Everyone has their quintessential chocolate chip cookie recipe. They also have their ideal chocolate chip cookie. For me, the ideal chocolate chip cookie, is a chocolate chunk cookie. The cookies needs to have a crisp edge, but a delicious chewy texture. It is not a cookie worth consuming unless the surface of the cookie is covered in chocolate puddles. One of my favorite recipes is Bon Appetit’s Brown Butter and Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookie with Tasty’s being a close second.
This cookies are life changing stuff. But sometimes, you just don’t have the patience to make toffee or wait two days for your cookies. Enter – my modified recipe combining the best of two worlds. The brown butter results in a lovely toffee smell and taste and the chocolate chunks ensures that each bite of cookie is full of chocolate. Try these Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies and you’ll never go back.
The key to this recipe is brown butter. When you brown your butter, you are toasting the milk solids found in butter and you create this magical nutty flavour that’s akin to caramel in taste. It isn’t difficult to brown butter, but it is important to keep your eye on it. There is a very fine line between browned butter and burnt butter.
In a medium sized sauce pan place 1 cup of unsalted butter (cut into tablespoon sized pieces). Melt the butter, making sure to swirl and scrape the sides of the pot frequently with a wooden spoon. The butter will bubble and sizzle and turn brown. Don’t take your eyes off the pot at this time, as the butter will go from brown to burnt in a split second. At this point, swirl the butter around until it is light brown and smells nutty. Take it off the heat and set aside to cool.
In a large bowl add brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla and brown butter. Stir to combine. Add your dry ingredients – flour, baking soda and salt. Stir with a spatula until the dough comes together.
I personally prefer buying chocolate bars and chopping them up to use in my cookies, it results in larger chunks. I usually use Callebaut chocolate or Lindt chocolate. Add your chopped chocolate to the bowl and stir until combined.
Using a cookie scoop, scoop out the dough onto a flat sheet pan and let the cookies rest in the fridge for 2 hours (or overnight). Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line a separate pan with parchment paper. Place the cooled dough spaced out evenly on the pan (these cookies will expand!) Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are golden. When you take them out of the oven, press some chocolate chunks onto the surface for that delicious chocolate puddle.
Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown butter
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup light brown sugar (packed)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups chocolate chunks
Instructions
- In a small pot, melt your butter over medium heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon to prevent the butter from browning. When the butter starts to bubble start swirling the pot constantly until the butter changes color into a deep brown and a nutty aroma fills the room. Take the butter off the heat and let it cool.
- In a bowl combine the sugars, eggs, vanilla and your cooled brown butter.
- Add your dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking soda) to the wet mixture. Mix with a spatula until combined.
- Add your chocolate chunks and fold into the dough until mixed.
- Using a cookie scoop, portion your dough onto a lined sheet tray. Place the cookies into the fridge for 2 hours (or overnight) to firm up.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Place your cookies with some space as they will spread out. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges of the cookies are golden brown.
- When they are hot out of the oven you can press some large chunks of chocolate onto the cookie to create delicious chocolate puddles. Let cookies cool and enjoy!