Brown-Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Brown the butter Put the butter in a light-colored saucepan over medium heat. Let it melt, then continue cooking. It will foam and sputter as the water cooks away. Stir or swirl frequently. After several minutes, the milk solids at the bottom will turn golden brown and the butter will smell intensely nutty and caramel-like. Immediately pour everything—including all those brown bits—into a mixing bowl. Let it cool for 10–15 minutes. It should still be liquid but no longer screaming hot. The tablespoon of milk in this recipe replaces some of the water lost during browning, which helps preserve the chewiness.

Mix the sugars Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar to the browned butter. Whisk vigorously for about 30 seconds. Add: whole egg egg yolk milk vanilla Whisk for another 30–60 seconds, until the mixture becomes smooth, glossy, and slightly thickened.

Add the dry ingredients In another bowl, combine: flour baking soda baking powder salt Add them to the butter mixture. Fold with a spatula only until almost combined. Don't beat the dough. Overworking the flour makes a tougher, less tender cookie.

Add the chocolate Reserve a small handful of chocolate for the tops. Fold the rest into the dough. At this point the dough may be somewhat soft. That's normal.

Rest the dough Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Better: 4–6 hours. Best: overnight, 12–24 hours. This is not just about making the dough easier to handle. Hydrating the flour and allowing the dough to mature noticeably improves the flavor and produces a more substantial, chewy cookie.

Portion Heat the oven to 350°F / 175°C. Line a sheet pan with parchment. Portion the dough into roughly 55–60 g balls—about 3 tablespoons each. Don't flatten them. Press several chunks of the reserved chocolate into the tops. Leave about 3 inches between cookies.

Bake Bake for approximately: 10–12 minutes You are looking for a very specific appearance: edges are golden brown tops are beginning to set centers still look slightly underdone Take them out. Do not wait for the centers to look completely baked. That is probably the single most important instruction in the recipe. They continue cooking on the hot sheet pan, and pulling them at this stage produces the chewy center rather than a crunchy cookie. If desired, sprinkle a tiny amount of flaky salt over them immediately.

Leave them alone Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before moving them to a rack. When warm, the centers will be extremely soft. As they cool, they settle into that dense, buttery, chewy texture.