99% Chocolate Chip Cookies (Nutella Stuffed, Brown Butter, Sea Salt)

99% Chocolate Chip Cookies

(Nutella Stuffed, Brown Butter, Sea Salt)

Adapted from NPR’s Leonard Lopate Show with Melissa Clark by Blue Heron Kitchen

(But really from “Monique” at ambitiouskitchen.com)

This chocolate chip cookie will elicit moans and omg's from the snootiest chocolatechipinado. Merging round and nutty browned butter (so all over cookies) with every chocolate flavor - dark, semi and moo (you can change any of these to your liking) with beloved Nutella (on sale last week for $2.99, American!) - finished with a sprinkle of Maldon salt. 

I know this one sounds like a signature cookie for the Jeb Bush campaign and the richest 1%, but once one of these occupies your taste buds, you'll understand that abundance doesn't translate to horror (and stock up on Nutella when it's on sale.) I'm going to deem these the official 99% Chocolate Chip Cookies and maybe they'll be Bernie Sanders' signature cookie! (A girl can dream.)

There's some labor to making these .. they're not drop cookies. But truth is this batter is like ... butter. The extra yolk softens the batter (before and after the bake) and makes it entirely enjoyable and easy to work. The refrigerated Nutella is kinda hard and if you're going to do battle, it'll be with the Nutella.

You'll work it out. You're the boss.

The only thing I'd suggest tweaking is perhaps lightening up some on the quantity of chips. Next time, I'll remove half the chips and toast and chop up some nuts - either hazelnuts or pecans. I like nuts. And it wouldn't hurt to stuff it to the 1%, now would it?

with a smile and a song,

jane

Ingredients:
2 ¼ c. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. Kosher salt
1 c. (8 oz.) unsalted butter, preferably European style
1 ¼ c. packed dark brown sugar
¼ c. granulated sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk, size large, room temperature
1 ½ tsp. pure vanilla extract  (Baldwins, highly recommended)
1 Tbsp. plain Greek yogurt
¾  c. semi-sweet chocolate chips (Ghirardelli is a good choice for all chips in this recipe)

½ c. milk chocolate chips
½ c. dark chocolate chips
1 -13 oz. jar of Nutella, chilled in refrigerator 

Coarse sea salt for finishing (Maldon flaked salt is perfect! - the link is for Amazon, but I've seen it for less in local markets - specifically, hMart, an Asian (Korean) supermarket.)

Procedure:
In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

To brown the butter:

In a 1 to 1 ½ qt. saucepan, over medium heat, melt butter. The butter will begin to foam. 

Make sure to whisk constantly during this process. 

The foam will subside and the butter will ‘cook.’ 

After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to foam again and then begin to brown.  During this process, breathe deeply – the smell is DIVINE! And .. of course, whisk continually. When the aroma and color are both ‘nutty’, remove from the heat and immediately transfer to a bowl to prevent burning. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment or Beater Blade, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended.

Beat in the whole egg, yolk, vanilla, and yogurt until combined. Scrape down, as necessary.

Add the dry ingredients; and beat on low-speed just until combined. Gently fold in all of the chocolate chips. Transfer to the medium bowl in which you’d mixed your dry ingredients.

Flatten dough and cover with plastic wrap and chill for an hour to two hours. The dough should be cold, but pliable. This is a very pliable dough. When you remove it from the fridge, if it’s too stiff, allow it to soften up until you can work with it. 

Preheat the oven to 350º F.

Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set racks to upper and lower third of oven

Measure about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. Flatten the dough ball very thinly into the palm of your hand.

Place 1 teaspoon of chilled Nutella in the middle 

and fold dough around it; 

gently roll into a ball – No worries .. it doesn’t have to be perfectly rolled, but make sure that the Nutella isn’t peeking out of the dough. (If it is, you may add more dough to tuck in the Nutella.)

Place dough balls on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and flatten with your hand with GREAT CARE. (Just the tops need to be flattened.)

Bake the cookies 9-11 minutes, transferring sheets front to back and top to bottom half-way through the bake, or until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown. They will look a bit underdone in the middle, but they'll continue firm up once cooled. 

Truc: While these are baking, prepare the next batch. You can bake them or place them on a sheet, lined with waxed or parchment paper and freeze the formed cookies. Once frozen, wrap them and store them. Bake them freezer to oven (DON'T DEFROST THEM!), adding baking time as needed. If you choose this method, I recommend you bake them one sheet at a time, in the center of your oven. 

Cool the cookies on the sheets at least 2 minutes and then sprinkle each cookie with a little coarse Maldon flaked salt.

Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets after a few minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough (or freeze.)

Yield: 2 dozen large cookies (with leftover Nutella for your toast!)