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Monday, December 12, 2011

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Bourbon Ganache


Cookie Sandwiches with Bourbon Ganache
Well, I said I was going to post the recipe for these, and today is the day I'm allowed to do it! Participating in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap was great for two reasons - I enjoyed the cooking (my first attempt at baking) and I got cookies in the mail. COOKIES IN THE MAIL. I know. How great is that? Who doesn't love cookies, right? It was a ton of work and I stayed up pretty late one night, not realizing how long I had just committed myself to the kitchen. I've never baked anything before, so I was treading new ground.




Before I get into my recipe, a big thanks to Lindsay and Julie at Love & Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen, respectively, for putting this together. What a blast. And the cookies I received in the mail were just fantastic. I received a package of Polvorones (a Spanish almond cookie) from Suzy at Frosting for Dinner (left) and a package of Piroulines from Steff at The Kitchen Trials (right).














The polvorones were light and airy but had the perfect amount of sweetness. The piroulines were great as well - basically a toasted roll of sweet wafer biscuit. She also iced them (extra points). 


Now, on to my creation... As I've mentioned recently, I've fallen back in love with southern cooking and wanted these to reflect that. I searched for southern cookies on the internet and found a lot of things I was unwilling to attempt, and several that looked terrible. I finally decided on adding bourbon to something. So where would I add bourbon? Into chocolate. Had to be. So I found a post on about.com in the southern foods section while looking around (I'll post the link when I find the original print-out) for some chocolate chip cookies. These use brown butter. I've never used brown butter before, so I decided it would be fun. And I would make sandwiches out of these by slapping some bourbon ganache on them.

Cookies
Ingredients:
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, browned and slightly cooled
  • 1 cup packed brown suger
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 1/4 cups AP flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Prep:
To brown butter, cut butter into smaller pieces, and heat in a saucepan over medium heat until butter simmer and becomes frothy. Continue cooking, stirring, until butter begins to turn golden brown, 4-5 minutes. Pour off into a bowl to cool, leaving darkest sediment behind. This should give the liquid a nutty smell.

In a large mixing bowl with electric mixer, beat the browned butter and sugars until light and fluffy (this takes a while). Add egg, yolk, milk, and vanilla. Beat on low speed until well-blended.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add these to the wet mixture, mixing on low speed, until a soft dough forms. You may need to scrape the sides of the bowl down a few times. Stir in the chocolate chips, then cover and chill it for an hour to make the dough easier to work with.

Preheat the oven to 375°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray with a cooking spray. Using a cookie scoop, drop balls of dough onto the paper, allowing a couple of inches between each cookie. To make sure they get flat enough to make the sandwiches, press them down a bit (I learned this as I went).

Bake for 6-10 minutes until browned around the edges. Place on a cooling rack and let sit while cooking the other cookies. This made about 4 dozen cookies per batch.

Bourbon Ganache
Ingredients:
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons of bourbon (or your favorite liqueur)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 pinch of sea salt
Prep:
Heat the cream in a small saucepan over medium heat until almost boiling. Add sugar and whisk to combine.

Place the chocolate in a medium bowl (I used a bar and broke it into tiny pieces). Remove the cream from the heat and pour it over the chocolate. Whisk vigorously until melted and well-combined. It may take a minute. Add the bourbon, salt, and vanilla, stirring constantly until mixture is smooth and cool.

Before choosing a bourbon, check out my post on using bourbon in cooking to make sure you don't use something you won't like.


Sandwiches



Now, just spread the ganache over the bottom side of one cookie, and slap another on the other side. Now you've got brown butter chocolate chip cookie sandwiches with bourbon ganache. And while the name is long, and the recipe is longer, it's ABSOLUTELY worth giving it a shot. One of the best parts is making sure you cook an odd number of cookies so you can just slap some ganache on one and eat it that way. Because this whole thing was about eating some awesome cookies anyway. I stole the picture on the right when Lindsay at Love & Olive Oil (one of my matches) posted it on Twitter.

I did use heavy cream in the recipe, and yes I shipped them off with heavy cream in the ganache. I did some reading, and was assured that as long as the ganache didn't get hot it would be fine. I had them in the refrigerator until I sent them out (the next morning) anyway, just to be safe. And I was shipping them north (can't go much further south) so I wasn't worried about them getting hot.

I really enjoyed doing this - thanks again to Lindsay, Julie, Steff, and Suzy - and I look forward to doing it again next year!
 



4 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for the cookies, Tripp! I really enjoyed them. No, REALLY. :) I may actually steal your bourbon ganache and use it in my sisters' birthday cake (which, suffice to say, is going to be loaded)!

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  2. These look awesome! I'm such a HUGE fan of bourbon in, well, everything! I actually thought about doing a bourbon/chocolate something in my cookie swap cookies, but was also concerned about shipping (I live in South Florida, so it's still hot down here!) and chickened out.

    But, I kind of want to jump through the computer and eat these now, so I think I'll be making these for the family Christmas shenanigans. :)

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  3. These were amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. I really loved your dipped cookie version as well. It is going to be difficult for you to keep me out of your house through the holidays.

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  4. These cookies sound amazing! My brother and I have a cookie recipe website (www.best-ever-cookie-collection.) We are holding a cookie contest with some great prizes and would love to have you submit your recipe for a chance to win! Love the idea of bourbon ganache :-)

    ReplyDelete