Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had been eyeing this method , this technique of browning butter for cookies for quite a few months now and finally made them last weekend. The nutty aroma that gets released after browning the butter is beautiful. And the color is a rich brown speckled with chunks of real chocolate chips from cocoacraft.

Browning butter is much like making ghee at home. I use regular salted Amul butter. Take it in a pan/kadhai and start melting the butter. Continue cooking the butter while stirring till it turns foamy and starts turning amber, almost brown. And then take it off the heat and put it in another bowl so it stops cooking. The whole procedure reminded me of those childhood days when mum would make ghee and we would wait for the caramelised bits of fat at the bottom, called ‘beri’ in Marathi.

So these cookies need some planning. The butter needs to be browned and cooled a day prior to the baking. Then after making the dough it needs to be chilled for 3 hours. But all this planning and patience is worth it.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

What you need :

230 grams browned butter, chilled overnight in refrigerator
100 grams castor sugar
200 grams brown sugar
1 large egg+ 1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
310 grams all purpose flour (maida)
1 teaspoon corn flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoon milk
250 grams chocolate chips

What to do :

In a skillet or kadhai, take the salted butter and melt it. Keep stirring. it will start to foam and then slowly change colour to golden to amber to almost brown. Then take it off the heat into another bowl. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap and let it sit int he fridge overnight.
Next day, take out the chilled brown butter, spoon it into a bigger bowl and whisk it till it becomes smooth and creamy.
Add the castor sugar and brown sugar and vanilla beat for another 2 minutes. Then add the egg and the egg yolk and beat/ whisk till fully incorporated.
In another bowl take the all purpose flour + corn flour + baking soda. Sift it together. Then add it to the egg and sugar mixture in 2/3 batches, mixing each time before adding new flour. Turn and fold. Add the milk.
Add the chocolate chips and fold it all together. The dough will be quite thick. Cover it with a plastic wrap or a lid and let it chill in the fridge for 3 hours or more.
Once ready to bake, take the dough out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for 5 mins. Then take 1.5 tablespoon dough and form it into a ball with your hand. Place it on a parchment paper covered baking tray. (See notes)
Bake for 10-12 mins in total till the cookies are browned at the edges.
Take them out of the oven , let them cool on the tray for 5 mins and then leave them on the cooling tray to cool completely. They will be soft in the centre and crunchy on the outside.

Notes:

After you take the cookies out of the oven , for decoration you can stick some chocolate chips on top and they will slightly melt into the cookie.
I generally use Silpat for baking cookies and macaroons, but parchment paper also works very well.
It is a good idea to rotate the pan after 5 minutes, because ovens usually have hot spots. My Murphy Richards oven definitely does. So rotating the pan helps it cook evenly.
If you want to see how butter is browned, there is a good demo on SimpleRecipes