Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies w/ Sea Salt

Our Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Sea Salt recipe is more complex and a far cry from the first cookies I made when I was a teenager.  I was in the seventh grade, it was the first year that our school required the boys to attend home economics class. Prior to that year, boys took Shop class and the girls took home economics. That year all students took both classes.

Taking Home Economics was a hard sell to the boys, sewing, cleaning, and cooking did not appeal to most of us. There was one person that was more resistant then us about boys taking the class and her name was Ms. Dierdorff, the Home Ec. teacher. She was a stout, elderly woman that had taught school the for better of forty years.

Ms.Dierdorff was a no-nonsense woman that had a thick German accent. She cared deeply about her craft and took pride in being a teacher. She volunteered countless hours with the county 4H, working with kids. We all knew that her gruff exterior did not match her giving heart.

Up until that year, Ms. Dierdorff had only taught girls. She had no desire to teach boys a subject that they didn’t want to take.

In general, we boys were loud, unruly, and pushed the limits of the elderly woman. She didn’t hide her disdain either, we knew she didn’t want us there, nothing personal.                                   

 Our favorite part of the class was the days when we cooked. My guess is, it was Ms. Dierdorff’s least favorite part.  On the cooking days, she divided the class into groups of four.
The small kitchen stations were positioned around the perimeter of a large room. I am sure she could have used a sedative.

While the groups of girls worked together to follow the recipe provided, the groups of boys were juggling eggs and having flour wars.

One day Ms. Dierdorff handed each group a recipe for snicker doodle cookies. Simple enough, we thought. We mixed the dough, divided it into balls and set them on our cookie sheets. The pans were put in the 350-degree oven and had started the baking process that should take 12 minutes, meanwhile, we started our mischief of bugging the girls, and bothering the hell out of Ms. Dierdorff.

None of the guys in my group had set a timer for the cookies and we certainly did not pay attention as they baked. After forty minutes, smoke poured from the oven, the fire alarms were ringing and Ms. Dierdorff, flailing her arms and yelling in her thick German accent ” BoiiiiiEs, BoiiiiiEes, your Sneeeeker Dooooodles are buerrrrnnning!”

It was quite the site. The angrier she got, the harder we laughed. To this day I chuckle when I hear the word snicker doodle.

Looking back at that time, I’m not proud of my part in the way she was treated. She had worked tirelessly for most of her life to make the world a better place for kids.

There is a bench at the 4-H fairgrounds that has an inscription that says,
In memory of Betty Dierdorff and all her years of service. That bench makes smile, but the word Snickerdoodle still makes me chuckle. Thank you, Ms. Dierdorff.

Feel free to leave a comment below and if you try the recipe, snap a picture and post it on Instagram with #dougbakes.

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Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Sea Salt

The brown butter creates a nutty taste. The combination of the dark chocolate, pecans, and sea salt make this the best modern cookie you've tasted. 

Course Cookies

Cuisine American

Keyword brown butter cookies

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 13 minutes

Total Time 28 minutes

Servings 24 cookies

Author Doug Bakes Staff

Ingredients

• 2 sticks butter
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons hot water
• 2 cups pecans , chopped
• 8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped into the size of chocolate chips
• Maldon Salt (to sprinkle on top of the cookies)

Instructions

1. Browning the butter:

   Melt butter over medium heat. Continue heating until the butter smells nutty and it turns light brown.

   
   

2. Pour the browned butter into a container and refrigerate for about an hour or until it reaches the consistency of soft butter.

   
   

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

   
   

4. Whisk eggs, vanilla, and salt together and set aside.

   
   

5. In another bowl, blend together the flour, salt, cream of tartar and set aside.

   
   

6. In a mixer, beat the brown butter, for 20 seconds and add both sugars and beat until fluffy, 3 mins.

   
   

7. Add half of the eggs and vanilla to the brown butter and mix until its combined. Add the remainder of the eggs and beat until combined.

   
   

8. In the hot water, dissolve the baking soda then add to the butter mixture.

   
   

9. Next add the flour mixture to the butter and sugars and mix by hand until incorporated.

   
   

10. Add chocolate and pecans and mix by hand until fully mixed.

    Drop by large spoonfuls and a sheet pan lined with parchment paper spacing 2 inches apart.

    flatten the tops a little and bake for 10 mins and rotate the pan and bake another 5 or 6 mins.

    
    

11. Allow the cookies to cool on the sheet for a couple mins and then sprinkle with the sea salt.

    
    

12. Transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.