Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Chocolate Cookies - Pihikete Pata Parauri Me Te Tiakarete
Super delicious, simple brown butter chocolate chunk biscuits with optional add ins of spiced maple pecan nuts.
Servings 25 pihikete (cookies)
Ingredients
The Brown Butter - Te Pata Parauri
- 210 g pata (butter, cut in to cubes)
Spiced Pecan Nuts - Nati Pēkani (optional add ins, skip if you want to)
- ⅓ C (50 g) nati pēkani (pecan nuts)
- 2 tablespoon marahihi māpere (maple syrup)
- 1 tsp hinamona (cinnamon)
Te Pokenga - The Dough
- ½ teaspoon tote (salt, fine)
- ¾ C (150 g) huka hāura (brown sugar)
- ⅓ C (65 g) huka one (caster sugar)
- 2 teaspoon (10 ml) iho hūperei (vanilla essence)
- 2 C (300 g) puehu parāoa noa (plain flour)
- 2 hēki (eggs, size 6)
- ½ teaspoon pēkana paura (baking powder)
- ¼ teaspoon pēkana houra (baking soda)
- 150 g tiakarete parauri (dark chocolate). Use whatever mix of chocolate you want - this is a guide.
- 100 g tiakarete miraka (milk chocolate)
Instructions
Preheat the Oven:
- Pre-heat the oven to 165 °C.
Brown the Butter:
- Add the chopped pata (butter) in to a medium sized pot or pan. Set over medium heat.
- First, melt the butter, stirring occasionally.As the heat continues the milk fats will start to separate (these are the white, floaty bits). Stir occasionally here so nothing sticks to the bottom of the pot.
- Keep it on the heat until the butter starts to foam. Stir it a little bit until the brown bits float to the top. It should smell nutty. (Use the pictures and video as a guide).
- From here, stir it a little for another 30 seconds or so, so the butter browns further. This may smoke a little but a little bit of smoke is ok.
- Remove from the heat and pour it straight in to a bowl. Leave it to cool for 10 minutes.Note: Don't use a glass bowl like I did in the video - I broke mine that way and yes, it was not a bright idea!
Make the Spiced Pecan Nuts (Optional):
- Chop the nati pēkani (pecan nuts) in to small pieces. Add them in to the same pan as the brown butter (no need to clean it). Toast them over medium heat.
- Add the marahihi māpere (maple syrup) and hinamona (cinnamon) in to the hot pan. Stir for 30 seconds on the heat and watch it sizzle.
- Remove from the heat and set them aside to cool.
Make the Cookie Dough:
- Add the tote (salt), huka hāura (brown sugar), huka one (caster sugar) and iho hūperei (vanilla) in to the slightly cooled brown butter.
- Mix together with a whisk for a minute. Don't worry if the mixture looks a little separated, the eggs will fix that.
- Add one hēki (egg) and whisk for 20 seconds. The mixture will start to come together. Add the second hēki (egg) and whisk again for 20 seconds.
- Add the puehu parāoa (flour), pēkana paura (baking powder) and pēkana houra (baking soda). Stir to combine.
- Stir everything together.
Add the Chocolate:
- Add the tiakarete to a papa tapatapahi (chopping board) and chop in to chunks. Reserve a handful of chocolate to add to the tops of the cookies. Add the rest to the mixture with the nati pēkani (pecan nuts), if you are using them.
Chill the Dough:
- Put the bowl of mixture in the fridge for five minutes to thicken.
Make the Cookies:
- Take a tablespoon of dough and roll each one in to a ball, making 25 balls in total.Place them on the prepared 2 trays.
- Add the reserved tiakarete (chocolate) on top. Don't squash the dough down and make sure they have around 4 cm space between each one.
- These would be delicious with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt too added just before they are baked.
Bake the Cookies:
- Bake a tray at a time for 12 minutes. You can shape them with a cookie cutter straight from the oven if you want or just leave them as they are!
- Note: The cookies in the images are slightly different as I have altered this recipe slightly since then!
- These will keep well in a sealed container for up to a week but I know they will not last that long.