Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Brown Butter Coconut Oil Monster Cookies

Oh, my most darling sleepy readers,

What a wondrous couple of weeks it has been.  I’ve now worked a nice solid week at Le New Job, and it is Le Frickin Awesome.  I don’t tend to discuss specifics of my life on this here bloggity blog, but it involves film production and education and science and giant robots.  And the great circle of life continues.

Go, mixer, go!

For those who have been following for a while, you’ll know that I got walloped right in the gonads by life about 6 months ago.  And you know?  I’m darn proud of how I’ve bounced back.  It took a lot of hard work.  I did individual therapy, group therapy, anti-depressants (which was very helpful in the midst of my trauma, but I’m happy to say I’ve tapered off them this month), I worked out, I did exercises from What Color is Your Parachute?, I read books on grief, I ate healthy and worked out when I could, and sobbed on the floor of my living room and ate chocolates when I couldn’t.

And you know what?  I lived through it, I walked through it, and while life isn’t perfect, it’s pretty damn incredible.  I’m grateful for every second.

Now that the inspiration part is out of the way, we get to the part where I’m cranky and cramp-ridden and deep in thought.  I’m back out on the rollercoaster ride of Dating for the first time since The Ex’s death.  And I forgot the thing about dating– meeting someone who you don’t like can be an awful disappointment.  Meeting someone you do like is constant screaming torture.

Such circumstances require some big metaphorical guns.  Therefore, I’m dragging out an old recipe– Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.  You can read the original recipe here, and my first attempt here.

1. I pre-heated the oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a small saucepan, I browned 7 tablespoons of butter.  You’re supposed to use 8, but I only had 7.
3. Stop judging me.
4. In a medium bowl, I mixed together 2 cups of flour.  Again, you’re supposed to use 2 1/4 cups, but I only had 2 cups.
5. STOP judging me.  Stop it.
6. Into the flour, I mixed in 3/4 teaspoons of baking powder. You’re supposed to use baking soda, but I used it up deodorizing the catbox.
7. STOP. JUDGING. ME.
8. I also added 1 teaspoon of activated yeast, and several mighty grinds of the sea salt mill.
9. In the cherry red Kitchen Aid bought for me by my parents for my last birthday, I mixed together the browned butter, 1/4 cup coconut oil, 3/4 cup brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar.  I let ’em mix together on medium speed for about one minute.
10. I added one egg, and a dollop of the exquisite vanilla paste my sister purchased for me.
11. Getting baking-related gifts from family and friends is one of the great joys of my life.
12. Still on medium speed, I let the egg and the vanilla work into the sugars for a good 7 minutes (a trick suggested by Milk Bar’s illustrious Christine Tosi).
13. Reducing speed to low, I added in the flour mixture and let it mix.
14. You’ll notice I haven’t done anything bone-headed in at least 7 steps, so hopefully you’ll have actually stopped the judging by now, you judge-y bastards.
    

    I am delicious just as I am. I believe in me.

15. I added a cup of peanut butter chips, and a cup of chocolate chips.  This dough is a bit stiffer than normal cookie dough, so it requires s bit of kneading to fully distribute the chips.
16. I balled the dough and put them onto two sheets sprayed liberally with baking spray, popped those suckers in the freezer, and settled in for a nice half-hour of Netflix.
17. Current show?  Frasier.  No kidding!  It’s not a bad little show, ya know?  This episode features Mercedes Ruehl, star of one of my all-time favorite films The Fisher King.
18. I have not one, but two kittens curled up on my lap.  Seriously?  Seriously.  Too effing cute.
19. After 12-14 minutes, I took out the cookies and allowed them to cool.
20. No, really, you need to allow them to cool.

BEHOOOOLD!!!!

VERDICT:  You guys, this is undoubtably one solid cookie recipe.  It may be a little sweet, but the dough is firm, the inside is chewy and giving, and the nutty taste of browned butter permeates the whole shebang.  Dear Jeebus, this is a tasty cookie.

And now, to bed, my darling sleepy fellows.  May dreams of peanut butter ships dance in your little heads.