Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Have I finally found my go-to cookie recipe?

When I was in graduate school, I had the opportunity to be a teaching assistant. And, as fate would have it, I would end up TAing a “Science of Food” class 2 years in a row.

(FYI: this was one of my favorite fun facts about myself as a graduate student, always a great conversation starter. My second favorite fun facts was that I would sing while doing microscopy late at night so the UCLA janitors would call me the “Singing Maria”.)

Anyways, in this class I TA’ed, the final project of the quarter was for all the students to conduct well-controlled experiments on how to bake the perfect pie. This meant thorough scientific tests into how changing temperatures of ingredients, cooking and baking times, volumes of liquid, etc. would affect one quality of a pie: flakiness, viscosity, coloration, or taste.

And the example we gave the class for how to conduct a rigorous scientific experiment on baking was via….the chocolate chip cookie.

There was a segment on NPR about a decade ago on the science behind the "perfect chocolate chip cookie", a detailed study explaining the disparities between baking soda vs. baking powder, brown vs. white sugar, melted vs. softened butter, bread vs. all-purpose flour. And while, I found this incredibly informative, this segment also left a profound impact on me because I realized that perhaps there is no golden recipe for the perfect chocolate chip cookie.

It seemed that no matter what you did, there would be someone who would prefer it a different way (chewy vs. crispy, thick vs. flat, gooey all over vs. soft in the middle).

But this recipe for brown butter chocolate chip cookies might just have me swayed.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Millie Peartree for NYT Cooking

1 cup unsalted butter

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg + 1 egg yolk at room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract

12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter, stirring and swirling the pan until the butter foams turns golden brown, and smells nutty, about 5 minutes. Pour into a large bowl and set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.

Add the sugar to the melted brown butter, mix.

Then add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and stir.

Add the flour mixture and stir until well-combined.

Stir in the chocolate. Working one at a time, scoop out dough and roll into a ball. Place the balls on the prepared sheet pan and chill for 1 hour.

When ready to bake, heat oven to 350 degrees and bake until edges start to turn golden, rotating halfway through, about 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and bang the pan on the counter. This creates a flatter, chewier cookie.

Let sit on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Overall rating:

• Perhaps the perfect score. The brown butter adds a layer of flavor beyond the chocolate chips, and the texture was the perfect amount soft, but not overly chewy.