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brown butter molasses chocolate chip cookies
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Brown Butter & Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies

These chewy brown butter & molasses chocolate chip cookies are super crisp, insanely fudgy & are jam packed full of milk chocolate chunks.
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time13 minutes
Total Time33 minutes
Course: Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: American
Servings: 12 Cookies
Author: Ben Racey

Equipment

  • Large Mixing Bowl
  • Baking Trays
  • Cookie Scoop
  • Large Circular Cutter

Ingredients

  • 200 g Unsalted Butter
  • 125 g Dark Brown Sugar
  • 100 g Caster Sugar
  • 50 g Black Treacle
  • 1 Large Egg
  • 2 Egg Yolks
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Paste
  • 300 g Plain Flour
  • 2 tsp Cornflour
  • ¾ tsp Baking Powder
  • ¾ tsp Bicarbonate Of Soda
  • ½ tsp Table Salt
  • 250 g Milk Chocolate
  • Sea Salt - To Finish

Instructions

Cookie Dough

  • Start by browning 120g of the butter. To do this, chop the butter into evenly sized pieces then place into a medium saucepan. Place over a medium heat & allow to melt, stirring regularly with a spatula. Keep cooking, until the butter starts to foam, smell nutty & you can see that the milk solids in the bottom of the pan have turned golden brown.
  • Once the butter has browned, transfer the butter to a bowl & leave to cool to room temperature. In the meantime, chop the remaining 80g of butter into small pieces & leave to soften at room temperature.
    The brown butter should take around 30 minutes to cool.
  • Add both of the butters, the dark brown sugar, caster sugar & treacle into a mixing bowl then whisk until combined.
  • Next, add in the egg, yolks & vanilla then whisk again, to combine.
  • To the mixing bowl, add the flour, cornflour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda & salt then fold together with a spatula until the flour is just incorporate.
  • Roughly chop 200 grams of the milk chocolate, stir into the cookie dough then chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
    Chilling the cookie dough firms it up slightly, making it easier to scoop.
  • Whilst the cookie dough is chilling, chop the remaining 50g of milk chocolate into 12 chunks.
  • Using a cookie scoop (or a spoon), portion the chilled cookie dough into 12 equally sized portions. Each should weigh around 85 grams.
  • With your hands, roll a portion of cookie dough into a ball then press a milk chocolate chunk into the top. Repeat with the remaining dough.
  • Place the balls of cookie dough into an airtight container & refrigerate overnight.

Baking The Cookies

  • The next day, preheat an oven to 180°c/160°c fan (356°f/320°f).
  • Place 3-4 balls of cookie dough onto a lined baking tray, making sure that there’s plenty of room between them.
  • Bake the cookies for 9 minutes then open your oven door, lift up the baking tray inside the oven by a few inches then let it drop down against the oven rack. Use enough force so that the cookie starts to deflate. (This is the “Pan Banging” method).
  • Bake for a further 2 minutes then repeat the pan banging process.
  • Bake for another 2 minutes (bringing the total bake time to 13 minutes) then remove from the oven.
  • Using a large, round cookie cutter, scoot each cookie into a perfect round shape.
  • Sprinkle each cookie lightly with sea salt then leave on the tray, to cool completely.
  • Repeat the cooking process with the remaining cookies, baking 3-4 cookies at a time.

Notes

1. Cooking In An Aga – Bake the cookies in the baking oven on the bottom set of runners. Use the boiling plate to brown the butter.
2. Storage – These cookies should be stored in an airtight container & will keep for up to 3 days.
3. Overnight Chill – The cookie dough requires an overnight chill in the fridge before being baked. Don’t be tempted to skip this step otherwise the cookies will spread out too much when baked.
4. The Pan Banging Method – The way we bake these cookies, is by using a technique called “Pan Banging”. This was created by Sarah Kieffer (The Vanilla Bean Blog) & is used in this recipe to create pools of melted chocolate & to give the cookies a crinkled texture.
5. Chocolate – When making cookies, it’s best to use bars of chocolate that have been roughly chopped as appose to chocolate chips. Chocolate chips won’t melt properly & you won’t get the molten pools of chocolate that can be achieved with chopped chocolate. I used a 32% milk chocolate for my cookies but feel free to use a different type if you'd prefer.
6. Sugar - For the best flavour, make sure to use dark brown sugar (not light brown!) & black treacle.