brown butter chocolate chip cookies.

Hi everyone! Today I'm sharing cookies! And not just any cookies. These cookies are from the joy the baker cookbook. Her blog is one of the first that I ever started reading. She's so real in her writing that I feel like we're best friends in real life. When I received her book as a gift several years ago I bookmarked almost all the recipes and have been dying to make everything and we're starting with these cookies. 

These are actually going to work with me tomorrow. I work in higher education, and this is the week before our spring semester begins. There is no more chaos at a workplace than the week before college students come back to school. Everyone waits until the very last minute to get things done and it creates a lot of pressure and anxiety on all the staff. One thing I can say though, is that we always seem to pull together and work as a team. Each semester brings familiar problems and new disasters, but I have some great co-workers that I can rely on that make the issues much easier to solve. I'm thankful for that!

It's become a tradition to have a building-wide "junk food day" on the Friday before courses begin, and these are what I'm bringing to the party. How did I decide on these? Two reasons. 

1. chocolate
2. brown. butter.

Do you really need any other reasons? You sure don't!

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

recipe from the joy the baker cookbook

1 cup (2 sticks) plus 1 tablespoon butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon molasses

1/2 cup lightly packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (i used ghiradelli chips because they're HUGE)

Brown 1 stick plus 1 tablespoon of butter (directions for browning butter can be found here). Once the butter is browned immediately pour it into another container to cool slightly.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together the remaining butter and white sugar until creamy. 

Add in the vanilla extract and molasses, and beat until incorporated. Once the browned butter has cooled slightly, pour into the creamed butter mixture along with the brown sugar. Cream until well incorporated. Add in the egg and egg yolk, and beat for 1 more minute.

In another medium bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.

Add in the flour to the butter and sugar mixture all at once and beat on low speed until the flour is just incorporated. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold the chopped walnuts and chocolate chips.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

Remove your dough and roll tablespoons into balls and space 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. I used a small ice-cream scoop for this and my cookies came out perfect!

Bake cookies for 12 - 14 minutes until the edges are browned but the centers are still soft. 

Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack after about 5 minutes.

Also, as an additional note, a friend pointed out that my cookie 'C' in the top photo was facing the wrong direction. This is a perfect example to demonstrate how fried my brain is after work since I didn't even notice and then argued with him when he pointed it out. I was really impressed with my cute and creative idea so the photo remains in all its backwards-glory. Just go with it!