Today is the primary election here in Florida (and a few other states as well). If you, like me, find politics somewhat stressful, then you should have a cookie – specifically, an amazing Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie. While chocolate chip cookies cannot fix the political situation, they can certainly make your evening more enjoyable. The most amazing thing about these chocolate chip cookies is that they are lower in fat and calories than your typical Nestle Toll House recipe.
The conception of this recipe started over ten years ago after I graduated from college. I was working with the Princeton Evangelical Fellowship as an intern and one of our duties was baking cookies – lots and lots of cookies. Our organization had a few members with nut allergies, so we typically baked cookies with no nuts. One of our staff members had talked with the Nestle kitchen and learned that once you removed the nuts from the Nestle Toll House recipe, you also needed to remove some of the butter. So my chocolate chip cookie recipe became a modified version of the Nestle Toll House recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag. Later I discovered a Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from The America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook. While the recipe in that book only made a half batch (at least according to my standards), it was lower in fat than most recipes and it still tasted amazing. In fact, it tasted better than any recipe I had tried. I doubled the recipe and realized it was very similar to the revised Nestle Toll House recipe with a few modifications. The first modification was to brown some of the butter before mixing it in with the sugar, which results in an incredible nutty flavor. The second modification was the mixing technique. Instead of simply beating the eggs into the sugar mixture, the eggs and sugar are beaten for 30 seconds, then allowed to rest for two minutes. This process is repeated three times, resulting in a silky texture. I should note here that you need to use a whisk and beat the mixture by hand. I modified a few measurements in the final recipe and had a winner. These cookies have the best flavor of any chocolate chip cookies despite having less fat and fewer calories. Enjoy!
Recent Comments