August 8, 2011

The Best Browned Butter and Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies

Name: The Best Browned Butter and Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 10 min
Ingredients: 2 sticks unsalted butter; 2 cups bread flour; 1 teaspoon kosher salt; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar; 1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon dark molasses (not blackstrap); 1 egg; 1 egg yolk; 2 cups dark chocolate chips or chunks

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The Best Browned Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies are soft and delightfully chewy with the most incredible flavor! A rich and deep flavor from the molasses in our homemade brown sugar and loaded with melty chocolate chips. These cookies are dangerous!

You know you just made an amazing cookie when your visiting Italian cousin sweetly asks if she should put aside a couple for breakfast the next day. She’s afraid there may not be any left the next morning for breakfast. I think I may never have to try another chocolate chip cookie recipe again.

Browned Butter and Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies

This cookie recipe invokes both happiness and fear. You’re overwhelmed with feelings of pure happiness with that first bite. A happiness like you haven’t felt in a while. Soon the happiness starts to fade away and you’re overcome with a little fear.

A slight feeling of dread that you may have eaten your last amazing cookie.

That is how good these cookies are.

The funny thing is…I don’t usually make chocolate chip cookies. My mom makes the world’s best chocolate chip cookies. They’re not too chewy and they have just the right amount of chips in every bite. They’re seriously wonderful. Why would I attempt to make them when hers are so wonderful?

But I was presented with the opportunity this month through the fabulous Vintage Recipe Swap group my friend Christianna put together. I was excited about this month’s recipe. I love baking with molasses. It’s so rich and adds a wonderful texture to cookies.

While I was baking the cookies, Silvia, the other cousin visiting us, took a look at the molasses bottle and asked if it was soy sauce. She said it smelled funny and had never seen it before. It may smell funny, but a little bit mixed with granulated sugar makes a mighty fine cookie.

I’m not an expert on gluten-free baking so I found a recipe with flour in it. I never made cookies with bread flour before.

What is the secret to make these the best cookies?

I’ve made quite a few chocolate chip cookies in my life. I experienced with so many different recipes. I still haven’t found a cookie that is quite as delightful as these!

These are the tips for these lovely cookies:

Add Bread Flour: To get that nice and chewy cookie dough, bread flour is the key! It does really change the texture of the cookie. Tested and approved!
Use Dark Brown Sugar: So we made our own brown sugar here with molasses. Truly added a wonderful flavor difference! But you could use store-bought brown sugar. Just make sure you use brown sugar!
Cool the brown butter: If you set aside the browned butter to cool, it will give you a little crispier texture. If you cool the butter in the fridge after you brown it (and then bring to room temperature) it will be like baking with softened butter. If you don’t cool the browned butter, you’re chocolate chips will melt a bit and you’ll get lovely chocolate swirls. You could add more chocolate chips on top of the cookies just before baking.
Add an egg yolk: That extra egg yolk does make a difference! It makes the dough just bit more chewy.
Chill the dough: Don’t forget the last step before baking. I promise it makes a difference. The dough has to be firm and cold. It really helps to hold the shape of the cookie. If you don’t chill, you’ll get a flatter cookie…not that there’s any thing wrong with that!

My son helped me out in adding the molasses to the sugar. Actually, he started to pour it in when I went to grab my camera to take a photo. He then smiled and told me, “I’ll help mommy make cookies!” We stirred it together really well. And that is how you make brown sugar. How easy is that? Maybe this is the secret of why these cookies are so incredible.

Or it could have been the browned butter? That was a good idea. Our cousin Stefania asked me about how many calories are there in each cookie? She giggled and asked if there are a lot. I told her to relax because she is on vacation and just enjoy the calories. I didn’t mention that two sticks of butter.

I baked the cookies about 10 minutes. The cookies were chewy and a little crisp around the edges. That is my idea of a perfect cookie. This is a recipe you must try soon.

recipe slightly adapted from Alton Brown and Joy the Baker

What’s needed for chocolate chip cookies?

Here is what you need to have on hand to bake the most addictive chocolate chip cookies. If you’re missing something, make sure you pick it up to bake these as soon as possible:

unsalted butter
bread flour
kosher salt
baking soda
granulated sugar
dark molasses, not blackstrap
egg
egg yolk
dark chocolate chips or chunks

More cookie recipes:

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