My friend Amelia first introduced me to the joys of browned butter, and once I had tried it there was no going back. Browned butter adds a rich, nutty taste to these cookies and creates the most wonderful aroma in your kitchen.
A few tips and tricks with this recipe:
You want to coat the chocolate chips in a little flour prior to adding to the dough as it prevents the chips from sinking to the bottom of the cookie.
You also want to put your Nutella jar in a bowl of hot water for 2-3 minutes to make the Nutella silky and smooth, allowing you to spoon it easily onto the top of your cookies.
Ingredients
250g salted butter, at room temperature
160g brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
115g demerara sugar
1 egg
300g plain flour
160g milk chocolate chips
Nutella, for topping your cookies
Sea salt, for topping your cookies
Method
Preheat your oven to 170°C. Brown 125g of butter over a medium heat until amber in colour, stirring occasionally. Ensure that you keep an eye on the saucepan as it only takes a few seconds to burn the butter. Once browned, pour the butter (including all of the solid brown butter bits at the bottom of the pan) into a small bowl and leave to cool.
In the bowl, cream the remaining butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract, browned butter, Demerara sugar and egg, and mix until combined.
Add your flour and mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and fold in the chocolate chips. Roll into a log, wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge for an hour.
Remove from the fridge, roll the dough into walnut sized balls and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper, leaving 5cm gaps between each cookie to allow for spreading.
(If you want to be precise, I roll my dough into 30g balls.)
Flatten the cookies slightly using your hand. Top each cookie with a spoonful of Nutella and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 13 minutes or until cookies are golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Repeat until you have baked all of your dough.
If you love home-baked treats, check out Charlotte’s amazing eBook! She will be releasing her first print book, Just Desserts, with Pan Macmillan imprint Plum in November.
