Bay Leaf, Brown Butter and Vanilla Chocolate Chunk Cookies [Sponsored Post]

These chocolate chunk cookies are infused with brown butter, extra vanilla and bay leaf, making them perfect for your holiday festivities or all year round!(Jump directly to the recipe.)

This post was sponsored by Safeway. I was compensated for this post and for developing the recipe. However, all opinions below are completely my own.

“They’re addictive!” Said my partner AJ as he went back for another bay leaf, brown butter and vanilla chocolate chunk cookie that night. I love how each time he kept on trying to eat only half a cookie in some attempt to restrain himself, only to find himself going back for the second half. This sort of trickery never really works, especially when it comes to these cookies!

The holidays are here and it’s my all-time favorite time of year. I grew up in the Midwest where wind chill and snow were the norm for the holidays. And though I now live in San Francisco, where it rarely drops below 50°F, I still find myself reaching for a thick heavy winter sweater and listening to holiday music during the season. Of course, one of my favorite things is hosting holiday parties and celebrating with my family and friends. And that means tons of baking for me!

Thankfully I live just four blocks away from Safeway, where I can pick up baking staples for my home, including flour, eggs, butter and sugar. Safeway O Organics® products are reasonably priced and perfect for the holiday baking because I can use quality ingredients within my budget. O Organics products are available in my area exclusively at my local Safeway, but and you can also find them at all of the Albertsons Companies family of stores, including Albertsons, AcmeCME Markets, Jewel-Osco, Vons, Pavilions, Randalls, Tom Thumb, Shaw’s, Star Market, United Express, United and Carrs/Safeway.

Last month I went to a blogger event hosted bysponsored by Albertsons Companies, the parent company of Safewayby Safeway, and not only did we get a chance to bake and cook in their professional kitchens with all the O Organics® ingredients as well as create our own flower arrangements with dDebi lLilly dDesign™ products, but I learned that Safeway actually delivers groceries as well! So now if I don’t want to leave the apartment (four blocks in the cold is still four blocks in the cold!), I know that Safeway also delivers ingredients directly to my door if I want. Talk about convenient! Even more exciting, Safeway has a special holiday home delivery offer for you guys! $25 off and free delivery for any $100 or more order from now until 1/14/2018! Just use the code SEASONSEATINGS when you check out.

For me, these bay leaf, brown butter, and vanilla chocolate chunk cookies are an example of taking standard pantry items and turning them into something special. Fragrant and nutty brown butter isn’t difficult to make but elevates a cookie from simple to elegant. An extra dose of vanilla plays well with the brown butter but it’s the bay leaf that makes these incredibly addictive. Less assertive than peppermint but slightly mentholated, fresh bay leaf gives a wintery underlying beguiling scent to the cookie, just enough to make them curiously special. Just ask AJ about it. He can’t get enough.

Oh, and to prove how easy this recipe is to make, here’s a video with step-by-step instructions!

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5 from 1 vote

Bay Leaf, Brown Butter and Vanilla Chocolate Chunk Cookies

The combination of bay leaf, brown butter and vanilla will elevate your classic chocolate chip cookie to a new height! Perfect for wintertime parties, holiday festivities and cookie swaps, as well as anytime you want to make a chocolate chip cookie extra special. The secret to making brown butter is to remove the pan from the heat right as the butter starts to brown and letting the residual heat of the pan cook the butter until it gets deep golden brown. Make sure to use tongs or chopsticks to carefully remove the bay leaf. After cooking in the hot butter, they are deceptively hot and you shouldn’t touch them.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 30

Calories 240kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups O Organics® unsalted butter 340 g or 3 sticks
• 2 fresh O Organics® bay leaves do not substitute dried
• 1 1/4 cups packed O Organics® brown sugar 285 g
• 1 1/8 cup O Organics® white granulated sugar 1 cup + 2 tablespoons or 225 g
• 1 tablespoon O Organics® vanilla extract
• 2 O Organics® large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 1/4 cups O Organics® all-purpose flour 455 g
• 10 ounce O Organics® Bittersweet Chocolate Chunks 283 g or 1 bag
• Flaky sea salt to finish

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking sheet.
• Place the butter and bay leaves in a large skillet. Cook on medium high heat, stirring constantly, until the butter has melted and the milk solids start to turn brown and smell nutty. Remove heat and continue to stir until the solids have turned deep golden brown. Remove the bay leaves from the pan with tongs, then pour the browned butter into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Make sure to scrape out all the brown bits into the bowl as well.
• Add both sugars to the bowl and mix together until they are blended, wet, and the side of the bowl cooled enough that you can touch the side of it, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix in. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until the first egg is incorporated, before adding the second one.
• Add the baking powder, baking soda and salt into the bowl and mix until absorbed. Add the flour and slowly mix in. Once absorbed, add the chocolate chunks and stir until evenly distributed.
• Scoop the dough out using a small ice cream scoop, about 2 tablespoons each into a ball onto the lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt, then bake in the oven for 13 to 15 minutes, or until the edges of the cookie are golden brown and the top is dry and set. Let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Nutrition

Calories: 240kcal