Make It: Gluten-Free Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you’re already melting butter, you might as well brown it. That’s the thinking behind today’s episode of Prep School, in which Megan Mitchell incorporates this nutty ingredient into warm, gooey, and gluten-free chocolate chip cookies. They’re decked out with chunks of silky Alter Eco chocolate made with fair trade ingredients and grass-fed milk that’s been churned and browned for added flavor. It probably goes without saying that this recipe was a hit in the test kitchen (and approved by a handful of hungry staffers who stopped by to help with quality control).

Gluten-Free Brown Butter and Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: 24 cookies
Active time: 15 minutes
Total time: 1 hr 5 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 ¼ cups gluten-free flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 ¼ cups dark brown sugar, lightly packed
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 (2.8-ounce) Alter Eco Dark Salted Brown Butter Organic Chocolate Bars, roughly chopped
Flaky salt, for sprinkling

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place butter in a small saucepan and simmer, swirling occasionally, for about 10 minutes, or until brown bits form on the bottom of the pan and it smells nutty. (The butter will foam up twice, and after the second time, the milk solids will start to brown.) Let cool.

While the butter browns, whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and sea salt in a medium bowl. Add both sugars and the cooled brown butter to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix 2 minutes on low speed. It will look like the ingredients are separating, but they’ll come together once you add the eggs. Add eggs, beating thoroughly between each addition, then add vanilla. Slowly add dry ingredients and mix until all dry bits are incorporated; fold in chocolate pieces with a spatula.

Using a small ice cream or portion scoop, scoop cookies onto baking sheet, 2-inches apart. Gently flatten cookies with the palm of your hand; sprinkle with flaky salt. Bake 9 to 10 minutes; let cookies cool slightly before transferring them to a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining dough.

Recipe by Megan Mitchell