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.
Brown Butter Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies
Hi hi! Happy Galentine’s day - the day before Valentine’s day! Cookies are a great way to celebrate anything, but particularly Galentine’s day. 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.
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.
A few wee tips for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
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If you don’t have spelt, sub it for all-purpose!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
For more Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes, Check out:
- Small Batch Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Chip Cookies
- My Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Brown Butter Salted Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Brown Butter Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 22-24 cookies 1x
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.
Ingredients
- 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
Instructions
- 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.
- Measure out 175g of the brown butter into the bowl of a stand mixer. Allow to cool slightly.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Repeat the baking process with the remaining cookies. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature.
Keywords: Cookies, chocolate chip cookies, brown butter, spelt, chocolate puddles
OMG!!! BEST COOKIE RECIPE EVER!! I love it so much! Thank you!!
★★★★★
yayyyy I am so glad that you love!
do you think you could post U.S. imperial measurements as well? 🙈
Hi! No sorry! I don't post in cups as they are not accurate. I write more about this on my FAQ page if you are interested. Please let me know if you would like me to recommend a scale!
Hi! Can't find muscovado sugar anywhere! Is there something that can replace it? Or just use more brown sugar?
Thanks!
Hi hi! More Brown sugar is fine 🙂
My go to chocolate chip cookie recipe! I make these with just all purpose flour and they're amazing!
★★★★★
Ah yayyy so glad you love!
These are our faves - thank you so much!
★★★★★
I made these yesterday and loved every part of it! Thanks for writing the recipe to be flexible too with the sub for AP flour. Still super delicious!!!
★★★★★
Yay so happy they worked out for you! Thank you so much for the review x
There's only one thing better than chocolate chip cookies: brown butter chocolate chip cookies with almost no chilll time. Wow! I love these cookies. I made them this morning with all purpose flour and whole wheat flour instead of spelt. Delish! Thank you!
★★★★★