Claire Saffitz Chocolate Chip Cookies

BROWN BUTTER. When browning butter, don’t turn up the heat to high because the butter will sputter and might burn you. I like to cook it over medium heat, lowering the heat as needed, then I either mix or just swirl it around so the bottom doesn’t get burnt. You want to have those browned bits at the bottom but not burnt bits. The butter will change into a darker hue and will smell INCREDIBLE. Browned butter is also great in Banana Bread, by the way.

Don’t brown all the butter, just half, then pour this hot browned butter in with the rest to gently melt everything down.

ADD HEAVY CREAM. Once the butter is melted, the heavy cream goes in to return some of the evaporated liquid into the browned butter. Then you want to cool this mixture down, at least until just warm.

ADD SUGARS. After this point, it’s a normal cookie dough-making process. The sugars go into the melted butter, and you want to whisk it vigorously until the mixture is very thick. Sometimes it’s hard to get melted butter and sugar to incorporate properly if you don’t whisk it as vigorously as possible. They tend to separate.

ADD EGGS.This is the part where the wet ingredients really start coming together. The eggs and vanilla go in and you whisk them again until the mixture is totally smooth and almost satiny. (I love that my eggs created this galaxy look in my batter lol.)

ADD DRY INGREDIENTS. Next, you mix your dry ingredients in a separate bowl and just dump it into the wet mixture. Mix just until combined. This dough is suuuuuper loose. It’s actually almost like brownie batter because you can actually still use a whisk to mix this. Use a spatula to make sure everything is well incorporated, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl to get to those stubborn pockets of flour.

ADD CHOCOLATE.Finally the chocolate goes in. I always use at least two variations of chocolate in my cookies these days, because I find it produces a better tasting cookie. In this instance, for chocolate one I used 64% Auro Chocolate discs, which I did not slice for bigger pockets of chocolate ooze. For chocolate two I used Guittard Extra Dark Chocolate Chips 63% to have those firmer bits of chocolate in the cookie. Claire used a combo of milk and dark but I don’t stock milk chocolate in my supplies so…

CHILL THE DOUGH. Ideally, you want to portion the cookie dough into mounds at this stage before chilling. Give the “batter” at least 5 minutes to rest and firm up a little bit. It will start looking a little more like cookie dough and will be easier to portion. BUT because I don’t have the space in my fridge, I did not portion my dough before chilling. I chilled the entire cookie dough in a bowl with a lid, and then had to let it come to room temp before scooping. There’s a reason why Claire asks us to portion the dough before chilling. The dough turns super hard if chilled as a mass. It broke two of my cheap ice cream scoopers because I didn’t allow it to fully come to room temp before attempting to scoop. I ended up using my Rubber Maid pop-out scooper, which I now really appreciate as a genius piece of kitchen equipment.

I know that it’ll be a real test of patience having to wait for the dough to chill and then again having to wait for it to come to room temp, but that’s just the way it is if you just don’t have the space. It isn’t too bad of a compromise. Absolutely do not skip the chilling period after making the dough. It will make a really nice, rippled, flavourful cookie. The rest you give the dough as it chills also helps to make the flavours “mature” nicely. Baking unchilled dough will only result in cookie puddles, because Claire’s cookies dough is very soft. You also won’t be able to achieve maximum flavour.

Claire’s instructions say that you should use a 1/4-cup measure scoop to portion the dough. I did not follow this and used a normal ice cream scooper and the cookies were still HUUUGE. They came out palm-sized! They spread like crazy as they bake so make sure you set the cookie mounds really faaaaaaaaar apart or they will bake into each other. Like 10¼ cm or something. Seriously.