Cookie Challenge - Week 5

After a week of being home and back in the groove of things (well, almost anyways), I broke down Monday night and baked some cookies. It was so hot that day, but I already had chicken cooking, and these cookies ended up being well worth having the oven on! I had seen a recipe somewhere that used browned butter in their chocolate chip cookies and so I googled it and baked the first recipe that popped up (Twin Tables blog) and made them. And, ohhhh my goodness. . . These were so goooood! The first thing Jon said was, "Oh, good! nothing weird in them!" Little did he know that I took the time to brown my butter before preparing them, therefore they are NOT plain old chocolate chip cookies. Yeah!

I will say that as delicious as these cookies are, they do take a little bit more time to make since the require taking the time to brown the butter. But, please don't let that stop you. . . it's not that hard! In fact, once you do it once, you can actually do other things while the butter is browning and every so often swirling your pan.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks)
1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly greast two baking sheets or line with parchment paper. Whisk flour and bakign soda together in a medium bowl; set aside.Heat 10 tablespoons butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue to cook, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has a nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes more. Remove from skillet and transfer to a large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Stir in remaining 4 tablespoons butter until completely melted. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla to bowl with butter; whisk until funny incorporated. Stir in egg and yolk. Whisk mixture until no sugar lumps remain, about 30 seconds. Let mixture sit for about 3 minutes, then whisk it for 30 seconds; repeat this process two more times. After about 10 minutes, mixture should be thick, smooth, and shiny. Using a rubber spatula, stir in flour mixture until just combine, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips. Use cookie scoop to place dough on greased cookie sheet, parchment paper, or silpat. Bake cookies, one tray at a time, until cookies are golden brown, still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cook cookies completely on baking sheets.