Brown Butter & Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don’t often deviate from the Nestle Toll House original recipe (it will always be my favorite), but I couldn’t help wondering what brown butter and sea salt cookies would taste like! I sure loved the sound of them. It turns out, they are incredible! The butter is cooked ahead of time for a very delicious, caramel flavor. The chocolate chips are to-die-for as usual. And the sea salt sprinkled on top gives them an extra dimension of taste. They truly melt in your mouth!



Ingredients:

2 sticks unsalted butter
2  1/4 cup flour
1  1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1  1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1 Tablespoon plain Greek yogurt (I used Chobani)
1  1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1  1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Sea salt to sprinkle

(The photo shows Nutella as well. I’ll mention what I used it for at the bottom.)



Directions:

Melt two sticks of butter in a saucepan at medium heat. Whisk continuously while the butter begins to boil and foam. After several minutes of whisking, it will begin to turn brown. Once it is fully brown (and smelling caramel-like and  nutty), take it off of the stove to keep it from burning. Put it into a bowl, and let it cool for about five minutes.




While you wait, mix together the dry ingredients—flour, baking soda, and salt.


When the butter has mostly cooled, use an electric mixer to blend the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar.


At this point, gradually add in the egg, egg yolk, Greek yogurt, and vanilla.




Now, you can slowly add in the dry ingredients until a smooth batter has formed.


Pour in the chocolate chips, of course!

The recipe that I was using suggested chilling the dough for 2 hours in the refrigerator. I did this, but found my dough got a little dry and hard to work with. Next time, I may chill it for a shorter period of time, or not at all.

Preheat the oven to 350. Form the dough into balls (about two Tablespoons each) and place two inches apart on a baking sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until they begin to brown on the edges.


Sprinkle them with sea salt when they are still very warm.

Okay, so the Nutella. . . personally, I’m not a fan of Nutella (which I always think is weird because I love hazelnut coffee), but I gave it a second chance by stuffing it into the middle of the cookie like this recipe shows. I flattened the dough, put a dollop of Nutella in the center, covered it back up with dough, and rolled it into a ball. It was very tasty, but I liked the cookies just as much without it :)



ENJOY!

Chocolate chip cookies have always been my greatest dessert weakness, so I can’t wait to try some more cookie recipes this year!

Adapted from Ambitious Kitchen.