Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie, Soft & Chewy
I’m not sure how many chocolate chip cookie recipes I have but it seems you can never have too many. I came across yet another CCC from Sturbridge Bakery, a delightful blog from Jess Italiano. Initially, it caught my attention on Instagram., the photos and the title just popped out at me, Chewy Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. I am usually not one for soft and chewy but I was determined to try this one. Why?
Let Me Tell You Why
We just returned home from our road trip to Salt Lake City. We were bringing Moose, my kid’s dog, back to them. 😢😢😢 We have been taking care of him since they made the big move from Houston to New York City. Now they were ready to take him to the Big Apple. I’m gonna miss that little pup, despite the fact that he doesn’t listen, runs away, and hogs the bed. He is just so damn cute, you immediately forgive him any transgressions.
We dropped him off with Sam in Salt Lake City and said our goodbyes, he was visibly traumatized, NOT, just me. The following morning, bright and early, we headed back to California…sans doggo. 😢
We stopped at a Raley’s Supermarket to load up on consolation, I mean road goodies, including Pepperidge Farms Soft Baked Santa Cruz Oatmeal Cookies.
BLEAH
Okay, maybe I was depressed but I took one bite and wanted to hurl it out the window! It just tasted so FAKE to me. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not a cookie snob (well, ok maybe I am), I LOVE PF’s Mint Milano, Bordeaux, and Chessman cookies. I guess I’m just not a fan of their soft-baked line.
So when Sturbridge Bakery’s Chewy BBCCC popped up, I thought I’d give it a whirl. After all, gazillions of folks, like my hubby, love soft, chewy cookies. I couldn’t let him continue buying Pepperidge Farms Soft-Bake, nope, nope, nope.
Holy jumpin’ chocolate catfish. They’re REALLY good. Soft, slightly chewy, filled with chocolate, two kinds, dark and semi-sweet, with a rich buttery, caramel-ly cookie. Damn delicious.
The Secret of Sucess, for Soft, Amazing Cookies
Brown the butter. Everyone has been jumping on the brown butter wagon. It intensifies the butter flavor and gives the cookies a nutty, caramel flavor. YUMMO. This is an added step but replaces having to cream the butter and sugar. Not a bad trade-off. Keep your eye on the pot, it goes quickly.
When browning the butter use a light-colored ceramic pot or a shiny stainless steel pot so you can see the browned bits easily.
Light (golden) or dark brown sugar. I used golden but I’m sure dark would work too. Brown sugar adds those yummy caramel overtones and moisture.
Sour cream makes up for the moisture loss by browning the butter and also tenderizes the cookie.
Two kinds of chocolate. Dark, or bittersweet and semi-sweet are combined for a nuanced, complex cookie. If you are making these for kids, skip the dark chocolate and use just semi-sweet. Your kids will thank you. You will have plenty of time to make these with dark chocolate when they are older. 😉. Don’t let chopping a bar of chocolate stop you from making these cookies. Don’t feel like chopping? By all means, use chocolate chips. I like the Guittard’s Super Chip or TJ’s Chocolate Chunks. Nowadays the percentage of cacao in chips is provided, and you can tailor the sweetness or boldness of the chocolate in your cookies.
Pretty Little Cookies, Tricks of the Trade
Don’t put all of the chocolate chunks into the batter. Reserve a chunk or two for each cookie. After scooping each ball of dough, press a reserved chocolate chunk into the top of each cookie. Portion the dough using a #24 scoop (~3 T/50 grams) ice cream scoop. Give them plenty of space on your cookie sheet, they will spread.
Here’s the Scoop-Invest in a couple of different sized ice cream scoops like these. This helps create uniform sized and round cookies.
The Sarah Move-If you like cookie crinkles. A couple of minutes before the cookies are done baking, rap the sheet on the oven rack. This causes the cookies to deflate creating the rippled edge.
Cookie cutters-If they are unevenly shaped, using a large cookie cutter, surround each cookie and swirl the cutter molding the cookie to a circular shape. Ta-da perfectly round cookies, and you thought they baked that way. This also creates more ridges for textural interest as you have compressed the cookies.
No Overbaking Zone-Don’t overbake these cookies. Remove cookies from the oven when the edges look solid, slightly golden and there is still a little shine at the center of the cookies. The cookies will continue to bake.
Salt but no Peppa Move-Sprinkle a bit of flaky salt or Maldon Salt on the cookies when you pull them out of the oven for that sweet-salty vibe. Optional.
PSA-If you like to bake, invest in a scale, my mantra.
There you have it, soft cookies so you don’t need to buy “those” commercial cookies ever again.
Soft & Chewy Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
Butter, Sugar & Wet Stuff
- 211 grams 15 tablespoons unsalted butter browned you should have 170 grams or ¾ cup* after browning
- 150 grams ¾ cup brown sugar light or dark is fine
- 50 grams ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 20 grams 1 heaping tablespoon sour cream room temperature Weigh if possible
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 225 grams all purpose flour about 1 ¾ cups + 1 tablespoon
The Star
- 100 grams semi-sweet chocolate coarsely chopped Kid's cookies, use all semi-sweet Chocolate chunks or pieces
- 100 grams dark chocolate coarsely chopped
Instructions
- If using bar chocolate, chop your chocolate into chunks and set aside.
- In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. It will start to crack and sizzle - let it do this while stirring occasionally. After a few minutes or so, the butter cracking/sizzling will subside and the butter will begin to foam up in the pan.
- Every few seconds or so, swirl the pan around until you can see that the butter is golden brown. You should also be able to see some of the brown bits swirling around in the butter. Watch it carefully, you don't want it to burn. Once golden brown, immediately remove from the heat and pour the butter into a large bowl on a scale. You should have 170gms of brown butter or if you don't have a scale measure out 3/4 cup. Pour the measured amount into a bowl and put it in the fridge to cool for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, take the butter out of the fridge and add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla extract. Whisk to combine.
- Add the egg and whisk well until completely combined. Add the sour cream and blend.
- Add the baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch, and salt, and whisk until incorporated.
- Add the flour and fold it into the mixture using a rubber spatula until there are only a few streaks of flour remaining. Add the chopped chocolate and fold until evenly incorporated and the flour is fully mixed in.
- Cover the bowl tightly and chill the dough for 3 hours. Once the three hours is almost up, preheat your oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Scoop the dough using a cookie scoop (use a 1.5 oz scoop #24, about ~3 tablespoons or ~50 grams) and space them 2-3 inches apart on your baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes until the edges are set and the centers still look slightly underdone. Rotate pan halfway through baking. Let cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then enjoy warm or transfer to a baking sheet to cool completely. See post for notes on perfectly round cookies with ridges.