Brown Butter Christmas Crack Chocolate Chip Cookies
This holiday recipe combines two of my favorite things — Broma Bakery's life-altering chocolate chip cookies and traditional 'Christmas crack'. Yes, it’s more tedious than a simple cookie recipe and yes, you’ll need to set aside time for things like browning the butter, letting the chocolate set, and chilling the dough, but I promise the end result will have people begging you to make it again for next year’s cookie swap!
How to make Christmas Crack
Keep in mind you’re making two separate recipes and combining them, and you can’t bake the chocolate chip cookies until the Christmas crack is made. If you’re spending the day in the kitchen, by all means do it all in one go, but I prefer to make the Christmas crack 1-2 days ahead. That way, everything is ready to go and adding it to the cookies is as easy as grabbing chocolate chips from the pantry and tossing them into the dough.
Christmas Crack
Ingredients
- 45 saltine crackers Give or take a few, depending on how many fit on your cookie sheet
- 1 c unsalted butter
- 1 c light brown sugar well-packed
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp salt Can be kosher salt or sea salt
- 2 1/2 c chocolate chips If you use melting discs, I recommend breaking them up
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°
- Line a cookie sheet with foil and (a) coat with cooking spray or (b) lay a silicone baking mat on top of the foil. I highly recommend the baking mat method because it's a seamless clean-up!
- Arrange your saltine crackers in a single layer on the cookie sheet.
- Melt 1 c light brown sugar and 1 c unsalted butter together in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan, stirring frequently over medium high heat.
- Once you start to see bubbles, your mixture has reached a boil. Set a timer to boil for 3 minutes, stirring consistently. Your mixture should have a fluffy, sticky texture.
- Remove from heat after 3 minutes and add in 1 tsp. vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp. salt
- Pour your mixture over your saltines and use a spatula to spread evenly over the crackers. Keep in mind that the caramel will start to set quickly!
- Bake for 5 minutes in your 350° oven. The caramel should be bubbling when your timer is up.
- Evenly distribute your 2 1/2 c chocolate chips or melts on top of the caramel mixture, cover with tinfoil, and let sit for 5 minutes.
- Remove the tinfoil and spread the chocolate evenly with a spatula. Sprinkle on any toppings like sprinkles, M&M's or heath. You can easily decorate for any occasion, not just Christmas!
- Chill the entire cookie sheet in the fridge for at least 1 hour (1.5-2 hours is ideal), then once chilled, carefully separate your Christmas crack from the foil or the silicone baking mat, breaking it up into chunks as you go.
- Serve immediately or store in an airtight container in the fridge for a week.
My notes:
Melting chocolate makes a difference
I highly recommend melting chocolate versus chips, as it's easier to work with overall. We get ours from a local chocolate store, but Ghirardelli, Wilton and Sweet Tooth Fairy are other brands we have used in the past that are readily available on Amazon, at Michael's and other stores.
The double broiler method is your best bet
My grandma was a chocolatier so I've learned alll the tips over the years! While you can melt chocolate in the microwave (if you choose this method make sure you're heating at 20-25 second increments and stirring in between each heat), I don't recommend it as it's very tedious and not as foolproof as a double boiler.
If you don't have an actual double boiler, not to worry! They're super easy to makeshift with what you already have in your kitchen. Look for 2 pans that are close in size but where one is just slightly bigger than the other. You want to mimic a traditional double boiler with water sitting in the bottom pan and your chocolate melting in the top pan. Any water or steam that gets into the chocolate will render it useless so make sure your pots sit tightly together. If you can't quite find the right materials, you can also use a small pot and and a stainless steel or glass bowl (like this).
Chocolate melting made easy
If you're going the microwave route, skip these directions! For the double boiler method, fill your bottom pot with about 1" of water and heat it until the water comes to a simmer. Then, turn your heat to low and add your top pot with a third to half of the chocolate you will be using (melting it in batches rather than dumping it all in at once makes for a smoother process). No need to stir constantly, but stir consistently to help your chocolate melt. As you add in your final batch of chocolate, turn off the heat and allow the residual heat to finish the process.
Overheating chocolate can cause it to burn, resulting in a clumpy, mud-like texture which we don't want! Low and slow is the key.
How to make Broma Bakery's Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Follow this recipe exactly, noting just a few tweaks below!
* If you're spending the extra time to brown butter for a chocolate chip cookie recipe, I highly recommend making a double batch! I like to make a double batch of cookie dough and set aside half the dough for my Christmas crack cookie recipe. I then divide the remaining half into 3 smaller batches, wrap in plastic wrap and pop them in the freezer for when a cookie craving hits. Each mini batch makes around 10-12 cookies, depending on how you size them.
* The recipe calls for chocolate chunks or chocolate discs, but because of the added Christmas crack in this recipe, I recommend using standard semi-sweet chocolate chips. Instead of 1 1/4 cups of chips, I use just 1 c chocolate chips (you can edit this based on how chocolatey you like your cookies but I find 1 c of chips plus the added Christmas crack to be the perfect ratio!)
* Must-do at step 4 of the recipe! When folding in your chocolate chips at step 4, you'll also be adding in the Christmas crack. I recommend finely chopping the crack into reasonably-sized pieces that will sit well in a 1.5" ball of dough. Use a knife, as breaking with your hands into smaller pieces can cause the crack to crumble.
* Once you've added in your chocolate chips and your Christmas crack, pick up where you left off and bake according to the rest of the recipe!
