Brown Butter and Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

-LW

Source: http://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/2012/02/brown-butter-sea-salt-chocolate-chip-cookies/

This is a delicious and classy version of chocolate chip cookies. The browned butter gives them such a nice nutty flavor. It's not important that you use a mixture of different types of chocolate chips. I made them with chunks of 72% chocolate once, and they were amazing. I imagine they'd also be good with some chopped toasted hazelnuts mixed into the dough. If you actually scoop the dough into 1/4 cup balls, the cookies turn out huge and may need to bake a little longer. I generally make them a bit smaller.

The original author of this recipe also has a version where she stuffs the cookies with a spoonful of nutella before baking. I tried it once but found it too frustruating to put together and unnecessarily rich. However, here's that link as well if you are so inclined:

http://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/2012/09/nutella-stuffed-brown-butter-sea-salt-chocolate-chip-cookies-my-favorite-cookie-ever/

Ingredients
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of sea salt, plus more for sprinkling

1 cup unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or you can use whatever kind of chocolate you have around

3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Make sure you whisk consistently during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom  of the saucepan. Continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown and give off a nutty aroma. Immediately transfer the butter to a bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

With an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined. Add the dry ingredients slowly and beat on low-speed just until combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Chill your dough for 2 hours in the refrigerator, or place in freezer for 30 minutes if you are super eager.

Once dough is chilled measure 1/4 cup of the dough into a ball. It doesn’t have to be perfectly rolled. Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and sprinkle each dough ball with a little bit of sea salt.

Bake the cookies 9-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but will continue to cook once out of the oven. Cool the cookies on the sheets and sprinkle with a little extra sea salt if desired. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets after a few minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.