When a cookie title contains the words brown butter, it better deliver that toasty, nutty flavour profile. If you’re curious about the science behind brown butter, here’s a quick primer. Butter is composed of butterfat, milk protein and water. When you brown butter, you are essentially toasting the milk protein. As you heat the butter, and it begins to bubble and sputter away, the water evaporates and the hot butterfat begins to cook the milk solids, turning them from creamy yellow to speckled brown and your whole kitchen smells like toasted hazelnuts. It’s these toasted milk solids (not the fat itself) that give brown butter its nutty taste 

The issue I have with using browned butter in baked goods is that once it is mixed with the sugar, flour, and eggs, the brown butter flavour becomes quite subtle. So I’m always left wondering if it’s worth it to take the time to brown butter when baking. And then I came across this Bon Appétit article, “For the Best Brown Butter, You Need Milk Powder.”

Author Shilpa Uskovic explains, “If you want brown butter to be the mayor of Flavourtown, the main character of the story, you’ve got to maximize those milk solids. Enter from stage right: nonfat dry milk powder. Milk is mostly water with some fat and milk solids (same building blocks as butter, just different ratios). Remove the water and fat and you get nonfat milk powder—what is essentially pure milk solids. The very same milk solids that play a starring role in brown butter. Which means all you have to do is add a scoop of milk powder to melting butter, and you’ll go from brown butter to brownest butter.”

The brown butter flavour of these cookies is quite pronounced, and certainly worth the effort of taking the extra time to prepare the toasted milk powder. Most supermarkets carry milk powder. It is most commonly sold as skim milk powder. Here in Ontario I buy it at Bulk Barn. I include detailed instructions in the recipe for how to make your own toasted milk powder. The recipe makes more than you will need for one batch of cookies. Keep it in the fridge and use to boost the flavour of a buttercream or frosting.

The recipe incorporates a mix of all-purpose flour and bread flour. The higher protein content of bread flour will make the cookies a bit chewier. A heaping teaspoon of instant espresso powder will give the cookies a more adult flavour profile and help temper the sweetness. I also added some toffee chips. You could use Skor Bits or make your own toffee. I have included the recipe if you’re keen to try. If you have a candy thermometer you can make your own toffee.

What is really critical here is to avoid using regular chocolate chips from the supermarket. You want the very best quality chocolate here. My favourite are from Valrhona. I love their 64% Manjari bittersweet feves (discs).

Here are a few tips for cookie success:

• Scoop your cookie dough with an ice cream scoop for consistent size. Scoop the cookies while the dough is still soft, before chilling.
• Chill the cookie scoops for at least 3 hours or up to 72 hours, so that all the flour in the dough has a chance to hydrate. Make sure you wrap the cookie dough balls well with plastic wrap so that they do not dehydrate.
• Double up your baking sheets when baking the cookies, so that the bottom of the cookies do not get too brown.
• Don’t add all the chopped chocolate to the cookie dough. Hold back about 1/3 of the amount. After the cookies have been baking for about 5 minutes, remove from oven and stud each cookie with an additional few chunks and then continue baking. You will get Instagram worthy melting pools of chocolate on top of each cookie.
• For perfectly round cookies, all you need is a round cookie cutter larger than the size of the baked cookies. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, place the cookie cutter over each cookie and give the cookie inside a spin. This quick swirl will help smooth any uneven edges.
• Use a good quality flaky sea salt to sprinkle sparingly on the just baked cookies.

Click here to print recipe for Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Coffee Toffee Cookies.