A Cookie to Crave: Halvah, Burnt Butter, and Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I resisted joining Instagram for a very long time -- but after I finally did, I kicked myself for waiting so long. I love seeing what my favorite bakers and cookbook authors are making, and I can't tell you how many things I've ended up baking because I saw them on Instagram. I have also discovered new bakers to follow. One of them is Thalia Ho of Butter and Brioche. I had never heard of Thalia or her blog before I stumbled across her account on Instagram, but I was immediately captivated by her beautiful piped buttercream cake designs. She also bakes a lot of gorgeous cookies, so I decided to try her recipe for "Halvah, Burnt Butter, and Walnut Chocolate Chunk Cookies."

The "burnt butter" in this recipe is browned butter that has been cooled so that it partially solidifies into a soft, creamy texture. I made a double batch of the recipe, so I started out with 300 grams of butter that I browned and then chilled. I re-weighed the butter and it was down to 245 grams (the process of browning butter eliminates the water, so you lose volume and weight). I needed a final weight of 450 grams of butter, so I added additional room temperature butter to the chilled brown butter to make up the difference. I beat the chilled browned butter, room temperature butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until fluffy; added eggs and vanilla; incorporated the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt; mixed in toasted walnuts and dark chocolate (I used Callebaut 2815 callets); and folded in chunks of halva (I used marble halva from Seed and Mill). I chilled the dough briefly before using a #24 scoop to portion out the cookies; I got 57 cookies from my double batch.
I sprinkled the cookies with Maldon salt before baking. After baking, you could see some light patches of halva in some of the cookies; because halva is so crumbly, I had left the chunks fairly large tried to avoid crushing them as I carefully folded them into the batter. I loved these cookies. They were crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside, and had a deep caramel-like flavor studded with lots of chocolate. I could taste the smooth sesame flavor of the halva and its distinctive flaky texture was impossible to miss. Plus, the walnuts just gilded the lily. The combination of chocolate, walnuts, and halva was so satisfying. As soon as the last cookie was eaten, I was already craving another!
 

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