Sugar Plum's Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Next up: Sugar Plum's Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love Emily's blog, Sugar Plum. It is full of the most creative and delicious looking treats and the amazing thing is that SHE created them all. How cool is that. Ah, if only I had that talent. But, luckily, she shares the recipes. So, while I may not be able to come up with recipes of my own, at least I can make hers.


One of the recipes that caught my eye was her Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies. Seriously, go over to her blog, look at her pics of those cookies, and tell me that you don't automatically feel like running to your kitchen to try them out. Uh huh, my feelings exactly.

Her recipe calls for browning some of the butter before adding it to the dough. It also uses two types of leaveners - baking soda and active dry yeast- and tells you to combine some chilled butter with the flour mixture. Well, that also sounded interesting. How would all this work in the cookie? I was about to find out.


The dough is extremely stiff so you do need to flatten the balls of dough a little before putting them in to bake. What you end up with are cookies that rise up high but still have a nice dense composition. The resulting cookies also have a great crunchy exterior while still having that yummy chewy center. But, while they tasted good, they just didn't impress me somehow. I couldn't really get any hints of flavor from the brown sugar or the browned butter. Even after chilling them for nearly 36 hours, there was still no noticeable change. The only reason I can come up with is that the yeast is somehow inhibiting the flavors.

Emily did, however, come out with two more chocolate chip cookie recipes after this one and she declared them to be even better. One of them uses only baking soda. I'm thinking that I'll have to give that one a try, but that's an experiment for another day.

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies All-Butter Version (Emily of Sugar Plum)

1/2 c. unsalted butter
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. active dry yeast
3/4 tsp. flaky sea salt (plus more for sprinkling)
4 Tbsp. chilled unsalted butter, cut into tiny pieces
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 c. white sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. dark chocolate chips
3/4 c. coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted (I left these out due to allergies)

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter, whisking frequently, until it starts to brown and foam, about 2-3 minutes. Set aside.

In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift together flour and baking soda. Stir in yeast, salt, and additional 1/4 c. butter, until combined.

In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat browned butter and sugars until well combined and grainy, about 1 min. Beat in egg and vanilla until well combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually beat in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips with a wooden spoon until combined. Chill dough in the refrigerator for 30 min.

Preheat oven to 375F. Generously butter a cookie sheet. Drop 1/4 cup measures of dough onto cookie sheet, forming into large mounds, and bake for 12-14 min., or until golden. Cool for 2 min. before transferring to wire racks.

Great CCC Quest of 2011:
Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies
BAKED Chocolate Chip Cookies
Allrecipes' Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Soft Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ultimate Chewy and Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
Joanne Chang's Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is linked to:
CCC Round-Up