Oh my.
I have a lot of cookie recipes. Chocolate chip, double chocolate, oatmeal raisin, snicker doodle, macaroon, unbaked… Whatever. None of those matter anymore. Not since I found this recipe. Quite frankly, this is the cookie legends are made of. This is the cookie every cookie wants to be when they grow up. When I first read the recipe and the reviews, I thought it was different and probably good but I thought people were exaggerating. I mean really, how good could this cookie be?
Let me tell you. They were not exaggerating. The original recipe can be found here, at ambitiouskitchen.com, but I’m posting here so I don’t ever lose it and because I will make it again and again (although I probably shouldn’t).
The browned butter gives these an amazing, nutty, caramelly flavour… the dough almost smells like butter tarts. The original post links to a great tutorial at simplyrecipes.com on how to properly brown butter (the last thing you want is to accidentally burn a cup of butter!).
These are more labour intensive than a regular cookie. But they are worth it. Just be prepared to take some time to let the dough chill for a couple hours, and putting them together takes some effort too – the dough is crumblier than I thought but the cookies are soft and delicious! Make sure you don’t over bake and don’t skimp on the sea salt!
- 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 2 sticks (1 cup) butter
- 1 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar (I only had light on hand and they were still delicious!)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt
- 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (I ended up using 1 1/4 cups semi-sweet and 1/2 cup coarsely chopped dark chocolate since it was all I had on hand)
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1 jar of Nutella, chilled in refrigerator
- Coarse sea salt for sprinkling
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Make sure you whisk consistently during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the saucepan; continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown and give off a nutty aroma. Immediately transfer the butter to a bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
- With an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined. Add the dry ingredients slowly and beat on low-speed just until combined. Gently fold in all of the chocolate chips.
- Chill your dough for 2 hours in the refrigerator, or place in freezer for 30 minutes if you are super eager, although I cannot promise the same results if you do this.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Once dough is chilled measure about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Flatten the dough ball very thinly into the palm of your hand. Place 1 teaspoon of chilled nutella in the middle and fold dough around it; gently roll into a ball — it doesn’t have to be perfectly rolled! Make sure that the nutella is not seeping out of the dough. Add more dough if necessary. Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and flatten with your hand VERY gently. (Really only the tops need to be flattened a bit!)
- Bake the cookies 9-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but will continue to cook once out of the oven. Cool the cookies on the sheets at least 2 minutes. Sprinkle with a little sea salt. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets after a few minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.