Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies
Soft in centers, chewy on the edges, ultra rich and oh-so-flavorful! With just 30 minutes of active time required in the kitchen, these Brown Butter cookies are an ultimate delight!
Servings: 24 Cookies
Calories: 148kcal
Equipment
- Hand/stand Mixer
- Baking Sheets
- 2-inch Cookie Scoop
- Wire Rack
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- ¼ cup cream cheese softened to room temperature
- ¾ cup light brown sugar packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 and ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 and ¼ cups chocolate chips or chocolate chunks semi-sweet
- ½ cup Sprinkles of choice (optional, only for decorative purposes)
- ¼ cup White Chocolate Chips
Instructions
- Take a light colored pan and keep the butter on medium heat. Light colored pan will help you see when the butter starts to brown. Once the butter melts, it will start to foam. Keep stirring/whisking in short intervals (about every 10-20 secs). Butter will start browning in about 5-7 minutes. Keep stirring. You will now notice milk solids turning golden brown at the bottom of the pan. Turn off the stove once it gets a nutty aroma, and turns brown. Enclose this browned butter in any heat proof and flat container. Chill it for around 2 hours.
- Once solidified brown butter is ready, take it out of refrigerator and let it come to room temperature (Like you would to make regular chocolate chip cookie dough). Now beat brown butter and cream cheese with a handheld mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, on medium speed for about a minute. The mixture should get light and creamy at this point.
- Next beat in granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium high speed until well combined, for about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Mix them in too. Keep scraping the sides and bottom of your bowl as needed.
- Now keeping the mixer on low speed, add in baking soda, cornstarch, salt and flour (add in 2-3 increments if using hand held mixer) and slowly mix until a smooth dough forms. Fold in the chocolate chips and sprinkles (if adding). Chill the dough for at least 2-3 hours and up to 3 days. Chilling the cookie dough is a must for this recipe to produce thick cookies.
- With the help of a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form 24 heaping mounds out of cookie dough. Roll the mounds tall in cylindrical shape and not round (see visual above). Place them on a large plate or parchment paper lined baking tray and cover with plastic wrap/aluminum foil. Chill the mounds in refrigerator for at least 2 hours (or up to 3 days) before baking. QUICK TIP: If in a hurry to bake, you can also freeze these mounds for about 45 minutes in the freezer. Or until they are super firm to touch.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F (177°C) and line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper or baking mats. Now place chilled cookie dough mounds on the baking sheet, I prefer to bake eight cookies per sheet. Space cookie mounds 2 inches apart and bake them for 9 to 10 minutes, or just until the edges have set and look golden brown. Tops will just begin to set and will appear glossy at this point.
- Don't be tempted to bake cookies for longer than 10 minutes. Cookies will firm up even more as they cool down and set. Let the cookies sit on baking sheets for about 5 minutes and then transfer them on to a wire-rack to finish cooling.
Notes
Storing and Freezing Instructions:
Cookies will fresh at room temperature for up to a week, covered tightly at all times.
Cookie dough can be made ahead and can chill in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Let it come to room temperature, scoop, roll into balls and bake it then.
You can also freeze cookie dough mounds for up to 3 months and bake them directly without thawing. Just add one extra minute to baking. Same oven temperature.
Baked cookies will freeze well too for up to 2 months. Thaw on counter top or reheat in oven at 300 def C for 5-6 minutes to enjoy warm cookies again!
Want to Chill The Dough First and then scoop/roll cookie dough mounds/balls?
After making the dough, cover and chill it for at least 3 hours and up to 3 days in refrigerator.
When ready to bake, remove cookie dough from refrigerator and allow it to sit at room temperature for easy handling of the dough. If you chilled the cookie dough more than a few hours, you will have to let it sit on the counter top for about 30 minutes before you can scoop and roll it into mounds. Now bake as directed in step 6.
Tips to make perfect Brown Butter Cookies:
Cream Cheese: Always use block style cream cheese for cookie dough, not the spreadable kind.
Chill That Dough: Don't ever bake with warm cookie dough as the cookies will spread (not in a good way!) and bake super flat.
Never place cookie dough balls on warm sheets sheets (in which you just baked the pervious cookie batch.) This will bake thinner cookies!
Nutrition
Serving: 1Cookie | Calories: 148kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 8g | Sodium: 90mg | Sugar: 9g