Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (300g)
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon fine sea or table salt
8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1¼ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1½ cups chocolate chips

Instructions

Makes: about 24 cookies

Cook the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring often until it browns, 5–8 minutes (see guide below for more details). Transfer the browned butter into a large bowl (making sure to scrape all of the butter solids into the bowl).
Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar to the bowl. Using an electric mixer on low speed (or a whisk), mix the sugar into the butter until incorporated, about 1 minute. Set aside and allow to cool for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
Add eggs and vanilla to the browned butter and sugar mixture, and mix or whisk at high speed until mixture lightens and begins to thicken, at least 2 minutes (you can keep beating the egg into the butter and sugar here for a while, which will result in a slightly fluffier cookie in the end. Don't beat the egg so long that it breaks though!).
Add dry ingredients to the wet and fold in with a rubber spatula just to combine. Mix in chocolate chips with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be pretty loose at this stage, not fully holding its shape – this is alright! It will thicken up in the next stage. If your dough still looks wet at this point, fold in a bit of extra flour, but if it is just loose, leave it.
Let dough sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to allow flour to hydrate (or let sit in the fridge up to 24 hours, until you are ready to bake).
Place a rack in the middle of the oven; preheat to 375°F. Portion out ping pong ball sized balls of dough and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing about 3" apart. Do not flatten; cookies will spread as they bake. Optionally sprinkle with sea salt.
Bake cookies until the edges are golden brown and firm but the centers are still soft, 9–11 minutes. Let cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough and a fresh parchment-lined cooled baking sheet.

Note on freezing cookie dough: These cookies are designed to be just as great right out of the oven as they are a day or two later. But, if you can't get enough of that fresh-out-of-the-oven goodness, you can freeze your cookie dough and bake small batches at a time. To do this, after letting the dough rest (step 6), form into ping-pong sized balls and arrange in a grid on a baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for an hour. Once the cookie dough balls have firmed up, transfer them to a bag or tupperware and put them in your freezer. To bake, preheat your oven or toaster oven to 350°F, place however many cookies you want on a parchment lined baking sheet, and bake for 14-16 minutes directly from frozen.

A Guide to Browning Butter:

Browning butter is weird! If you've never done it before, it can be confusing, so below I've included a step by step guide of what to look for when you are browning your butter. The process of browning butter involves melting the butter, cooking almost all of the water out of it, and then toasting (aka browning) the milk solids to impart a toffee-like flavor. Here's how to do it:

Melt the butter in a small pot over medium-low heat. If you have one, use a pot with a white or light colored interior, as it will make it easier to see the butter change color.
Once the butter is melted, it will start to foam. Stir occasionally with a silicone spatula and scrape down the sides to make sure the butter solids are all incorporated.
Once the butter has finished foaming, it will begin to bubble vigorously. Keep stirring it and allow it to bubble – this is when most of the water is cooking off.
After it bubbles for a while, it will start to foam again, this time with a slightly darker colored foam. Keep stirring and scraping the sides and bottom of the pot, making sure nothing is sticking. The butter may transition to another bubbling phase before it is done, but that is alright.
At this point, you should start checking the see if the butter is done browning. When it is done, the butter solids in the bottom of the pan will turn a rich brown color, and the butter will begin to smell like toffee. The foam on the butter will also begin to turn brown at this point. Continue cooking and stirring until the butter reaches this state, and then immediately transfer it to a heat resistant vessel like a glass measuring cup to stop the cooking.

The longer you let the butter brown and the darker you let it get, the more intense the browned butter flavor will be, but if you go too far, the milk solids will burn and ruin the butter. Good luck!

This recipe is adapted from a number of recipes, with additional tweaks by Eren Slifker. References:

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/brown-butter-and-toffee-chocolate-chip-cookies
The New Best Recipe by Cook's Illustrated

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