Bon Appetit Brown Butter and Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies - Cookie Chronicles

Its the final week of the Cookie Chronicles and for todays recipe we are going a little controversial and talking mix-ins. Do you like your chocolate chip cookies like I do? Unadulterated with nothing more than lots of glorious dark chocolate? Or do you like it with nuts, butterscotch, pretzels and whatever else you might fancy throwing in? If your in the latter camp you might like this recipe as instead of the classic chocolate it also adds in a handful of toffee, in the form of a chocolate coated toffee bar (Skor in the US and I used Daim here in the UK). I adore toffee so I was excited about this recipe. 

Whilst the recipe was published and popularised by Bon Appetit magazine it was actually a user submitted recipe, sent in by Kate Davis, you can follow her on Instagram here. 

The Breakdown

Other than the toffee there are a few key differences to the ingredients in this recipe. It uses browned butter, adding a nutty note to the dough. It also uses dark brown sugar which should add a lot more molasses flavour, which is never a bad thing.

Makes 20

2 sticks (225g) unsalted butter
2 cups (280g) all-purpose/plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup packed (220g) dark brown sugar
1/3 cup (65g) granulated/caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 toffee bars (Skor, Daim, Heath etc) chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
1 1/2 cups chocolate wafers, 72% cocoa
Flaky sea salt

Place the butter into a saucepan and set over medium heat and cook, stirring often, until the butter foams and then browns, about 5-8 minutes. Pour the butter into a large bowl and allow to cool slightly.

Meanwhile mix together the flour, baking soda and salt

Add the sugars into the bowl with the butter and whisk together for a few minutes to combine. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until the mixture lightens and starts to thicken. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix until just incorporated. Finally add the chocolate and the toffee bar pieces, mixing just to incorporate. 

Set the dough aside for about 30 minutes to allow the flour to hydrate, the dough will be fairly loose to start with but as it sits it will thicken. 

Preheat the oven to 375F (190C) and line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a 1 1/2 ounce ice cream scoop portion out cookies and place on the baking sheets, about 3 inches apart. Sprinkle with a little flaked sea salt.

Bake for about 9-11 minutes or until the edges are golden brown but the centres still a little soft. Allow to cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Result
First off, these cookies are fabulous, undeniably delicious and very easy to make. Saying that I find the dark brown sugar a little overwhelming for a chocolate chip cookie and it makes tasting the toffee and little hard. Now to give the recipe its credit, this is an American recipe and I believe this might be more down to the fact that British dark brown sugar is a little stronger in molasses, my cookies looked quite a bit darker than the ones in the magazine, so take that with a pinch of salt. I always love brown butter in a recipe so this is definitely a winning element for me. I would 100% make these again, I am thinking a version made with pretzels and stem ginger would be amazing.

Alison Romans Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Recipe - Cookie Chronicles

How could I do a series on chocolate chip cookies in 2018 and not include what has to be the most popular baking recipe of the past year! Yes today we are talking Alison Roman’s Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Shortbread. Now, it may be a little unfair including this recipe as it doesn’t really fall into the same style category as the rest of the chocolate chip cookies in the line-up but I thought there was still plenty we could learn from a cookie of a different sort and the point of this series was to test drive those recipes that have a big following online and what better recipe for that criteria than this. The reason this is different from the rest is of course that is a shortbread style dough. Most chocolate chip cookies tend to be drop cookies, made from a relatively soft dough that can be scooped or spooned from the bowl to the baking tray, things like oatmeal raisin, snickerdoodles and of course our beloved chocolate chip cookies. Yet Alison’s recipe fulfils many of the requirements, uses many the same ingredients and is just as easy to make.

The Breakdown

Alison’s recipe is a fairly classic shortbread style cookie, although less sweet than some and it also uses salted butter, which is definitely less common in baking. The flavour of this butter, according to Alison, has an ever so slightly funky almost fermented flavour and with the salt generally being evenly distributed throughout the butter, and therefore the cookie, the sense of a better flavoured dough should be heightened. When it comes to sugars it still uses a mix of white and brown sugar although the brown sugar is minimal but it is there as a nod to chocolate chip cookies and that more caramel like flavour it lends to a classic cookie. I have gone with using the chocolate chips, roughly chopped so that we get some small shards and some chunks, I also think the slightly smaller form of the chips will make slicing these cookies easier than with bigger pieces. So beyond the flavouring of the dough this recipe also builds in a lot of texture because before the dough is sliced it is rolled in demerara sugar which gives a great crunch to the finished cookie.

Alison Roman’s Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Shortbread
From her book - Dining In

2 1/4 sticks (255g) cold salted butter, diced
1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (55g) light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups (325g) all-purpose/plain flour
6 ounces (170g) dark chocolate (I used Guittard 63% chocolate chips, roughly chopped)
1 large egg
Demerara sugar, for rolling
flaked sea salt, for sprinkling

To make the cookie dough place the butter and sugars into the bowl of a stand mixer and beat together for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. If using an electric hand mixer or doing this with a wooden spoon this will take longer, just make suer the texture is light and fluffy or the finished dough will be hard to handle and likely to crumble when cut. 

Add the vanilla to the butter mixture and beat for 30 seconds to combine. Add the flour in one go and mix on low speed, just until the dough is combined. You want to be careful about over mixing the dough at this stage as it will make the cookies tough and chewy. Add the roughly chopped chocolate and mix briefly just to evenly distribute throughout the dough. 

Tip the dough out onto the work surface and use your hands to gently bring together into a ball. A note to those not used to baking this type of cookie. Sometimes not all the flour gets easily incorporated and this can lead to a crumbly hard to handle dough. If when the dough is removed from the bowl there are dry patches use your hands to briefly work the dough a little until a more uniform texture. 

Cut the dough into two roughly equal pieces and use your hands to form into rough sausage shapes, about 2 - 2 1/4 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in clingfilm and refrigerate for two hours before baking

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.Remove the logs from the fridge and discard the clingfilm. Brush the dough lightly with a little beaten egg, just moistening the edge. Roll the logs in demerara sugar pressing into the dough.

Use a thin sharp knife to cut the logs of dough into cookies about 1/2 inch thick. Place onto the prepared baking sheets, an inch or so apart. Sprinkle each cookie with a little flaked sea salt and bake in the preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes until just starting to turn golden around the edges. Let cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Kept in a sealed container these cookies will keep for up to 5 days. 

Result

As I said these are not what I think of when I think chocolate chip cookie, but that doesn’t matter as they are delicious and very easy to make. I love the flavour the salted butter gives the dough and the balance of sweet and salty is perfect. I am a big fan of using demerara sugar to add texture so the edge of this cookie is my favourite part.

Tara O Brady's Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Another week, another bunch of recipes to test for the Cookie Chronicles. First up this week is another extremely popular recipe, this time from another favourite of mine Tara O’Brady, from her beautiful book Seven Spoons. Her approach to the chocolate chip cookie is very much appreciated because of it's pure simplicity. When it comes to equipment nothing more than a whisk, wooden spoon and a mixing bowl is needed and the time to make the recipe is dangerously fast, you could whip up a batch of these cookies in less time then it would take to eat the whole batch! Because the butter is melted this cookie is incredibly quick and easy to bring together but tastes absolutely wonderful, no wonder this recipe has done so well. I have a recipe that I currently rely on to fulfil my cookie cravings but I have a funny feeling this might replace that, it's so simple to make and so satisfying. 

The Breakdown

This is definitely the easiest recipe I have tested for this series so far and this comes using melted butter, it makes the process of making this recipe incredibly quick and simple, no electricity needed (well apart from the oven). The sugar ratio leans heavily towards the light brown sugar meaning this recipe has a real caramel note to it but it still feels balanced and it blends perfectly with the chocolate. It also uses a little more vanilla than some recipes, that always featured 1 tsp, which I think definitely gave the dough a little more flavour. 

1 cup (225g) unsalted butter, diced
3 1/4 cups (415g) all-purpose/plain flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups (320g) light brown sugar
1/2 cup (100g) granulated/caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
12 ounces (340g) dark chocolate (I used Guittard 66% wafers)
Flaked sea salt, for sprinkling

Result

You can probably tell from everything above that I loved this recipes its incredibly simple to make and yields a delicious fairly classic take on the chocolate chip cookie, great texture, great flavour and just the simplest recipe going.

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C) and line two baking trays with parchment paper.

In a medium saucepan set over low heat melt the butter. You don’t want to brown the butter at all so keep the heat as low as it will go.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl pour the melted butter and into that whisk the sugars. It will take a little elbow grease and at first it might look a little separated but give the mixture a whisk for a minute or so and it will smooth out. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until fully combined into the butter mixture. Mix in the vanilla then switch out the whisk for a wooden spoon or spatula. Add the dry ingredients and mix together just until everything is combined. Don’t worry if there is a few small spots of flour, as this will be mixed in when the chocolate is added. Speaking of which, add the chocolate. Mix until evenly distributed in the dough. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and let the dough rest in the fridge for 10-15 minutes, or overnight. 

Form the cookies into balls roughly 3 tablespoons big, leaving a couple inches between each cookie. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-14 minutes until slightly golden and a little bit cracked. 

Leave the cookies to cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies will keep if kept in a sealed container for up to a week.

Sarah Kieffer's Pan Banging Chocolate Chip Cookies - Cookie Chronicles

I have been meaning to make this recipe for a full year, yes my to-bake list is so ridiculously long and with my own baking and work to navigate it’s sadly rare that I actually get a chance to bake someone else’s recipe. You will know this recipe, I could show you a picture and you'd probably be able to guess just from the picture which recipe I was talking about. Sarah Kieffers Pan Banging Chocolate Chip Cookies are insanely popular, like all of the recipes in this series, but Sarah’s was one of the recipes I remember taking notice of because of its seemingly overnight success, it went truly viral. The recipe comes from Sarah’s wonderful book the Vanilla Bean Baking Book but it was probably the appearance of the recipe in the New York Times that pushed it into a wider consciousness, I can just imagine the sound of pans banging reverberating around the states the week after the recipe was featured. When I was in the states earlier in the year I met Sarah at one of our events with Bake From Scratch Magazine and she was a joy to meet and if you don't know who she is yet, make this post be your excuse to check out her brilliant work.

The Breakdown

As we will learn throughout this series the ingredients are all very familiar, we’re talking butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla flour and of course chocolate, but it is the ratio and the method that make this a little unusual. Firstly the amount of brown sugar is very low in comparison with the white sugar, this leads to plenty of crisp texture and a flavour that reminds me a little of the Toll House recipe. But what makes its so very different to that recipe is the size and method. The recipes starts off on familiar ground, creaming together the butter and sugar, then just one egg is added along with water (which I believe is there to help with spreading), the dry goods and the chocolate. Remember the Toll House recipe made 60 cookies, well this makes 10, that’s 10 gloriously huge cookies. Of course the main difference is declared right in the name, after baking for 10 minutes the pan the cookies are baking from is lifted from the oven and smacked on the surface making them collapse. This procedure is repeated multiple times creating a rippled effect which leads to a cookie with plenty of crisp edge but because of their size they remain soft and chewy in the middle.

Sarah Kieffer’s Pan Banging Chocolate Chip Cookies
From the Vanilla Bean Baking Book
Makes 10

2 cups (284g) all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
2 sticks (227g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1½ cups (297g) granulated sugar
¼ cup (50g) packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons water
6 ounces (170g) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into bite-size pieces averaging ½ inch with some
smaller and some larger (I used roughly chopped 63% Guittard Chocolate Chips)

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan) and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper

To make the cookies mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. 

Place the butter into a large bowl and using an electric mixer beat together until creamy. Add the sugars and beat for 2-3 minutes on medium speed or until light and fluffy. Add the egg, water and vanilla and beat until fully combined. Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined, then stir in the chocolate. 

Form the cookies into 10 equal sized balls, they will be around 100g each or a heaping 1/3 cup. Place 4 cookies onto a large parchment or foil lined baking tray and freeze for 15 minutes, this helps prevent the cookies from spreading too much. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes then lift the tray from the rack, a good 4 inches then drop back, causing the cookies to collapse. Repeat this every two minutes until the cookies are golden brown around the outside but still a little pale in the middle, allow to cool completely before removing from the rack. Repeat the process with the remaining cookies. 

Result

I am a big fan of this recipe, its a little unusual both in size and method but there is something joyous about the recipe, its fun to make and the giant size of the cookie is a greedy child’s dream (yes I am referring to myself). I really like the resulting texture of crisp and chew the only thing I would probably prefer for my perfect cookie is a slightly smaller size with a little bit more body, but this is one hell of a delicious cookie and the pan banging technique is brilliant. Make sure you check out Sarah’s book and her brilliant website, you can also follow her on Instagram.