Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Freshly baked brown butter chocolate chunk cookies - crispy on bottom with soft fluffiness in the middle. We guarantee that with this texture and a flavor that’s been enhanced by brown butter and a few other special ingredients, you will not miss the gluten. The picture says it all… enjoy!

Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Brown Butter (We demonstrate how to make brown butter in this video on Celiac Kitchen’s YouTube channel)

1 stick unsalted butter cut into equal size slices

Spread slices evenly in pan; melt butter on medium low heat

Leave alone until butter starts to foam and steam begins to rise

Begin stirring once you see little bubbles forming a ring all the way around the edge of the skillet; continue stirring while butter browns

Ideal temperature for butter to reach is 275 - 280°F *this temperature is specific to 1 stick (½ cup) butter

You will see milk bits begin to brown on bottom of skillet and you will begin smelling a little nuttiness

Our butter took about 5½ minutes to reach 275°F  

Pour into glass container; butter will continue to turn brown as it returns to temperature (filter out the brown bits if you don’t like the taste)

Allow brown butter to cool thoroughly before using it in a recipe (it does take a while to cool)

Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies (YouTube video for this recipe is here)

Makes 20 large cookies

Preheat oven to 375°F

Ingredients

1¼ cups brown sugar

½ cup granulated white sugar

Cinnamon to taste

2 tablespoons espresso powder

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 cup of butter that’s been browned, which reduced to a little over ¾ cup

1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Flour

1⅔ cup Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour

¼ teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 cup milk chocolate chips (optional: + extra to add to top of scoops of cookie dough)

1 cup 62% dark chocolate chunks (optional: + extra to add to top of scoops of cookie dough)

Optional: coarse sea salt to sprinkle on top of baked cookies

Directions

In large mixing bowl add:

Brown sugar

Granulated white sugar

Cinnamon

Espresso powder

Use mixer on low speed to blend these ingredients together

Once sugars, cinnamon and espresso powder are blended, add:

Unsalted softened butter

Blend in butter to incorporate air into the dough for some texture and lift

Then slowly pour in melted and cooled brown butter

Mix together; pause as needed to scrape sides of bowl

Begin on a low and gradually increase speed; creaming can take 10 – 15 minutes

Texture will begin to look like a buttercream frosting

While butters and sugars cream, combine dry ingredients into a clean bowl:

Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Flour

Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour

Xanthan gum

Salt

Baking powder

Baking soda

Mix dry ingredients until blended using a fork; set aside

(The batter that’s been mixing smells incredible at this point)

Drop the first, whole egg into creamed batter; mix it a minute or so to incorporate

Scrape down sides of bowl and notice how thick and rich the batter is becoming

Drop egg yolk into batter; mix for another minute or so

Keep mixer going and add:

Vanilla

Lemon juice

Begin to slowly blend in the dry ingredients you set aside earlier, a scoop at a time

Scrape sides of bowl as needed to ensure all ingredients are blended

Once ingredients are all incorporated, add

Milk chocolate chips

Dark chocolate chunks

Line cookie sheet with parchment paper

Scoop cookies onto parchment paper (we used an ice cream scoop for large cookies)

At this point you can freeze scoops of cookie dough and pull them out to bake whenever you want a freshly baked cookie

Place extra chocolate chunks of chips on top of scoops; press them in a bit for a beautiful looking cookie

Place in preheated oven

Check after 10 minutes

If you want to add coarse sea salt, do it right when cookies come out of the oven

Cool cookies for 5 – 10 minutes

Notes and Tips

• Temperature is very important at every step of the way: temperature of ingredients, components, temperature of dough and your oven

• brown sugar makes for a chewier cookie while granulated white sugar gives more spread

• Espresso or coffee really help bring out the chocolate flavor. While cinnamon compliments chocolate quite well, coffee, in the small amounts we’re using it, enriches chocolate flavor so you will not taste the coffee but you will taste a deeper chocolate flavor. You can add this into dry ingredients but I like adding it to butter so it incorporates into the fats as the fats are what carry a lot of flavor

• Creaming sugars and butter for 10 - 15 minutes is an important step it sets a good foundation for the finished texture

• Different flours have different properties. We are using:

  Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All-Purpose Baking Flour which is generally good for yeast-risen baked goods; the mix does not include a binder such as xanthan gum; this blend has a higher protein content as the main ingredient is garbanzo bean flour

  Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour which is generally good for pure leavening from baking powder or baking soda; the mix does contain some xanthan gum; it has a lower protein content as its main ingredient is rice four

• We needed only a small amount of xanthan gum in this recipe since the 1 to 1 flour mix already contains some

• A main part of our water in recipes like this comes from our eggs and egg white and there’s different purposes for each. Egg white has a high water content and is high in protein and is really good for adding and stretch and holding structure. The egg yolk adds richness and flavor and the fat in it helps with fudginess.

• It’s important to add eggs one step at a time, incorporating one before adding the next. It you just dump it all in at once you don’t get such a beautiful emulsifying effect – an effect you can see the instant the egg goes into your batter. You actually can see how it starts bringing everything together – the water into the fat in an even, homogenous solution. You can see it, it’s a beautiful looking batter.

• Vanilla does not have to be pure extract for this recipe, but be certain whatever vanilla flavor you use is labelled gluten free

• We used lemon juice for its acidic properties, not for flavor; it helps with hydration of gluten free flours and helps to hold structure