Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Instructions

1. 1

   Brown the butter

   Cut the butter into tablespoon-sized pieces and melt it in a light-colored skillet or saucepan over medium heat. It will foam up, go quiet, then start throwing off a nutty smell as brown flecks collect on the bottom. Scrape the base constantly with a heatproof spatula for the last minute or two so those milk solids toast instead of burn. Total time is usually 5 to 8 minutes. Pour every drop, flecks included, into a large mixing bowl.

2. 2

   Cool the butter and add the sugars

   Let the butter sit for 10 to 15 minutes, until it's warm rather than hot. Whisk in both sugars and the milk. The milk replaces the water that cooked off during browning, which is what keeps these chewy instead of crumbly. Whisk hard for a full minute, until the mixture looks glossy and slightly thickened.

3. 3

   Beat in the eggs

   Add the whole eggs, the extra yolk, and the vanilla, then whisk vigorously for about 45 seconds until the batter is smooth and lightens slightly in color. If the butter is still hot at this point the eggs will scramble, so check it's only warm to the touch first.

4. 4

   Combine the dry ingredients

   In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and fine sea salt. Add this to the wet mixture and fold with a spatula just until no dry streaks remain. Stop the moment it comes together; overworking the flour now will make the baked cookies tough.

5. 5

   Fold in the chocolate

   Add the chocolate and fold it through. If you're using chopped chocolate rather than chips, the shards and dust that come off the board are a bonus, so tip those in too. The dough will look loose and shiny at this stage, which is exactly right.

6. 6

   Chill the dough

   Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 72 hours. One hour is enough to firm the fat and stop excessive spreading, but a full overnight rest is where the flavor really deepens into toffee territory. If you chill longer than a few hours, let the dough sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before scooping.

7. 7

   Heat the oven and portion

   Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line two sheet pans with parchment. Scoop the dough into 3-tablespoon balls, about 55g each, and space them at least 2 inches apart, six to a pan. Bake one sheet at a time on the middle rack for the most even results.

8. 8

   Bake

   Bake for 11 to 13 minutes. Pull them when the edges are set and golden but the centers still look puffy and underdone; they finish cooking on the hot pan. If you want those bakery-style ripples, rap the pan firmly on the counter once at the 9-minute mark and again right when they come out.

9. 9

   Finish and cool

   Sprinkle with flaky salt while the surfaces are still glossy so it sticks. Let the cookies sit on the pan for 5 minutes to set up, then move them to a wire rack. They're best about 15 minutes out of the oven, when the chocolate is still molten but the crumb has firmed.

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Baker's Tips

• 1.

  Use a stainless or light-colored pan to brown the butter. In a dark nonstick skillet you can't see the color change, and the line between nutty and burnt is about thirty seconds wide.

• 2.

  Weigh your flour if you can. A heavy-handed scoop can add 30g or more per cup, which is the single most common reason homemade cookies turn out dry and cakey.

• 3.

  Chopped chocolate from a bar beats chips for looks and texture. Chips contain stabilizers that help them hold their shape, while chopped chocolate melts into ribbons and puddles.

• 4.

  Bake a test cookie before committing the batch. If it spreads more than you'd like, chill the remaining dough another 30 minutes; if it stays domed, flatten the tops of the dough balls slightly.

• 5.

  Dough balls freeze beautifully. Freeze them solid on a tray, bag them, and bake straight from frozen with 2 extra minutes added.

• 6.

  If your cookies come out pale, your oven is likely running cool. An oven thermometer costs a few dollars and fixes more baking problems than any technique.

Equipment

• Light-colored skillet or saucepan
• Heatproof spatula
• Large mixing bowl
• Whisk
• Two rimmed sheet pans
• Parchment paper
• 3-tablespoon cookie scoop
• Wire cooling rack
• Kitchen scale

Storage