browned butter and sea salt chocolate chip cookies

It’s been awfully quiet around these parts lately… I’m pretty sure I just saw a tumbleweed roll past. 🙂 In reality, Abby started school last week, and Geoff started school this week, and I’ve been busy trying to get everything sorted and everyone on a schedule. Even Lizzy is going to preschool one day a week, and I’m taking a continuing education class. It’s going to be a busy but fun semester for us!

I’m a firm believer in after-school snacks. I love having a little something special waiting for Abby when she comes home! She sits down and munches away, and tells me all about her day at school. I look through her school papers and we do her 15 minutes of reading, and it’s one of my favorite parts of the day. And what’s better and more homey than an awesome chocolate chip cookie?

These particular chocolate chip cookies are pretty amazing. The browned butter gives them an awesome rich caramely flavor (yes, caramely is totally a word, right?) and the sea salt makes the flavors in the cookie even richer. I’m not usually one to snack too much on cookie dough, but I couldn’t stop snitching little chunks of this dough. Look how amazing it is:

I will say that I wish I had coarser-grained sea salt, but you have to work with what you’ve got. I think some of that pink sea salt would be pretty on cookies, but it’s probably not that important what color my sea salt is. 🙂 Whatever kind you’ve got works great!

Browned Butter and Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from these cookies

12 tablespoons butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups + 2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips)
1 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat oven to 325. Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Cook 4-5 minutes, or until the butter starts to brown. Remove from heat and let cool slightly. In a large bowl or the bowl of stand mixer, mix together the butter and sugars. Mix in the egg, yolk, and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, and salt. (If the dough is very crumbly and won’t come together, add a teaspoon or two of milk.) Gently fold in chocolate chips. Divide the dough into 18 balls, and pull each ball into two pieces using your hands. Place one half, rough side down, on a lightly greased baking sheet, then place the other half, rough side up, on top of the first half. Sprinkle each cookie with sea salt. Bake 12-15 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the edges. The middles of the cookies should still be soft. Let cool on baking sheet for 5-10 minutes, then remove to cooling rack.