Browned Butter Pizzookie

I bought a shirt the other day.  The moment of purchase I thought "oh how cute.  what a great price.  i'll buy it.  oh wait - let me see if it fits.  okay it fits.  how cute.  i'll buy it.   should i get an ok from the husband?  what the hell am i thinking.  i don't need his permission.  too late anyway - i swiped the plastic and paid already."  That is usually my sequence of thought. 

Then I brought it home and immediately took it out of the bag and put it on a hanger.  You know, instant tranfer to the closet is critical so my husband doesn't see the evidence and commence unnecessary interrogation regarding my unneccessary purchase.

I look at it and think, man, this is a pretty ugly shirt.  But I still like it.  I wouldn't have touched this thing 8 years ago, but fashion media has convinced me to visually process ugly textiles as desirable. 

And I can wear stripes and polka dots together?  Well, I can't.  But that model in Anthropologie can get away with it apparently. 

If you'd like to create a distraction from an unneccessary purchase, use your kitchen.  The smell of baked goods overpowers their suspicion of bank account thinning.

I discovered how to bake with Browned Butter and I am not the same person.  Browned Butter is simply Ghee's chubbier cousin.

I got this recipe from my very very talented blogger friend, Xiaolu, at 6 Bittersweets.  Besides her obvious culinary talents and vibrant e-personality, she's an incredible food stylist, craft/party planner, and music geek so there are hundreds of things to love about her.    She's also younger than me, so I kind of want to hate her, but I can't!  She's just plain awesome.

I followed her recipe verbatim - all credit goes to her and her original source, Little Red House. 

Browned Butter Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pizzookie
Written by Xiaolu from 6 Bittersweets
Adapted from the amazing blog The Little Red House
Makes 6 to 8 pizzookies or about 24 regular cookies

XIAOLU'S NOTES: Not that it's rocket science =D, but it never hurts to have some visual guidelines when you're cooking with precious buttah in a new way. Elise over at Simply Recipes has a nifty tutorial for browning butter with lotsa purdy photos.

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup brown sugar [or white sugar plus 1 tsp molasses]
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 slices
1 large egg, room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup chocolate chips or 4.5 ounce bar, chopped
1/3 cup pecans, lightly toasted and roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.

Heat a pan on medium heat. Add butter slices and melt in pan. Stir continuously. Butter will foam up. After foam subsides, small brown flecks will start to appear in bottom of pan. Continue stirring, until butter has reached a nice brown color, and nutty aroma. Remove from heat at this point. Don't heat it any more or it may burn.

Add browned butter and sugar to your stand mixer bowl. Mix well. Add in egg and vanilla, and mix them in thoroughly. Slowly stir in the flour mixture. Finally, add and evenly distribute the chocolate chips by mixing.

Scoop dough into individual ramekins. Sprinkle some pecans on top (they get toasty in the oven!). Bake for 8-10 minutes. Your pizzookies are ready when the edges are cooked, but the center is still gooey. Top with vanilla ice cream and gobble it up!

If you want to make these as normal cookies, just roll them into 1" balls and bake about 10-13 minutes until the edges are just set.