Brown Butter Honey Cookies with Chocolate

You can’t beat a soft chewy cookie straight from the oven, this recipe makes a batch of 12. It's always a good idea to keep half a batch of rolled cookie dough in the freezer. Ready for any late night cravings. Simply increase the baking time by 3-5 minutes. 

Takes 30 minutes making, 1 hour chilling, 25 minutes to bake

Makes 12 large cookies 

INGREDIENTS

• 250g butter, cubed
• 100g Black Bee honey (I recommend their British Spring honey)
• 200g soft brown sugar
• 2 free range egg
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 350g plain flour
• 1 tsp bi-carb soda
• 0.5 tsp baking powder
• 250g milk or dark chocolate roughly chopped or chips
• More flaked sea salt for topping the cookies

METHOD

Place the cubed butter into a saucepan on a medium heat, leave to gently bubble away for 10 minutes, the butter will foam & start to smell toasted. Keep an eye on the pan, as the butter can quickly turn from golden to burnt. You can check if the butter is browned by removing it from the heat, and using a metal spoon to scrape back the foamy top. Once it’s a golden brown, pour into a heatproof bowl to cool. 

Whilst the butter is cooling, you can weigh out the other ingredients. Combine the sugars, honey & eggs  in a mixing bowl and set to one side. Then weigh out the flour with the raising agents in another bowl & the chopped chocolate in a third. 

Once the butter has cooled to room temperature, pour into the sugar & egg mix, whisk until fully combined then fold through the flour & raising agents using a wooden spoon. Once the flour is ¾ incorporated, add ¾ of the chocolate to the cookie dough, continue to mix until evenly distributed. 

If your cookie dough is quite soft & sticky, place it in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes before rolling into 85g balls. Once you’ve rolled the cookie dough, stud each one with remaining chocolate pieces. Place in the fridge to chill for a further hour or overnight. Chilling the dough is important as it stops the cookies from spreading, so don’t be tempted to skip this stage. At this point you can freeze the cookie dough, for baking at a later date.

Preheat the oven to 180c, line two large baking trays with greaseproof paper, then place 6 cookie dough onto the tray, leaving a 10cm gap between each. Sprinkle with flaked sea salt and bake for 12 minutes, rotating midway for even baking. Leave them to cool fully before removing from the paper. 

TIP* If your cookies are misshapen, you can use a large cup or small bowl to re-shape them whilst they’re still hot. Just gently place it over the cookie and move in circular motions. Do this straight from the oven! 

Author: @lucyrosetteturnbull