Brown Butter Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies

Brown Butter Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies - these are a variation on the classic chocolate chip cookie. Brown butter provides depth of flavour along with spelt flour. These spelt chocolate chip cookies cookies are easy to make with a short chill time and are the perfect way to start baking using alternative grains such as spelt flour.

Brown Butter Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hi hi! These are a brown butter spelt chocolate chip situation, and while there are already a bunch of cookie recipes here on the site, these brown butter spelt chocolate chip cookies are a very welcome addition to my chocolate chip cookie recipe collection. These Spelt chocolate chip cookies are a riff on my salted caramel chocolate chunk cookies, if you're after a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe, check out my homemade perfect chocolate chip cookies. If you would like a slightly thin and crispy cookie, my brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe will be your friend!

I got a little counter top grain mill a while back and have been happily milling all kinds of things ever since. It is amazing for milling grain to add into sourdough to add a whole different depth of flavour, but I have also been sneaking the freshly milled grain into other things - I started with pie dough, adding in rye and spelt, and was amazed at the complexity that adding in a different grain adds to the flavour of the pie crust. I use fresh milled grains but there are a huge variety of alternative flours available either at your supermarket or likely at your local Farmer’s market. NYC has an amazing grain programme at their markets where I can get locally grown, super fresh grains and flours really easily. Bread baking is becoming more and more popular these days, so in turn there are all these amazing mills popping up that also sell online.

How to make Cookies with Spelt Flour

I usually sub about 30-50% of the flour called for in a recipe with an alternative grain, and for these cookies I went for an even split of all-purpose and spelt. If you don’t have spelt flour you can use all all-purpose in this recipe, but it adds a whole new depth of flavour to the cookies, which paired with the brown butter makes for a pretty incredible cookie.

Use whatever chocolate you have here - I often use cookies as a bit of a grab bag to use up bits and bobs of things I have in my cupboard, but I have been leaning more toward chopped bars recently rather than wafers or chunks. When you chop chocolate you get a whole load of tiny shards along with your chunks, which gives you a whole range of chocolate distribution within the cookie. For these particular cookies I used a block of this chocolate which comes in the shape of a brick rather than a thin bar, and I smashed it up, which gave me some super craggy cookie tops. Just so good.

Recipe Tips

• If you don’t have spelt, sub it for all-purpose!
• These cookies benefit from a quick chill in the fridge just to firm up the dough slightly and allow the flour to hydrate just a tiny bit. I tested it with a full hour chill and also no chill and there was a big difference between no chill and half an hour, but not much between half an hour and an hour, so I figured why make you wait an unecessary amount of time for cookies?
• You will see that there are two different weights of butter called for in the recipe - the starting weight of 225g, and the 175g of brown butter called for in the recipe. When you brown butter you cook off the water, so the starting weight and ending weight are different. The initial quantity of butter accounts for this moisture loss. Measure out 175g of the brown butter to use for your cookie recipe.
• If you don’t want to chill the dough, then you can bake these off straight away but they will bake up a little thinner.
• If you want to freeze some of the dough, scoop it out onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet then freeze until solid, then transfer into a ziploc bag until your next cookie emergency comes along. You will have to add a little extra time onto the baking time.
• The baking time varies depending on both your cookie preference and your oven. If you like these gooey, with that ‘only just baked’ texture, bake for less time, if you like them slightly crunchy around the outside and chewy in the middle, up the baking time by a minute or two. Sometimes I like to bake one off at a time to find my ideal baking time. You do you here.

I know that making brown butter can be intimidating. Don't be scared, I will hold your hand the whole way through in my post and you'll be nailing it in no time: Brown Butter 101: The Ultimate Guide

Brown Butter Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies

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• Author: Erin Clarkson
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 30 minutes
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 22-24 cookies 1x

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Description

Brown Butter Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies - these are a variation on the classic chocolate chip cookie. Brown butter provides depth of flavour along with spelt flour. The cookies are easy to make with a short chill time and are the perfect way to start baking using alternative grains such as spelt flour.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 225g unsalted butter, straight from the fridge
• 160g muscovado sugar
• 70g dark brown sugar
• 100g granulated sugar
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
• 155g all-purpose flour
• 155g spelt flour (alternatively use all-purpose flour)
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 350g dark chocolate from a high quality chocolate bar, coarsely chopped
• Flaky Sea Salt for Finishing

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Instructions

1. Place the butter in a medium saucepan, and place over medium heat. Cook until the butter has melted, and then continue to cook, swirling the pan often, until the butter foams and turns golden brown and nutty - this should take 3-4 minutes.
2. Measure out 175g (see Notes section below) of the brown butter into the bowl of a stand mixer. Allow to cool slightly.
3. Place the bowl of the stand mixer with the brown butter onto the mixer, and fit with the paddle attachment. Mix the brown butter, muscovado sugar, dark brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium speed until combined. Add the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla, then increase the mixer speed to high and beat for 2-3 minutes, until the mixture has lightened in colour and thickened.
4. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, spelt flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer off, add to the mixing bowl, then mix on low until just combined.
5. Remove the bowl from the mixer and finish the incorporation of the dry ingredients by hand if needed - scrape down the bowl and ensure that all the mixture at the bottom of the bowl is fully incorporated. Add the chopped chocolate and mix briefly to incorporate.
6. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes in the fridge. While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350°f/ 180°c. Line 2-3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
7. Using a two tablespoon scoop, place level scoop fulls of dough onto the prepared baking trays - 8 per tray works well for me, but I like to start with 6 just to make sure there will be enough space. Roll each into a ball and arrange on the trays, leaving ample room for spreading.
8. Bake the trays one at a time for 11-12 minutes, or until the cookies are puffed up and set around the edges. Remember that they will continue to cook a little once you remove them from the oven. If the cookies have lost their round shape a little in the oven, you can use a round cookie cutter slightly larger than the cookie to nudge it back into a circular shape. Sprinkle each cookie with coarse sea salt, then cool on the tray for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Repeat the baking process with the remaining cookies. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.

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Notes

You may notice that there are two quantities of butter in the recipe - the initial quantity of butter, then a second measurement in the method which is the quantity of brown butter. The larger initial quantity is to account for water loss when browning - read more about that in my FAQ.

If you are using the recipe scaling feature (2x or 3x) be aware that any quantities, measurements, pan sizes, and cooking times given in the method do not scale automatically - it's only the quantities in the Ingredient List that scale automatically.