Chewy Caramel for the Win: Brown Butter Salted Peanut Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies

I added Edd Kimber's "Brown Butter Salted Peanut Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies" to my to-bake list as soon as I saw them on my Instagram feed. A chocolate chip cookie with salted peanuts and homemade caramel chunks? Sign me up!

Edd's homemade caramel is simply sugar melted in a pan and cooked until it's dark golden (the color of "an old penny"). You pour the caramel onto a parchment- or Silpat-lined pan and break it into pieces after it's cooled and hardened. To make the cookie dough, you brown butter and let it cool slightly; beat the butter with sugar and brown sugar; add eggs and yolks and beat until pale; mix in vanilla; incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt); and stir in chopped salted peanuts and chocolate chunks (I used Callebaut 2815 57.7% callets).  You chill dough for a few hours before baking.

I used a #24 scoop and got 32 cookies per batch, and I sprinkled them with Maldon salt before baking. I thought these were beautiful cookies, thick and golden. While you could only catch a glimpse of caramel here and there on the tops of the cookies, when you turned them upside down, significant blobs were caramel were visible on the undersides.

 

I loved these cookies. The caramel was perfectly chewy and added so much flavor and enjoyable texture. Erin Clarkson's salted caramel snickerdoodles also contain homemade chocolate chunks made from melted sugar, but I think the caramel works much better in this cookie than in a snickerdoodle. With the generous amount of chocolate and the crunch from the salted peanuts, the caramel makes these cookies almost candylike. They are joyful and fun and decadently delicious. I would be thrilled to make and eat them again, any time.

Recipe: "Brown Butter Salted Peanut Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies" by Edd Kimber.