create a less uniform shape)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• ¼ granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• Sea salt to sprinkle on top

Directions:

Place the butter into a pan at medium-high and let it melt. Once it starts to froth, continue to mix the butter. It’s really important you don’t walk away during this step. You don’t want your butter to burn, and it can go from brown to burn immediately. Keep mixing until brown specks appear (these are the milk solids that cook to create the rich flavor). Once your butter has turned a darker color, and the bottom of the pan is filled with specks, immediately pour it into a glass container to let it cool.

Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt together and leave aside for later.

Once the butter has cooled, add it to a bowl with the brown sugar, vanilla and eggs. Stir until combined.

Add approximately ½  cup of flour until it’s well combined and you no longer have any dry ingredients left.

Mix in the chocolate disks. I prefer to chop some of them up a little before adding them to get more chocolate distribution throughout. You can even add toffee bits to create a more complex flavor profile.

Once the chocolate is added, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and scoop the dough into balls with about an inch in between. 

Rest the cookie dough balls on the sheet overnight. You’ll want to do this so the dough is well-rested because it yields a more evenly baked cookie. 

Once the dough has rested, preheat the oven to 375°. After that, place the cookies in the oven and allow them to bake for at least 10-12 minutes, depending on your preferred crispiness. 

Take them out and allow them to cool down, serve them with a sprinkle of course sea salt and enjoy! 

Will you be trying out this recipe? Let us know in the comments below.