Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

When I decided to sit down (read: curl up in bed under a duvet) to finally write a blog post tonight, I didn’t even realize I would do it while watching the new season of The Great British Bake Off. As I wrote about cookies. As I wrote about cookies well-suited to ice cream sandwiches. As I watched a bunch of Brits bake biscuits destined to be biscuit sandwiches for Paul Hollywood and that new lady who isn’t Mary Berry. THIS WAS MEANT TO BE.

The blog slump was meant to be broken.

Before I go further, I guess I should explain the little sabbatical I took.

Psych! It’s 100% uninteresting. All that matters is I’m BACK.

Earlier in this slowly disappearing summer (Will fall ever come? Will I ever not be sweating before 10am again?), I made my new favorite chocolate chip cookies, from Bon Appetit. I’ve made these about six times since April. That’s once a month, for those counting.

There are two reasons these are my new favorite cookies: 1. They use browned butter, which gives the cookies great flavor, but more importantly, doesn’t require room temperature butter. And 2. They have toffee. The best accoutrement to baked goods and ice cream, ever.

guys? this isn’t the appropriate salt to use, but it *is* sea salt. so, just, work with what ya got. (BUT NEVER IODIZED. OK?? JUST…never iodized.)

They’re also quite soft and chewy. Which should make for a great ice cream sandwich. Let me explain.

You don’t want your cookie to be so hard that when you bite down, the filling spills out. (Thanks for confirming that, Paul Hollywood!)

which hand model pic is best? this one?

or this one?

or this one? probably not this one.

So, this soft and chewy cookie is perfect for that. Here’s what not to do, though: freeze the cookies the night before you want to make ice cream sandwiches because you don’t want anyone who may or may not be in an inebriated state (including yourself) to come home and eat all the cookies. And then add ice cream. Because that makes the cookies hard and when you happen to find perfectly soft ice cream (which I happily and unknowingly did), your should-be-perfect chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich becomes not so perfect. Still tasty! But messy as all get out, y’all.

What you should do, as I learned from Bon Appetit (which I’m totally not obsessed with, by the way), is assemble the ice cream sandwiches and then freeze them. While in the freezer, the moisture from the ice cream will seep into the cookies, helping the cookies to remain soft while also solidifying the ice cream, therefore making a dope ice cream sandwich.

So maybe I wouldn’t have made star baker this round, but I’ll tell ya what – you’re not gonna be kicked outta the tent with these cookies!

In an effort not to exhaust myself with all this blogging all of a sudden, I’m going to link to the cookie recipe here. And all that I’ll add to this, is to use three Heath or Skor bars, not two. Just listen to me, ok? I’m a world famous and very dedicated food blogger.