Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• ½ cup / 115 g Unsalted butter
• ¾ cup / 150 g Light brown sugar
• ¼ cup / 50 g Granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp Heavy cream
• 1 Large egg
• 2 tsp Vanilla extract
• 1¼ cup / 150 g All-purpose flour
• 1 tsp Baking soda
• ½ tsp Fine salt
• 1 cup / 145 g Semisweet chocolate, chopped

Method

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment. The parchment is extra. It is not in the measured ingredients.
2. Put the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Swirl it every half minute. When it foams, smells nutty, and shows brown flecks, take it off the heat and scrape the flecks into the butter. Let it cool until it is warm, not scorching. Browning cooks off water. The calories stay in the pan. The 115 g is the butter before it browns.
3. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and fine salt in a small bowl. The thread gives the flour as 1¼ cups and also as 150 g. This version uses 150 g.
4. Beat the brown sugar, granulated sugar, cooled brown butter, and heavy cream for about a minute. Beat in the egg and the vanilla. The thread says heavy cream, or another high-fat milk. This version uses heavy cream.
5. Add the flour mixture and mix on low only until it disappears. Fold in the chopped chocolate. The thread mixes semisweet and milk chocolate and weighs that cup at 145 g. This version uses 145 g of chopped semisweet chocolate.
6. Scoop the dough in 2-tablespoon portions. The thread does not say how many cookies that makes. Twenty scoops is the cut used here. Chill the scoops at least 1 hour. They can go into a freezer bag for later. Bake those from frozen a couple of minutes longer.
7. Heat the oven to 350°F / 175°C, or 325°F / 165°C if the oven is convection. Set the scoops about 2 inches apart. Bake 12 to 14 minutes, until the edges are golden and the centers still look soft. The thread sprinkled a pinch of salt on each cookie. Those pinches are not measured, so they are not in the count. Cool the cookies on the sheet for a few minutes, then move them to a rack. They keep a couple of days in a closed tin.

Nutrition

Kitchen estimate only, not lab-verified. Counted as 1 of 20 cookies: the unsalted butter, the light brown sugar, the granulated sugar, the heavy cream, the egg, the vanilla, the all-purpose flour, the baking soda, the fine salt, and the chopped semisweet chocolate. The thread scoops the dough in 2-tablespoon portions and does not print a count. The weighed ingredients come to 691 g, so 20 scoops is about 35 g each. The pinches of salt on top of the baked cookies are not measured, so they are not in the count. Browning cooks off water. The 115 g is the butter before it browns, and the calories stay in the pan. The flour line is 1¼ cups and also 150 g. A USDA cup of all-purpose flour is 125 g, so 1¼ cups would be 156 g. The written 150 g is used. The brown sugar line is ¾ cup and also 150 g. A packed USDA ¾ cup is 165 g. The written 150 g is used. The chocolate line mixes semisweet and milk chocolate at 145 g. The row is semisweet, and a USDA cup of chips is 168 g. The written 145 g is used. Added sugars are the brown sugar, the granulated sugar, the vanilla, and the chocolate.

Guest diet / allergy swaps

Short kitchen notes for guests. A fuller gluten-free or dairy-free ingredient list, when we have one, is in the panels below.

• Dairy-free

  The dairy is the butter, the heavy cream, and any milk in the chocolate. Use 115 g of a plant butter you already bake with, and 1 Tbsp of a plain unsweetened dairy-free cream or a high-fat plant milk. Use 145 g of chopped chocolate whose package says dairy-free. Read those packages. Some plant butters add soy, and some group coconut with tree nuts. The cookie will brown differently. This is a kitchen note, not a dairy-free certification.

• Gluten-free style

  The wheat is the all-purpose flour. Use 150 g of a cup-for-cup blend whose bag says gluten-free. Read the chocolate and the baking soda. Butter, sugars, cream, egg, vanilla, and salt do not call for wheat. This is a kitchen note, not a gluten-free certification.

• Egg-free

  The recipe uses 1 large egg. A flax or chia egg is a different cookie, and this dough was not tested that way. Skip this batch if the cookie has to leave out eggs. This is a kitchen note, not an allergen clearance.

• Soy-free chocolate

  The semisweet row used for the count is a candy that often includes soy lecithin. Use 145 g of chopped chocolate whose package does not list soy. The rest of the dough does not call for soy. This is a kitchen note, not an allergen clearance.