Lately, I've been in the land of milk and cookies. (get it? get it?) All I think about are cookies. What I can put in them, on them, around them...you get it. I have found myself stuck in traffic more often than not lately, so I've got plenty of time to consider my cookie options...cayenne cookies, cheesecake cookies, toffee cookies (I'm starting to sound like that guy in Forest Gump. Cajun shrimp, boiled shrimp, shrimp stew...) So I decided on these nutella-stuffed brown butter and sea salt chocolate chip cookies. Now there's a mouth full (of cookies.)
Allow me to just point out that up until very recently, I thought brown butter was butter mixed with brown sugar. I even told people that AND THEY BELIEVED ME. Turns out, brown butter is, in fact, NOT butter and brown sugar. Brown butter is the process of, well, browning butter. The proper term for it is "beurre noisette" which means hazelnut butter and makes me feel like a French woman without a baguette. The process of browning butter is not particularly difficult, however, it is a bit time consuming and the butter is incredibly easy to burn. Now, I'm no Paula Deen, but I do enjoy butter. Especially brown butter, as it has an intense nutty flavor. In order to learn the process, I turned to my favorite blogger in the whole wide world, Jessica. On with it, people (aka all of my invisible followers and very possibly Barack Obama.)
I will warn you that these cookies get a bit messy. And by messy I mean you're going to get nutella every where and you're (like me) going to end up licking nutella off of something the entire time. I somehow ended up with nutella on my forehead, in my hair and I'm pretty sure in my bra as well. Which is why my first word of advice would be: keep your jar of nutella in the fridge until you're ready to use it!
Allow me to just point out that up until very recently, I thought brown butter was butter mixed with brown sugar. I even told people that AND THEY BELIEVED ME. Turns out, brown butter is, in fact, NOT butter and brown sugar. Brown butter is the process of, well, browning butter. The proper term for it is "beurre noisette" which means hazelnut butter and makes me feel like a French woman without a baguette. The process of browning butter is not particularly difficult, however, it is a bit time consuming and the butter is incredibly easy to burn. Now, I'm no Paula Deen, but I do enjoy butter. Especially brown butter, as it has an intense nutty flavor. In order to learn the process, I turned to my favorite blogger in the whole wide world, Jessica. On with it, people (aka all of my invisible followers and very possibly Barack Obama.)
I will warn you that these cookies get a bit messy. And by messy I mean you're going to get nutella every where and you're (like me) going to end up licking nutella off of something the entire time. I somehow ended up with nutella on my forehead, in my hair and I'm pretty sure in my bra as well. Which is why my first word of advice would be: keep your jar of nutella in the fridge until you're ready to use it!
For the cookies:
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg + 1 yolk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs plain greek yogurt
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1 jar Nutella, chilled
coarse sea salt (for sprinkling on top)
To start, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl and set aside.
Start on browning your butter, by placing one cup of cubed unsalted butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. It's important that you whisk your butter during the entire process, as it's incredibly easy to burn. The butter is going to start to foam, keep whisking until you see some browning happening at the bottom of the saucepan, and then remove from heat. But the key is to not forget what your favorite blogger (me) told you, keep whisking! Whisk until you smell a fairly strong nutty flavor, at which point transfer the butter from the saucepan to a bowl to prevent burning.
In a separate bowl (sorry, lots of dishes to wash with this recipe) combine butter and sugars until thoroughly blended and then add egg, egg yolk, yogurt and vanilla extract.
(horribly blurry photos and I just noticed my blinding nail polish matches the yolk)
Once all of the ingredients are combined, gently fold in the chocolate chips.
Wrap the dough and place it in the fridge for two hours, or the freezer for thirty minutes. I'm insanely impatient so I paced around my kitchen for about an hour, and then stared at the nutella jar in the fridge for about another hour contemplating whether or not I should just eat the nutella with a spoon and make regular cookies. You'll be happy to hear I endured the two hour wait, and made these cookies for your viewing and my eating pleasure.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and in the meantime take 1 1/2 Tbs. of dough, roll them into balls and then flatten them out to place 1 Tsp. of nutella in the middle.
Gently fold the dough over the nutella, and roll into a ball. Make sure to do this carefully, as you don't want any nutella to seep out of the dough. Place dough on a nonstick cookie sheet about 2 inches apart and gently flatten the tops of the dough balls. Cook for 9-11 minutes, and remove from oven. The cookies make look a bit undercooked, but believe you me..they are not! Sprinkle sea salt on top and serve. They're gooey and warm and delicious. Aaaaand you'll thank me later.
Until my next adventure...
xx,
ronit
