
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:
- 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.
- Sift together dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt, cornstarch) in a bowl.
- 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.
- Add dry ingredients to wet slowly (approximately 1/4 C at a time). When completely combined, add in chocolate chips.
- 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.)
- 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)
- 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
