Brown-Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

By @brooke.bakes, Austin, TX

Browned butter, an overnight rest, salted tops. Crackly, chewy, never cakey.

I weigh everything. I'm that person, and I've made my peace with it. After about two hundred batches I landed here: brown the butter for the nuttiness, use mostly bread flour for chew, and rest the dough overnight so the flour fully hydrates. Austin summers mean the dough goes soft fast, so I scoop it cold. Crackly on top, chewy in the middle, and never — never — cakey.

Ingredients

• 227g butter, browned then cooled
• 200g brown sugar
• 100g white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 250g bread flour
• 60g all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 250g dark chocolate, chopped
• to finish flaky salt

Method

1. Brown the butter until it smells nutty and the milk solids go amber. Cool to room temperature.
2. Whisk in both sugars, then the eggs and vanilla until glossy.
3. Fold in the flours, baking soda and salt, then the chocolate.
4. Chill the dough at least overnight — up to three days. This is the whole secret.
5. Scoop into balls and bake at 180°C for 11–12 minutes, until the edges are set but the centres still look underdone.
6. Bang the tray once, finish with flaky salt, and cool on the sheet.