Chocolate Chip Cookies
These are the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. The only cookie rivalling them for best chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever eaten are the ones at Levain Bakery in NYC (if you know, you know). This recipe has a few interesting ingredients which really set them over the top, but the most interesting thing is letting these sit in the fridge overnight. The recipe may look time consuming, but really you’re just tossing them in the fridge.
Original Recipe by Tasty. Click Here for their recipe.
Time: 2 days
Difficulty: 3/5 (have to not burn your brown butter)
Tested: YES
Makes: 10 large cookies
Ingredients
Toffee
6 tbsp unsalted butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 tsp kosher salt
water, as needed
Cookie Dough
1 cup unsalted butter
4 ice cubes
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar, packed
2 tsp espresso powder (instant or very fine espresso grind coffee works too)
2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
6 oz roughly chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chunks (60-70% cacao)
Flaky sea salt for finishing
Method
Toffee: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium nonstick saucepan over medium heat, melt butter, brown sugar, and salt, stirring until incorporated. Cook until mixture reaches 290 F (about 10-15 mins), stirring constantly. If the toffee starts to separate while cooking, add a small splash of water and mix vigorously to emulsify. Pour finished toffee onto parchment-lined baking tray and place in freezer for about 30 minutes or until ready to use.
Cookie dough: Add butter to a medium nonstick saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the butter turns dark golden brown and smells nutty. Do not let the butter burn! Remove from heat and carefully add one ice cube (it will froth and bubble) and let melt slowly. Stir and add the remaining 3 ice cubes. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine granulated and brown sugars, espresso, salt, and baking soda. Pour brown butter into this sugar mix and stir to combine (the mixture likely will still be separated - that’s ok!).
In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and vanilla. Pour this into the sugar and butter mixture and whisk until glossy and smooth. Add the flour and mix with a spatula until no flour streaks remain.
Remove toffee from freezer, place into a large ziplock bag and use a rolling pin or hammer to shatter into bite sized chunks (about the same size as the chocolate chunks).
Fold the toffee and chocolate chunks into the batter. Let firm up in the fridge for 10 minutes.
Using a scoop or spoon, make anywhere between 10 and 15 equally-sized balls depending on how large you like your cookies. Place formed balls on parchment-lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and let rest in fridge overnight.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 325 F. Line a baking tray with parchment and place cookies on tray leaving ample room between cookies as they will spread. Bake 15-20 minutes until edges are golden but center is still soft and gooey (the center should look fairly underdone as it will keep cooking as it cools and we want a gooey and chewy center of our finished cookies).
Sprinkle hot cookies with flaky salt and let cool. The cookies should be very soft when removed from the oven, but firm up as they cool. Enjoy!
*Note: Once the cookie dough balls rest overnight, you may place the tray in the freezer and store frozen cookies in a plastic bag until ready to bake. I have found that cooking from frozen works perfectly fine, however, slightly more cooking time is required.