Burnt butter chocolate chip cookies are NOT your average cookies. Yes, the ingredients are the same and yes they probably look the same but I assure you, these have their flavour ramped right up! Nutty and almost toffee like undertones make these possibly the best cookies you’ll eat today!
What makes these burnt butter chocolate chip cookies different?
Now, there isn’t anything massive that makes this any different to any other of the millions of cookie recipes. Apart from one thing! Instead of using softened butter, I melt the lot down over a high heat. After a while the butter foams and the milk solids begin to burn.
Burnt butter or “beurre noisette” literally translates as hazelnut butter. This is because of its beautiful nutty aroma as it cooks. As the butter cooks, the milk solids separate from the butterfat. As they sink to the bottom they turn a gorgeous dark brown. For these cookies, it’s the star of the show.
How to measure out your cookies before baking
Have you ever bought ground coffee and found a really long deep spoon or scoop in the packaging? Or perhaps you have an aeropress coffee maker (my preferred method of coffee making by the way)? If so you’ve got the key to measuring what I think to be the perfect size for cookies. With the recipe below, each level spoonful of the dough using one of these spoons weighs about 40g.
40g of dough will produce gorgeous round cookies that are about 9cm round (yes, I did measure and this was the average). It’s a great way to make each cookie consistent. Fill the spoon and level off, then tap out and roll into a ball before placing on your tray. It really couldn’t be simpler.
Obviously, if you have something similar it will probably be different size to mine so just do a quick weigh in on the first spoon full to see where you land.
Here’s the recipe, thanks for reading!
Burnt Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 125 g Salted Butter
- 100 g Dark Brown Sugar
- 125 g Caster Sugar
- 250 g Self Raising Flour
- 1 tspn Vanilla Bean Paste
- 100 g Chocolate Chips 80g to use in the dough, 20g to decorate
Instructions
- Pre heat oven to 160 degrees C Gas mark 4
- In a frying pan, melt your butter on a high heat until it bubbles & foams. As it bubbles stir occasionally until you start to smell a nutty smell.You’ll also as you stir start to see a darker streak in the froth. When you see this, remove the pan from the heat and decant into a bowl. Scrape all of the dark butter solids into the bowl and set aside to cool.
- In a large bowl, combine your sugars, vanilla bean paste and egg and cream together. Don’t over whisk this but it should be paler in colour and should double in size.
- Add half of your flour and combine. When fully combined, add the second half.
- Add a quarter of the burnt butter mix at a time and combine by folding through the mixture with a rubber spatula. Combine fully before repeating. It doesn’t have to be exact but don’t just chuck it all in in one go. Especially if it’s still hot!
- Add your chocolate chips and combine. Eat a few to check they’re good.
- Using a spoon, spoon out your dough. I like to get about 35-40g at a time and roll them into little balls.
- Line a tray with grease proof paper and grease it with some of the salted butter, you’ll only need to do this once and use the same tray to cook these cookies in batches of 6. I actually use a pizza base tray that has holes in it. I can space the cookies far enough away, 5 on the outside and 1 in the centre, that when they bake and flatten, they don’t touch.
- Cook for each batch for 12 minutes. Transfer each cookie with a spatula to a cooling tray. Each cookie will still look and feel quite soft but these will harden up after a minute or so on the cooling tray.
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