Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

• servings: 16 servings
• active time: 20 minutes
• total time: 36 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup + 2 tbsp salted butter (254 grams)

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed (163 grams)

3/4 cup granulated sugar (155 grams)

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 and 2/3 cups all-purpose flour (347 grams)

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 and 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus a generous handful for topping

flaky sea salt, for topping

Directions

Make the Brown Butter: Add butter to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Melt the butter, stirring occasionally. Once it's melted, turn the heat to medium-low, and continue cooking the butter, stirring frequently. The butter will get foamy and bubbly, and then turn a deep golden shade with a nutty, caramely aroma. (This will take about 4-6 minutes once the butter has melted.) Once the butter reaches this stage, remove it from the heat. Pour the butter into the mixing bowl you plan to use, and let it chill in the freezer for about 30 minutes to bring it back to the consistency of room temperature softened butter, or use it in it's melted state - just let it cool a bit so it's not piping hot.

Prep: Preheat your oven to 350° F and spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick spray and line with parchment paper.

Make the cookie dough: Cream softened butter in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on high speed, making sure to get all the brown bits from the bottom of the bowl mixed in. Add the sugars and mix on high until well creamed with the butter, about 1 minute. Add the vanilla and eggs and mix until just combined. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until a dough forms - it may be a bit crumbly at first, but just keep mixing until it comes together. Add the chocolate chips and mix to distribute them throughout the dough. Note: If using the melted brown butter, just be sure it's not steaming hot - whisk in the sugars, then the rest of the ingredients in the same way as directed above.

Bake: Press the dough evenly into the prepared pan, and add the extra handful of chocolate chips on top, in spots where it needs a bit more chocolate. Bake for 14-16 minutes. The bars will look a tad underdone, and you may be tempted to leave them in longer, but 16 minutes is the perfect amount of time. The edges will appear a bit more set than the center, and a toothpick inserted into the center should have some moist crumbs, but not wet batter.

Serve + Store: Let rest for 30 minutes before slicing and serving. The longer you let them sit, the neater slices you'll get, but these really are best while they're still nice and warm from the oven, with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt. Store leftovers (ha!) in an airtight container at room temp for 4-6 days, or longer in the fridge. I highly recommend gently warming leftover bars in the microwave for that ooey gooey factor.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 bar
• Calories: 361 kcal
• Total Fat: 19 g
• Saturated Fat: 11 g
• Unsaturated Fat: 6 g
• Trans Fat: 0.5 g
• Cholesterol: 55 mg
• Sodium: 210 mg
• Total Carbohydrate: 44 g
• Dietary Fiber: 2 g
• Total Sugars: 26 g
• Protein: 4 g