Thursday, May 5, 2011

Brown Butter Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

What? Is it possible to pack that much tastiness in one cookie? Why yes, it is. These are the most amazing cookies I've ever had.

I introduced my friend Debe to the Cook's Illustrated Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe a while back. Recently she informed me that she made them even better. I was skeptical. I mean, can you really improve on perfection. Apparently, you can if you add coconut. Now, I love coconut, but it never occurred to me to put it in chocolate chip cookies. That's mostly due to my obsession with following a recipe to the letter. (I'm a little OCD when it comes to following baking recipes.) I am so glad that Debe's not that way. It's one of the many reasons we get along so well. She pushes me to be more laid back with my recipes and I introduce her to lots of new and amazing recipes, which she goes on to tweak to her heart's content.

These cookies combine the nutty, toffee-like flavor of browned butter with toasted coconut and chocolate. If you like nuts, a cup or so in this recipe would not necessarily go amiss, (perhaps some macadamia nuts). I, however, will save my nuts for another recipe. I think trying to pack anymore goodness into these cookies would be a bit reckless and possibly dangerous, at least to my waistline.

The technique of browning butter can be used for any cookie recipes to add a little extra tastiness. So, next time you get a hankering for amazing chocolate chip cookies, something extra special, here's what you do:

Dig out your favorite chocolate cookie recipe. Take 3/4 of the butter and melt it over med-low heat in a skillet, about 2 minutes. Once it is melted, keep an eye on it. Butter can go from browned to burnt in a snap. Once it turns a light golden brown, 1-3 minutes more, remove it from the heat and add the remaining butter, allowing it to melt as well. Pour the melted butter into the bowl of a mixer and allow to cool a bit

While the butter cools, toast your coconut in a 350 degree oven on a baking sheet. Again, keep an eye on it. Stir it every 2 minutes until it is golden brown and toasted. Put the toasted coconut in the blender or food processor and pulse it until chopped fine.

Continue following the recipe, substituting coconut extract for vanilla and adding the toasted coconut with the flour. Bake as directed.

These are best right out of the oven, but if there are any that last until they're cool, store them in an air tight container. I don't know how long they'll keep since our batch only lasted 2 days.

Enjoy! StumbleUpon

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