Brown Butter Mochi-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie
Makes roughly 20 large cookies
Brown Butter Mochi-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie
I have a theory. The first chocolate chip cookie that you eat—often in childhood—becomes your standard for a great chocolate cookie. Yes, there are refined and highly-specialized elevated takes at bakeries that blow early memories of the cookie out of the water, but at its core, the best, most comforting chocolate chip cookie are the ones that remind you of the ones you ate as a kid. It may be a biased theory, but it's mine so who cares!
My ideal chocolate chip cookie is my mom’s recipe. She got it from the back of Nestle Toll House bag of chocolate chips and has never looked back. It’s slightly golden-crunchy on the edges and ever-so-soft on the inside and to me is the standard for a great cookie. Over the years I’ve made that cookie my own with a few refined adjustments—brown butter in lieu of regular butter and chopped baking chocolate instead of chips (sorry Nestle! Although, not really. Stop funding genocide in Gaza!).
And because I’m an absolute texture fiend, I recently added some chewy, sweet mochi on the inside to make what I believe to be now the ultimate chocolate chip cookie. Although I used a sweetened condensed mochi in my O.G. recipe, it's not super reasonable to sugges you use only a tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk so this recipe uses an adapted mochi Kat Lieu's and Modern Asian Baking at Home (it's divine!).
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 ounces bittersweet baking chocolate bar, roughly chopped
- 2/3 cup sweet glutinous rice flour
- 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch, plus more for dusting
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tablespoon butter, softened
- flaky sea salt, optional for topping
Directions
- Make the brown butter: Add your butter to a shallow saucepan over medium heat and stir as the mixture begins to melt. When bubbles start floating to the surface (about a minute in), begin whisking, and continue for the next five minutes or so as the milk solids brown and sink to the bottom. Remove from heat, add a tablespoon of water (to bring back some moisture) and set aside to cool.
- Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Set aside
- In a mixing bowl, combine the cooled brown butter, both sugars and vanilla and mix to combine. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Gradually mix in flour mixture with a spatula until o. Stir in the chocolate chunks and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for half an hour.
- While the dough chills, make the mochi filling: In a medium microwave-safe bowl (important), whisk the rice flour, confectioners’ sugar, cornstarch, and water very well, no lumps! Cover loosely with a wet paper towel and microwave for 1 minute. Remove from microwave and with a fork or spatula, mix to combine, again. Microwave for another minute and mix again (visual cues: evenly cooked, pliable, and a bit translucent). Add the butter and mix once again, cover and let cook for five minutes until it is cool enough to work with. On a clean surface, lightly sprinkle some cornstarch and place your mochi dough. With slightly wet hands, stretch and pull the mochi until it is smooth, about thirty seconds. Proceed to cut in roughly 20 1-teaspoon (7g) peices of mochi and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a reusable silicone mat. With a one-ounce ice cream scoop, portion out a bit of dough and press it into the palm of your hand until slightly flat. Place a mochi ball in the center of the dough and wrap the dough around it and re-roll into a smooth ball. Repeat this process and place on the baking sheet, at least three inches apart (they spread!). You have two options here: bake for 9 minutes for a soft, chewy-leaning cookie, or bake for 11 for a golden brown cookie with a chewy center. The choice is yours! Repeat with remaining cookie dough and enjoy.
