Dense, Chewy Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

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My boyfriend and I love dense, chewy cookies. I know that there are various ways to go about creating a dense, flavorful cookie, but I wanted a cookie with ultimate moisture, texture, and flavor. I'm still working a few details out, mainly the brown to white sugar ratio (my brown sugar is currently a dry, solid block right now, but I'm working on some brown sugar savers, so I'll be more inclined to use brown sugar soon.), the oven temperature and cooking time, as well as quantity of milk to add to the dough, but I thought some of you might be interested in experimenting with what I've been working on. It's adapted from an Alton Brown chocolate chip cookie recipe.

For the tangzhong:

1 ounce bread flour

3 ounces milk

Stir together over medium heat until mixture thickens.

 

For the browned butter:

3 ounces unsalted butter

Stir over medium heat until butter browns and has a nutty aroma.

 

For the wet:

2.5 ounces unsalted butter, softened

3 ounces brown sugar

7 ounces white sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1.5 tsps vanilla extract

all of the tangzhong from above

 

For the dry:

15 ounces bread flour

1 tsp iodized salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 - 2 ounces milk, enough to form a cohesive dough

9 ounces chocolate chips

 

For the process:

Combine softened butter and sugars in a large bowl.

Add egg, and egg yolks one at a time, stirring until each is incorporated. Add vanilla extract and tangzhong.

In a separate bowl, combine bread flour, salt and baking soda.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.

Stir until half of the dry ingredients are incorporated, then add chocolate chips. Stir to combine. You can add more or less chocolate chips, if you like.

If dough is not sticking together, add 1 ounce of milk. If it's still not adhering, add more milk. This is very climate dependent. It's very dry over here, but your climate may be more humid. You will want to adjust accordingly. The dough should be sticky, but not stick to your hands.

Chill dough for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Scoop dough into 1.5 ounce portions onto baking sheets, then bake for 15 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheets, then move to a cooling rack.

Hello! I haven't read all of your comments, so if this is a repetition I apologize. But AmericasTestKitchen.com has a wonderful recipe that is exactly what you are looking for, I've made them several times. A little crispy just around the edges and perfectly chewy but not soggy in the middle, with the caramel, nutty flavor of the browned butter. Yum! There is a similar recipe on KingArthur.com, browned butter and all, with blogs on how the KAF kitchen made them and also blog members' comments and questions, although I haven't used this one as much as the ATK one, I have never been disappointed with a King Arthur recipe. But then I use King Arthur for almost all of my baking supplies. Now I want cookies. . . Happy baking! Rebecca

I've been looking at how to use tangzhong for chocolate chip cookies too! I haven't actually tried it yet though. Most of the recipes for tangzhong that I've seen use a 5-1 ratio of liquid to flour. Does yours seem to work with 3-1?

For the browned butter, I recommend you try adding some non-fat powdered milk to the butter after the water has boiled off but before the solids brown. It leaves you with a lot more browned butter bits.