Tag Archives: Toffee

Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Coffee Toffee Cookies

4 Replies

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.

Chewy Brown Sugar and Toffee Cookies

8 Replies

I won’t post a recipe with an obscure ingredient just for the sake of novelty. I try not to ask you to special order something unless it truly adds to the recipe and significantly improves the dish.

So it was with some trepidation that I ordered a $15 bag of smoked brown sugar to experiment with. In my defence, I was curious. I had never seen smoked brown sugar before and I was intrigued. I’m not a huge fan of smoked fish, but I adore smoked almonds and smoked turkey. Plus, I love nothing more than kitchen experiments. My inquisitive brain wanted to see what would happen if I snuck some into a batch of cookie dough.

I was envisioning a cookie with a hint of that campfire smoke you associate with making s’mores. Sometimes there is a huge gap between what you wish for and what actually transpires. I ended up with a batch of cigarette flavoured cookies. Too smoky!! I tried them again with just a scant 1/4 cup of smoked brown sugar and while the smoke flavour was mild, they had an odd smell. reminiscent of sweaty gym socks. Not what you are looking for in a cookie.

But it was not a total failure. As my sister Jody is fond of saying, “mistakes are how we learn”. The texture of these cookies was stellar. They were slightly crispy at the edges with a pronounced chewiness in the center.  I decided to make them with all regular brown sugar and I added a bag of chopped Skor/Heath bits to really enhance the toffee notes of brown sugar. I finished them off with a light sprinkling of flaked sea salt before baking.

As I munched my way through the new batch, I knew I had a winner on my hands. And I saved you $15. You’re welcome!

 

Click here to print recipe for Chewy Brown Sugar and Toffee CookiesDownload

English Toffee

3 Replies

stack-of-toffee Sadly, I never met my father-in-law as he died before I met my husband, and my mother-in-law died shortly before we became engaged. But I lucked out with four brother-in-laws and and  one sister-in-law. My husband’s siblings welcomed me into the family with open arms and have always treated me as one of their own.

When I moved to Ottawa 25 years ago, I felt quite isolated after leaving all my family and friends behind in Toronto. My sister-in-law (who I am blessed to also call my friend), sent me regular care packages to ease my loneliness. The parcels almost always contained a box of Phipps Krunch, a delicious confection of crunchy caramel, roasted almonds and milk chocolate. Nothing like a heap of butter and sugar to fill the emotional void of sadness.

I was so excited to find a recipe for English Toffee in Bobbette and Belle’s new cookbook. It looked exactly like Phipps Krunch. I had to try my hand at making it.

Making toffee is not difficult. It just requires a candy thermometer and some patience. I love the chemistry of candy making. I feel like a magician when I turn simple ingredients like butter and sugar into something so glorious.

 

I was thrilled with the results. The buttery crunchy toffee is just on the edge of bitter, making it the perfect companion for  that blanket of dark chocolate. Nutty toasted almonds take this candy to the next level. Please do not forget to toast the nuts. Untoasted nuts are one of my biggest culinary pet peeves. They taste like sawdust. Toasting nuts is one of the simplest ways to improve the flavour profile of anything.

Just preheat oven to 350°F and place nuts on a baking sheet. Roast for 10-12 minutes until they become toasty brown and fragrant. Let them cool completely before using or storing. If you are not going to use them right away, store them in the freezer, as they can go rancid quickly.

wedges-on-a-plateThis makes a ton of toffee, so keep some for yourself and give the rest away as gifts. You will be quite beloved.

Click here to print recipe for English-Toffee.