Brown butter chocolate chip sea salt cookies

Does anyone else feel like quarantine is a perfect excuse for weeknight baking? Not sure I needed an excuse, but since I’m home all the time, it has been nice to have sweets on the counter readily available as a treat after hours upon hours of zoom calls. This recipe is a perfect make-ahead dough that you can either bake all at once or bake in batches as you crave cookies. They have a beautiful nutty flavor from the brown butter and a salty sweet balance from the sea salt and semisweet chocolate. YUM!

Ingredients:

• 1 C (16 T) unsalted butter (I like kerrygold butter best)
• 3/4 C dark brown sugar
• 3/4 C white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1/8 C milk (I used 2%)
• 2.5 C all-purpose flour
• 1 t cornstarch
• 1.5 t baking soda
• 1 t salt
• 1 C semi-sweet choc chips (feel free to add extra if you want super chocolatey flavor)
• sea salt for topping

**Makes 36 cookies and requires dough to be chilled 2 hours so plan ahead**

Recipe:

1. Brown the butter in a sauce pan. To do this, melt the butter on low heat and stir. Continue to stir for about 5 minutes until color darkens and smell gets nutty. Transfer to a bowl and chill in the fridge until semi-solid. Important that this cools enough to not melt the sugar, but doesn’t need to be completely solid.
2. Sift together dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, cornstarch) in a bowl.
3. In your stand mixer bowl or a bowl with a hand mixer, combine sugars. Remove butter from the fridge and cream together. Then add in milk, eggs, and vanilla and beat together.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet slowly (approximately 1/4 C at a time). When completely combined, add in chocolate chips.
5. Form balls of cookie dough. You can use a melon-baller or mini-ice cream scoop if you want them to all be equal sized. I was lazy and didn’t care that they were exactly even, so I just greased my hands and tore off pieces of the dough. Place them on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerate at least 2 hours. (Yes, you have to wait. The cookies won’t stay together unless the dough chills. Trust me, this step is worth it.)
6. Go do something while the cookies chill in the fridge. Need ideas? Workout! Watch a movie! Take another zoom call! Dip in the pool! Eat dinner! Have a glass of wine! Read a good book! (you get the idea)
7. Remove dough from fridge. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Place cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Immediately transfer to a wire rack and top with sea salt sprinkle. Cool on a wire rack at least 5 minutes. The center will slightly harden, but the cookie should keep an overall chewy consistency. Enjoy with ice cream or a glass of milk or a latte!

Recipe adapted from a recipe by Sally’s Baking Addiction