The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Every time I make my chocolate chip cookies, someone asks for the recipe. I most recently made these to take to some of our friends and a few our neighbors and realized that this would be a great recipe to share. Now I'm not promising that this is an Emily West original, but I also can't remember where this particular recipe came from, because I don't have a written recipe that I follow. It's one of my favorites that I just keep tucked in my mind. Also, I can ensure you that this is full of gluten and dairy and sugar, because that's what good things in life are made from. While I'm definitely no food blogger, this is a recipe I feel confident sharing because I know you will love it and I know that you'll probably never want a regular chocolate chip cookie again. 

Brown Butter Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs

1 heaping cup milk chocolate chips

1 heaping cup dark chocolate chips (I use Private Selection dark chocolate chunks)

Sea Salt for topping

First, you need to brown the butter. This is the most important part. Don't screw it up. If you don't know how to brown butter, this video is helpful. After you brown the butter, pour it into a bowl to cool. Use a rubber scraper to get all the brown flecks out of the pan into the bowl (that's the best part.) Don't proceed with mixing until the butter is no longer hot to the touch.

While waiting for the butter to cool, I typically measure and sift my flour, baking soda and salt and set aside in a bowl. Then I measure out my chocolate chips and set them aside in a separate bowl. Finally, I measure the sugars and vanilla extract into my stand mixer bowl so I'm ready to go when the butter is cool. It makes a few extra dirty dishes, but it does make the cookie dough making efficient.

Once the butter is no longer hot, pour it into mixing bowl with the sugars and vanilla extract, using a rubber scraper to transfer all of the brown flecks. Mix on low speed until combined. Next, add the eggs. Then, slowly add the dry ingredients. Once the dough is thoroughly combined, add the chocolate pieces. I recommend doing this by hand to prevent the chocolate from breaking. Cover and freeze for 30 minutes or refrigerate for 1+ hours.

After the dough has been chilled, preheat the oven to 375˚, scoop the dough into balls and place on to cookie sheet. The bigger the better, in my opinion. Bake for 8-11 minutes, to your liking. I always err on the side of less done, because the cookies will continue to cook a bit on the baking sheet after removed them from the oven. Just before transferring cookies to a cooling rack, sprinkle with sea salt.