Joy's Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pecans(22)

 

Few things in life are as satisfying, and easy to obtain, as a warm chocolate chip cookie. I've been using the same recipe for years. It was great for me to make these cookies, and step out of the box. 

First, you should know that the brown butter has to cool for 20 minutes before you put it in the batter. And then the cookie dough has to be refrigerated for 30 minutes before baking. When I bake my "regular" cookies, I have them in the oven less than 5 minutes after I gather the ingredients. Plan accordingly.

I'm not sure why they have you line baking sheets with parchment in step one. You don't need this for about 45 minutes, at the beginning of step 10. So the first thing I actually did was cook 8 Tbs. of the butter into brown butter.   The recipe gave a great description of how to do this.  Then I set it aside to cool. 

About 25 minutes later, I beat the remaining butter with the brown sugar for 5 minutes. I scraped the bowl. I added in the vanilla and molasses, and stirred until combined. I scraped the bowl. I added in the brown butter and sugar. This time I beat for a full 2 minutes, and then, you guessed it, scraped the bowl. The dough was super fluffy after that beating. I've never seen that in a cookie dough before. And the brown butter smelled amazing. 

Next, the egg and yolk were beat in, before all the dry ingredients were added (flour, salt, baking soda). This  took about 1 minute to fully incorporate, and then I mixed in the chocolate and pecans by hand. I did deviate a little from the recipe, adding in 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips, and 1/2 cup bittersweet chunks. 

I dumped the dough into some plastic wrap, pressed it until it was about 1.5 inches thick and shaped like an amoeba, and then placed it in the fridge to cool. 

30 minutes later, I preheated the oven and put parchment on my pans. I took out the dough and scooped it into 1 ounce balls. Yes, I weighed them. I sprinkled half the cookies with a large flake salt, just to have some unsalted for me and the kids. 

The recipe says to bake for 12-15 minutes. I put them on 12. They were overcooked.  By a lot. The next batch I cooked for 9 minutes, and they were perfect. 

These cookies were so thin, it was difficult to get a picture of the inside. They are definitely spreaders. They have a thin crisp exterior, with a thin, soft center.  I preferred the cookies without the salt on top. 

I should have toasted my pecans before I put them in the dough. That would have added a depth of flavor to the nuts. 

She really nailed it on the molasses amount. I couldn't single out the flavor of the molasses individually, but I felt like it gave the whole thing a warm delicious boost. And the brown butter! Genius! It was the crowning glory of these cookies. 

The only reason I didn't rate these a '5' is because I prefer my cookies to be thick and cakey. These were thin and chewy. So if that's your cookie preference you are going to LOVE these cookies.  

Scores (out of 5): Dustin: 4. Breanna: 4. Michael: 4. James: 5. Andrew: 5. Total  22/25

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/joys-brown-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies-with-pecans-recipe