And the Christmas baking continues! Now, I know what you're thinking -- chocolate chunk cookies are not your typical Christmas cookie. Those of course would be gingerbread cookies or iced sugar cookies, at least where I'm from. However, these Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies are some of the best cookies I've ever made and eaten, so good in fact that they are worthy of being left out for Santa on Christmas Eve, provided of course that you keep yourself from eating the whole batch. And of course, they would make an excellent holiday gift, because who wouldn't want a batch of out-of-this-world-best-you've-ever-eaten cookies for Christmas? My colleague who I made these for recently described this as "magnificent," and I'm inclined to agree.

What first drew me to this recipe was how well tested it is. These cookies come from Leah of the blog Truffle and Trends, who made 30 or so cookie recipes before she came up with this one -- so I knew that the recipe had been tweaked to perfection.

A couple of notes on what makes these cookies so good:
-Browning the butter is key here. Brown butter is butter that is cooked on the stove, which gives it a nutty flavor. It is great when added to any dessert, and adds a sort of warm, toasty flavor that you don't get in your average chocolate chip cookie.

-The yogurt may seem like a random ingredient, but they make the cookies extra soft.

-Chocolate chunks! I've said it before in other blog posts -- chopping up your own chocolate in to chunks is a bit more time consuming, but it makes the cookies fare more chocolate-y than regular old chocolate chips do.

-Refrigerating the dough a good amount means that they retain their shape when baking.

Do yourself a favor and make these cookies right away -- they're perfect with a mug of hot chocolate and will become your new favorite cookie recipe, guaranteed. Enjoy everyone!

Looking for more cookie recipes? Click here!

BROWN BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES

Recipe very slightly adapted from www.trufflesandtrends.com. Makes 20-22 cookies.

Ingredients:
14 tablespoons (196 grams) unsalted butter
1 cup (200 grams) dark brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons greek yogurt
2 1/4 cups (300 grams) flour
3/4 teaspoon (14 grams) baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 ounces (340 grams) semisweet chocolate, chopped

Directions:
To make the brown butter: dice the butter and put in a skillet over a medium heat. Let the butter melt, and then let it begin to foam and bubble, stiring often. After a few minutes, the bubbling will subside and the butter will start smelling nutty. At this point, the butter is browned. It is important to pay very close attention during this stage, as you don't want to burn the butter -- if the butter is burned the cookies will have a bitter taste.

Remove skillet from heat right away and pour the browned butter into a bowl so it doesn't continue to cook. Let butter cool five minutes in the bowl. Next, stir in both sugars and mix well.

Add in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract, mixing everything together well with a wooden spoon. The batter should turn a slightly lighter shade when well mixed. Stir in the yogurt. Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and add them to the wet ingredients, mixing until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks. Refrigerate the dough for one hour, covered.

Form 20 or so even sized balls of dough and place onto 2 lightly buttered cookie sheets. Refrigerate the dough on sheets for about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 F (170 C). Bake the cookies for 10-11 minutes, until the edges are barely golden. If you can lift the edge of a cookie a bit with your hand, the cookies are definitely ready. Let cookies sit and firm on baking sheets for 10 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.