Dark Chocolate Chip Comfort Cookies

Since I scaled down our Thanksgiving meal to the point where it wasn't much more complicated to make than a typical weeknight dinner, I uncharacteristically found myself with a lot of free time Thanksgiving morning. That meant I got to lounge around on the sofa watching the parade and putting together silly Photoshopped pictures for a friend.

Exhibit A of my boredom:



Exhibit B:



And Exhibit C for a different friend:


But once the parade was over, the cranberry sauce for our fabulous turkey burgers was made and chilling in the fridge, and my husband was taking a pre-Thanksgiving meal nap I found myself even more bored than before. What to do, what to do?

I'd been craving chocolate chip cookies for weeks and had just bookmarked an intriguing-looking recipe from Bakerella for chocolate cookies made with peanut butter and dark chocolate chips that are otherwise similar to the chocolate chip cookies I'd been craving. So I decided to whip up a batch. This turned out to be a wonderful decision as they were just as easy to make as chocolate chip cookies but the addition of that peanut butter elevates them to a whole new level. Frankly, I probably would have passed up the Nestle dark chocolate chips in favor of something a little fancier but because Bakerella seemed to be such a big fan of them I picked up a bag when we were doing our Thanksgiving grocery shopping. Boy am I glad I did. These cookies wouldn't be nearly as impressive without that flavor balance.

Since I was incapable of following instructions for any of the recipes I made this weekend, I also changed things up a little with these. I tossed in a few peanut butter chips to go along with the peanut butter in the dough and added some cinnamon since I adore the combination of cinnamon with chocolate. I didn't bother to roll them into perfectly formed balls before baking either, but I'll go ahead and admit that that's because I didn't bother to thoroughly read the directions. Instead I used a cookie scoop and just plopped the blobs of dough onto cookie sheets. The cookies seem none the worse for wear as a result of my mistake as the cookie scoop not only kept the cookies to a uniform size but it also helped shape the dough a bit. I'm also not a huge fan of nuts in cookies so I skipped the optional step of coating each cookie in chopped pecans. If you want to go that route head over to Bakerella's post for all of the details. I refuse to sully my blog with such a thing!

The best part is that my husband's not a big fan of chocolate so I get to keep these all to myself. Which is a good thing because they're so good I think blood might spill if he were to try to take some. Half of the batch went straight into the freezer and I will happily nosh on them in the weeks to come. I suspect that when that supply runs out I'll go ahead and make some more. This recipe just might replace plain old chocolate chip cookies in my baking repertoire when I want to make some easy comfort food.

Dark Chocolate Chip Comfort Cookies
Recipe adapted from Bakerella

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, slightly softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
10 oz. dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) In a small bowl, mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon using a wire whisk and set aside.
3) In another bowl, cream butter, sugar and peanut butter until light and fluffy.
4) Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.
5) Add flour mixture to creamed mixture and mix until combined.
6) Stir in dark chocolate chips and peanut butter chips.
7) Roll cookie dough into 1-1/4 inch balls. (Or not. Be a rebel like me.)
8) Place on parchment paper covered baking sheet and bake 10 minutes.
9) Place cookies on cookie rack to cool.
Makes about 30 2-inch cookies.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm not sure if browned butter has officially become a baking fad or if I'm just now becoming aware of it. Either way I'm all too happy to capitalize on the dearth of browned butter recipes out there and incorporate it into as many of my baked goods as possible. I've extolled the virtues of browned butter in the past and all of that praise is equally well-deserved for the extra dimension it brings to what would otherwise be plain old chocolate chip cookies.

Aside from a few minor adjustments in the quantity of the ingredients, all of the basic ingredients are there with the big twist being the strong flavor of the browned butter. It's especially prevalent in the raw batter, not that I would know. ;) In fact, when doing a little taste test of the sugar mixture my first thought was that it tasted like caramel. A delicious sign of things to come!

I made the cookies a little smaller than the recipe calls for. I wound up with about 23 cookies not counting the 2-3 cookies' worth of cookie dough I ate as the first batch baked. They baked up nicely into cake-like morsels with crisp, lightly browned edges. I know there are all sorts of schools of thought as to what constitutes the perfect chocolate chip cookie but I'm not such a picky connoisseur. To me these contain everything I could possibly want in a cookie. You'll get no complaints from me!

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe adapted from Cooks Illustrated via The Way the Cookie Crumbles

1 3/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (optional)

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper (I used nonstick pans and skipped this step). Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.

3. Add both sugars, salt and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand for 3 minutes, then whish for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth and shiny. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using), giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.

4. Divide dough into 16 portions, each about 3 tablespoons (or use a #24 cookie scoop). Arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, 8 dough balls per sheet.

5. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10-14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.