Chai Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

What better way to step into Autumn than with these Chai Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. The title is a mouthful but so are the cookies. A mouthful of decadence and like most of my recipes are really REALLY easy to make.

They’re spiced, nutty and have all the hallmarks of a great cookie. The edges are crispy & chewy with a perfectly soft centre. Also, let’s not forget the delicious dark chocolate chunks.

Why make these cookies?

Chilling

Firstly you don’t need to chill these! Yes! That’s right. No. waiting.

Am I the only one that doesn’t really plan when I’m going to bake things like cookies and brownies? Usually, it’s a random spur of the moment kind of thing because I feel like it there and then.

So whenever I used to bake cookies, I’d always look for a no-chill recipe. Yet the outcome never really felt like it was worth all the effort. There’s a reason why most of the best cookie recipes require chilling also known as “ripening”. According to Buzzfeed:

“It firms up the fat, and it allows more time for the flour to absorb the moisture from the eggs. Theoretically, ripening your dough will give you cookies that brown better, bake evenly, and are more complex in flavor…”

Browning the butter beforehand develops those complex toffee-like flavours that are comparable to allowing cookies to chill. It’s nutty, buttery and the addition of classic chai spices really takes these cookies to the next level.

You can make these ahead of time and chill them if you want. In fact, you can actually bake these from chilled. After testing this recipe a few times, I’ve found that lowering the temperature and baking the cookies for slightly longer produces better results. But for a predictable outcome, I recommend bringing the cookie dough to room temperature first.

The dark chocolate & Chai spices

I used a combination of 70% extra dark chocolate and 50% dark chocolate for this recipe. The cookie batter itself is much more flavourful and intense than your typical chocolate chip cookie so extra dark chocolate is perfect for this recipe.

The chai spice combination is pretty classic in that it contains the 5 main spices. Cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves and black pepper. It hits the right balance of being noticeable but not overpowering. It’s the same combination that I used for the chai spice cake with brown butter buttercream recipe. The only difference is that these cookies don’t contain Assam black tea as you’d expect with traditional Indian Masala Chai

How to make these cookies

Firstly you want to brown the butter then allow it to cool. While the butter’s hot, drop an ice cube in. This will help it to cool down quicker whilst also reintroducing the moisture lost while browning the butter. Place it in the refrigerator to cool down completely. At this point, I recommend measuring out all of the remaining ingredients and setting them aside.

The butter should still be runny so this will only take 10 minutes or so. If your butter becomes too hard, warm it in a microwave for a few seconds and whisk until it melts.

Next, you want to continue the process as you would with any other cookie recipe. Add the browned butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract then whisk. Add your dry ingredients, fold then mix in the dark chocolate.

I recommend using a standard ice cream scoop to measure out each cookie. If you don’t have the right size ice cream scoop then an alternative is to shape 3 tbsp of cookie dough into a ball. Use a fork to add that rough, crackled “cookie scoop” texture to each cookie.

Bake each cookie for 8 – 12 minutes at 180 C. At the halfway mark you want to turn your baking tray around. Allow them to cool for 10 minutes then enjoy!

Tips & Tricks

• Ensure that you leave at least 2 – 3 inches between each cookie to allow them space to spread. The safest bet is to grab a measuring tape to avoid any guestimation errors.
• Use a stainless steel saucepan to brown the butter. Butter transforms from nutty & browned to burnt very quickly and a lighter saucepan can help you visually keep an eye on the process.
• Ignore the baking times that I’ve suggested. Sounds counterintuitive but everyone’s oven is different so you want to keep a close eye on your cookies. Carefully turn them around after 6 minutes. From that point onward they’ll be done at any point. This will allow you to choose how crispy or soft you want the edges to be.
• Bake each tray of cookies separately. You’ll likely only be able to fit 9 cookies at most onto a standard oven tray. Placing two trays in one oven at the same time increases the risk of irregular baking temperatures. Even convection ovens can have this issue so try to avoid it.

Storing these cookies

Brown butter chocolate chip cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

If you decide to make these cookies then I’d love to hear how it goes. Let me know below! Click here for more baking recipes.

Recipe adapted from Epicurious