Browned Butter Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
You ever make a recipe that has a title so long, it better be good? Seriously, this recipe has a looooong name. However, in order to understand the layers of flavor, it doesn’t leave anything to the imagination.
This week is all about the Bake Sale, and these cookies will be on the table. While there is a combination of salty and sweet, chewy and gooey, the cookie itself is substantial, and holds up to the caramel center. It may not be cookie nirvana…but it is close.
Brown Butter Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Now, this cookie has sea salt in the cookie dough as well as a sprinkling on top. I know my last post also had the elements of salty and sweet, but hey, sea salt is very cool right now, and well, browned butter has me at hello, so game on. I might also add these are all getting out of my house ASAP, so I can wield my spatula like James Fraser in Outlander, which, I am binge watching as I bake, by the way. If you have a person in your life like I do who is allergic to sea salt, you can trade it out for kosher salt and it will have a similar result.
I used the original recipe from the www.whatmollymade.com website. I followed the recipe almost to the letter, except, I chilled the dough over night, and I did not stack two scoops with the Carmel in between the layers. I cut caramels in half, and left them open to be exposed in the oven.
Unbaked Brown Butter Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Cookies
I also sprinkled sea salt over the top of the cookies while they were hot out of the oven, and found the little crystals to not only have eye appeal but that little extra kick over into salty sweet bliss.
In the realm of cookie difficulty, the batter itself is easy once the browned butter is made, and really, that’s letting the butter melt and brown slowly on the stovetop…you’ve got this.
I scooped the batter with my ice cream scoop used for cookie dough purposes, popped in the fridge overnight.
The batter needed to warm up a bit before the caramel could be successfully mushed into the center of the dough, and then cooked in the oven for 12-14 minutes at 325. All of my cookies are baked at this temperature. It’s a cookie bottom thing. I don’t want a cookie with an overcooked bottom. I know, it’s an elitist thing to say, but I am a cookie snob. (You should see the list of rules for our holiday cookie swap at school…it isn’t for the faint of heart).
Brown Butter Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Cookies
After baking, sprinkle with another layer of salt, and let cool. The caramel stays soft and the cookie is just a little crisp. I’m thinking that’s the browned butter element. Curse my lazy heart for not pursuing science instead of history in college. It helps with my love of Outlander, but not in my cookie science.
Good thing my tastebuds don’t care. I’m hoping these go at the Bake Sale, even though the forecast calls for rain! I bagged them up three to a package, so there should be enough salty and sweet to carry the dedicated fans in the stand for two games!
I hope you enjoy this recipe, and as always, thank you for coming to the table!
Chrissy
Click below for a printable recipe
PrintBrowned Butter Sea Salt Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Delicious bite-fuls of salty and sweet, chewy and gooey! Original recipe from the www.whatmollymade.com website Brown Butter Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 Sticks/1 Cup Butter
- 1 1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
- 1/2 Cup White Sugar
- 3 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 1 Egg + 1 Egg Yolk
- 2 1/2 Cups AP Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 Tsp Sea Salt (I used Himalayan Pink Sea Salt)
- 1 –2 Cups Chocolate Chips (Semi-Sweet or Dark)
- 1 Bag of Pre-wrapped Caramels, cut in half
Instructions
- Make Browned Butter by melting 2 sticks of butter in a pan over low heat, melting, and continuing to cook until the butter turns a light brown color. I stir or swirl the butter throughout the process to make sure it doesn’t scorch. The difference between browned butter and burned butter is not pleasant.
- Let browned butter cool.
- With a stand up or hand mixer, mix cooled browned butter and sugars together thoroughly.
- Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla to the mix and combine.
- Add dry ingredients and continue to mix until combined.
- Add chocolate chips by hand with rubber spatula.
- Scoop rounded mounds of dough into container and refrigerate for a minimum of two hours- overnight.
- Take dough out of the refrigerator and set out for at least fifteen minutes.
- Place 1/2 of each caramel into each rounded mound of dough.
- Bake in a 325* oven for 12-14 minutes, until cooked but not overcooked.
- Sprinkle baked cookies with additional sea salt and let cool.