Ingredients:

Yields 10 – 12 large cookies

• 110g unsalted butter (½ cup)
• 50g caster sugar (¼ cup)
• 50g brown sugar (¼ cup)
• 1 large egg OR
• 50g yogurt (3 tbsp)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 140g all-purpose flour (1 cup +2 tbsp)
• ½tsp baking soda
• ½tsp salt
• 150g dark chocolate chips/ chunks (50-70%) (1 cup)
• Sea salt flakes (Maldon)

Process:

Making the cookie dough:

1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, and stirring continuously cook on medium-low heat till the milk solids turn a deep golden brown and the butter gives off a nutty aroma. This will take 5-10 minutes. Be careful not to burn the butter.
2. Transfer browned butter into a large mixing bowl to cool to room temperature, then set in the fridge to cool until it solidifies, but not completely hardens ~ about 20 minutes.
3. Take the butter out of the fridge and add in the sugars. Cream the two together using a whisk until pale and fluffy, 5 minutes by hand or 2-3 minutes with an electric whisk.
4. Next, add in the egg/yogurt and vanilla and whisk to combine. Exchange the whisk with a spatula.
5. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Sift into the butter-sugar mix. Gently fold it in using a spatula.
6. Finally, add in the chocolate chips/chunks and fold them in evenly.
7. Rest the cookie dough in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes or up to overnight or 1-2 days. Remember to take out the overnight/1-2 day cookie dough 30 minutes before baking.

Baking the cookies:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180°C.
2. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, place golf ball sized scoops of cookie dough spaced out 2-3 inches. Flatten them a little with your palm.
3. Bake for 15-17 minutes until the edges of the cookies are golden brown and the centres are still slightly soft.
4. Once out of the oven, sprinkle flaky sea salt on the cookies immediately.
5. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
6. These cookies are best enjoyed slightly warm from the oven or at room temperature. Store remaining in an airtight container at room temp. for up to 4-5 days.

Notes:

• Brown butter takes these cookies from tasting like a ten to a straight up one hundred, (a little exaggeration, but I promise it makes a lot of difference). If you really don’t want to put in the effort *sigh* you can simply use 100g of regular unsalted butter at room temp and begin from step 3.
• Using good quality ingredients is always important, but even more in the case of chocolate. Use the best you can find – chips/callets or a bar chopped into chunks. I use Callebaut 54.5% dark chocolate callets, but at a smaller scale Lindt, Hersheys, Cadbury, or Amul have decent chocolate bars.
• The usual 30-minute rest helps a lot in terms of texture so don’t skip it. A longer maturation of overnight to a couple of days helps to hydrate the dough, making it chewy and also just taste better. Trust me, it’s worth the wait.
• Since my novice baking days, I always used eggs in my baking, but over time and with incessant requests from friends for eggless goodies, I have found yoghurt to be a good replacer in most cases. With the eggless cookie dough, you are better off flattening the scooped out dough a tad more to get a flatter cookie.
• Another helpful little trick, to get flatter cookies and crisp edges, is ‘pan banging’! Thank you, Sarah Kieffer. I usually do this at the 5-minute mark, using a folded kitchen towel to bang/tap-quite-hard my baking tray on and then continue baking. The result is a thin and crisp-edged cookie with a soft interior (my favourite kind!).
• This cookie dough can live in the fridge for a good week. Alternatively, if you want to have cookie dough on hand at all times, just make a big batch, scoop it out, freeze and then store in ziplock bags in the freezer. Bake them straight out, no need to thaw, just for a couple minutes longer.
• Variations: add extra tidbits such as nuts or dried fruits, marshmallows, instant coffee granules, crushed up potato chips, toffee, etc.
• This recipe was adapted from one of Martha Stewart’s. You can find the recipe and tutorial here. Happy baking 🙂