Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Flakey Salt

I’ve been making these cookies for as long as my first child has been alive. (He’s 4). I remember getting the recipe card in Bon Appétit Magazine. The recipe is by Rick Martinez, and it’s everything you want in a cookie and more. He uses pieces of toffee bar along with fancy dark chocolate baking wafers to amp up the toffee flavor the brown butter brings, and then tops them with flakey sea salt. Yum. I don’t always make this version because I pretty much never buy the fancy chocolate (it’s 11 dollars lol) and the toffee bars are a bit expensive too so I stick to dark chocolate chips. I also add some ground nutmeg which I love in chocolate chip cookies for the warmth it brings. Rick has since left bon appétit, so I linked his original article below.

Recipe by: Rick Martinez -check out his youtube videos they’re great!

Adapted very slightly: by adding nutmeg, and subbing dark chocolate chips for the toffee bar, by Tierney Larson

Ingredients:

1 cup (227g) of unsalted butter

2 cups (250g) All Purpose Flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

3/4 tsp kosher salt (diamond brand, if using morton’s go with 1/2 tsp)

1 cup packed (215g) dark brown sugar

1/3 cup (73g) granulated sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 10 oz bag of dark chocolate (around 70% cacao) baking chips

Flakey Sea Salt for the top

Ok so..

Start by browning the butter. Put the butter in a medium pot and place over medium heat. Cook keeping an eye on it for 5-8 minutes (setting a timer helps) until you start to see brown flecks coming to the surface, give it a stir and remove it from the heat immediately. Pour it into a heat proof bowl and let cool while you prepare the dry ingredients.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, nutmeg and salt until combined. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add both sugars and when the butter is still warm but not super hot, add that into the sugar mixture. Beat the sugar and butter on medium until combined, about 1 minute.

Add in one egg at a time and whisk for 1 minute on medium-high in between additions, scraping down the bowl in between. Add the vanilla and beat on medium high for an additional minute or more, until the mixture is light and starting to thicken.

Scrape down the bowl and beater again and then add in the dry ingredients, mix on low until just combined. Scrape everything down and then add in the chocolate chips, stirring them in until combined.

Leave the dough in the bowl and cover at room temperature for 30 minutes. It will harden slightly and make it easier to scoop.

Preheat your oven to 375F or 350F convection and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. When the dough has rested, use a tablespoon scoop to scoop out the cookie dough and place them on the lined trays about 3 inches apart. Sprinkle some flakey sea salt on the top of each ball of dough (no need to flatten) and place in the oven on the middle rack. (I do one tray at a time, but if you want to do both, be sure to rotate the pans midway through). Bake for 9-11 minutes (rotating halfway through to get an even browning). Until the outer edges are nicely browned but the center is still pale.

Place the baking sheet on a cooling rack and let them cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before removing them with a spatula onto the cooling rack. Enjoy!!