Although I love the Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe that comes on the back of the bag (which I’ve blogged about before), I have been craving the big flat cookies that are super gooey in the middle so I decided to try these. And the results were delicious. While they didn’t get as flat and gooey as I wanted, it didn’t matter because the hint of molasses and browned butter gives them an extra special flavor that I really liked!

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients (makes about 3 dozen cookies)
1 cup (split and used at two separate times) butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon molasses
½ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 ¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (I used blocks of chocolate and chopped them into chips)
Coarse sea salt to sprinkle on top
Optional: You can add 1/2 cup chopped pecans

1. Place half of the butter (1/2 cup) in a pan on the stove. Melt the butter, mixing it occasionally with a spatula. The butter will form and bubble. This is ok. Continue. Eventually the butter will calm down and stop making so much noise. Continue for another 30-60 seconds. Then remove the butter from the pan and pour it into a bowl, preferable a white bowl. Make sure the brown bits in the bottom are brown, and not black (see below). If they’re black you’ve over done it. And should throw that bowl out and start over. This happened to me the first time because it quickly turns from perfectly brown to black. Set aside the butter once done.

2. In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the other ½ cup of butter with brown sugar. Let it mix for 3-5 minutes to get really smooth. Add the vanilla and molasses. Now pour in the cooled butter and sugar and continue beating for another 2 minutes.

3. Add the egg and yolk and beat. Add the flour, salt, and baking soda and mix until everything is mixed in. Scrape down the sides.

4. Add the chocolate chips (and pecans if using) and mix by hand.

5. Now put the dough in plastic wrap and keep in the fridge for 30 minutes. At this time, also preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare two baking pans by lining them with parchment paper (or silicone liners).

6. Once the dough has cooled, divide it into 1 tablespoon or 2 tablespoon balls. Spread them out on the pan. These cookies will spread! Top each ball of dough with a sprinkle of sea salt.

7. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes (10/11 mins if you want the middle really gooey), until the edges are golden brown.