*please pin from original recipe, thanks!*
So back in December I made these Nutella-stuffed browned butter and sea salt chocolate chip cookies (that is their name for reals, maybe we’ll call them NSBBSSCCs?, nope, not better) from the Ambitious Kitchen for my work’s annual Christmas cookie contest. I had to refrain from eating them so I would have enough to take up there. But those bad boys won two of the three categories and ever since then, I have been obsessed with the sea salt/chocolate combination. Last weekend I had a hankering for something chocolaty and gooey so I perused some of my fave food blogs as per usual for recipes. I found this Browned Butter Brownie recipe at The Food Charlatan and gave it a whirl, just adding sea salt at the end.
It is a really straightforward, normal recipe. You know, mix the dry ingredients.
The difference here is using browned butter instead of regular softened butter. I think browning butter is pretty much the funnest thing ever, is that weird? I was so intimidated to do it the first time but all you have to do is melt it, sit back, swirl it, and watch it do its thing.
It all involves bubbles, various sizes of bubbles, and no bubbles. First is tiny little foamy bubbles right after the butter melts, then that starts to go away.
The bubbles will slowly get bigger and the liquid slowly goes from cloudy to clear. About the big-bubble stage is when you will notice a mind-blowing nutty aroma all of a sudden. After the nutty smell starts, it’ll start to darken a little bit and will get a little more foamy, stir a lot at this stage cause it’s about to start making it’s little browned jewels (you can kind of see them gathering in the middle in the right photo).
And then bam! you’re done! See all those little flavor nuggets?!? Crazy, right? I wonder about the person who sat and watched heated melted butter for like 20 minutes and how insane it must have been to discover it did this! Thank the good lord for that person :)
This then gets poured over the dry ingredients. Make sure you stir it as much as you can during the pouring process to get all those little bits out!
The rest is back to normal. Mixing, eggs, mixing, then chocolate chips.
Spread it out.
Then, of course, do a little of this afterwards…or alot.
What is y’all’s take on the sea salt with chocolate arena? Love it or not so much? I would love to hear any other sweet ‘n sea salt recipes you guys recommend.
And a reminder that all of the recipes I’ve tried, or plan to try, are on my Pinterest page!
Sea salt and chocolate are my favorite; add some caramel and I’m in heaven! I have yet to use brown butter and it is definitely because I feel a little intimidated. You are helping me face my fears though, the pictures definitely make it seem a lot less daunting!
Oooo yes, caramel!! Have you had the Ghiradelli Sea Salt Caramel squares? I can eat a whole bag in a day :/
I was freaked out at browning butter the first time too, thinking it was like a roux or something, but it’s way easier cause it does it all by itself with just some stirring. It’s just watching it for 10-15mins or so until it makes those little nuggets (which you’ll definitely see). Once it does, just pull it off and you’re ready to go!
Do you leave the sediment in the bottom of the pan?
YES Claire, yes!!! You want to get as much of that delicious sediment in your batter as possible, they’re full of the nutty browned butter flavor!