Chocolate Chip Cookies (Chewy)
I put smoked paprika on top of my chocolate chip cookies and my family staged an intervention. Then they tasted them. Intervention cancelled.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, browned 2 sticks / 225g
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 cups chocolate chips mix of semi-sweet and dark
- Flaky sea salt for topping
- Smoked paprika for topping just a tiny pinch per cookie
Method
Brown the Butter
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. It'll foam, then the foam will subside, and the butter will turn golden with brown specks on the bottom. It'll smell nutty and incredible — like toasted hazelnuts. This takes about 5-7 minutes. Watch it carefully because brown butter and burnt butter are separated by about 30 seconds. Pour into a large bowl and let it cool for 10 minutes.
Make the Dough
- Add both sugars to the brown butter and whisk vigorously for 2 minutes. This dissolves the sugar and creates a slightly glossy mixture. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth and slightly thickened. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and fold with a spatula until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. The dough will be soft and glossy from the brown butter.
Rest (Important)
- Cover the dough and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. I know waiting is painful. But resting does two crucial things: the flour hydrates fully (better texture) and the sugars concentrate (deeper flavour). Cookies from rested dough are noticeably better than cookies from fresh dough. Every time I skip this step out of impatience, I regret it. Every time I wait, I'm rewarded. The lesson is clear and I still struggle with it.
Bake
- Preheat oven to 175C / 350F. Scoop dough into balls — about 2 tablespoons each. Place on lined baking sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake 10-12 minutes until the edges are golden but the centres still look slightly underdone. This is key — they firm up as they cool. Pull them out when they look not-quite-done and they'll be perfect in 5 minutes.
The Finish
- While still warm, sprinkle each cookie with a pinch of flaky sea salt and — here it comes — the tiniest dusting of smoked paprika. Not enough to see the colour. Not enough to taste "paprika." Just enough to add an invisible layer of warmth and smokiness that makes people tilt their heads and say "what IS that?" That's the goal. Mystery. Intrigue. In a cookie.
Notes
Room temperature in an airtight container: 5 days. Cookie dough freezes for 3 months — scoop into balls, freeze on a sheet pan, then bag them. Bake from frozen, add 2 minutes to bake time. Having frozen cookie dough balls in the freezer is the ultimate parenting insurance policy. Bad day? Fresh cookies in 14 minutes.