Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

If I had a magic wand, I’d like to spend a day contained in the mind of pastry chef Natasha Pickowicz. She’s the inventive genius behind such legendary recipes as tater tots cake, peanut butter miso treats, and potato and radicchio tarts. What a visit! As Elizabeth Gilbert stated, “Residing on this method — constantly and stubbornly bringing forth the jewels which might be hidden inside you — is a tremendous artwork.”

Fortunate for us, Natasha’s first cookbook, More Than Cake, got here out this week, and it’s filled with mouth-watering recipes and enjoyable household tales. One among my favorites is her tackle the chocolate chip cookie: chewy goodness with toffee and caramel flavors and boulder-like chunks of chocolate. Right here’s how one can make them…

Brown Butter, Buckwheat, and Chocolate Chunk Cookies
From More Than Cake
half-hour energetic time; 1 day inactive time
Yields 15 giant cookies

Dough*
8 ounces (225 g) unsalted butter
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons (145 g) 
all-purpose flour
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (75 g) buckwheat flour
½ cup plus 3 tablespoons (140 g) granulated sugar
½ cup plus 1 tablespoon (135 g) 
darkish brown sugar
2 eggs (100 g), at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3½ ounces (100 g) darkish chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks (about ¾ cup)
2½ ounces (70 g) semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks (about ½ cup)
One 2.1-ounce (60 g) darkish chocolate bar
Flaky sea salt

Make the brown butter. In a small pot, deliver the butter to a boil over medium-high warmth. Because the milk solids start to settle to the underside of the pot, the froth will burn off. Cut back the warmth to low. As soon as the milk solids are a deep mahogany hue, one other 4 to five minutes, and the air smells nutty and candy, take away the pan from the warmth. Fastidiously pour the liquid right into a small bowl, scraping up all of the browned milk solids on the underside of the pot. Switch to the fridge to resolidify, about 2 hours.

Toast the flours. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Unfold the all-purpose and buckwheat flours in a big ovenproof skillet or on a sheet pan and toast for 10 to fifteen minutes. 
Put aside to chill utterly. (This may be finished as much as 2 weeks prematurely and saved till prepared to make use of.)

Cream the butter. When the brown butter feels softened however not greasy, add 145 g (about 2/3 cup; see tip #1) of it to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (or a big bowl for utilizing a handheld mixer). Cream the butter on medium-high pace till it’s fluffy, easy, and white in coloration, about 2 minutes. Scrape the butter right into a small bowl and put aside.

Dissolve the sugar within the eggs. Swap to the whisk attachment (or proceed to make use of a handheld mixer). In the identical bowl (no want to clean it), mix the granulated sugar, darkish brown sugar, and eggs and whip till the combination is lightened in coloration and doubled in quantity, 4 to five minutes. Swap the whisk out for the paddle, add the brown butter and vanilla, and blend on medium-low pace to mix, about 1 minute.

Put together the dry components. In a medium bowl, whisk collectively the toasted flours, baking soda, and kosher salt. Tip the dry components into the mixer bowl and paddle on low pace till they’re midway mixed, about 10 seconds. When the dough appears to be like streaky, add each chopped sweets and paddle to mix.

Age the dough. Switch the dough to an hermetic container. Refrigerate for twenty-four hours earlier than baking.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and prep the pans. To bake in batches, prime two or three half-sheet pans with parchment paper and calmly mist the paper with cooking spray.

Form the cookies. Scoop the chilled dough into plump tangerine-size balls (goal for 65 g to 70 g every); it is best to get about 15 cookies. Switch the cookies to the pans, spacing them about 4 inches (10 cm) aside. Break the chocolate bar into 12 to fifteen inch-long (2.5 cm) shards and press a few them onto the floor of every ball. Sprinkle generously with flaky sea salt.

Bake the cookies. Bake till the cookies are golden and puffy within the heart, 17 to 19 minutes. Take away from the oven and firmly rap the sheet pans on prime of the counter to pressure the cookies to fall. Let the cookies cool utterly on the sheet pans. Retailer the cookies wrapped at room temperature for 1 to 2 days or within the freezer for as much as 3 weeks.

* You’ll have about 
3 tablespoons of brown butter left over.
** Cookie dough wealthy in 
butter and sugar wants a minimum of 1 or 
2 days (and as much as 4 days) to “age” within the fridge, in any other case they unfold an excessive amount of and style greasy. As any dough rests, it hydrates, that means the flour soaks up the moisture from the butter and eggs. That interprets right into a superior cookie with crisp edges and tender insides.

Thanks a lot Natasha, and congratulations on your beautiful book!

P.S. Probably the most enjoyable host present and a humorous dessert recreation. Plus, Natasha’s week of outfits.

(Excerpted from More Than Cake by Natasha Pickowicz (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2023. Pictures by Graydon Herriott.)