My Best Friend's Cookie

My best friend and her family have been frequent consumers of my baked goods. Even though they live on the other side of the country, I post them packages of food and visit as often as possible, cooking in their kitchen whenever they leave me unattended for more than five minutes.

The first time I stayed in their house her husband's first words to me were - what are you cooking for me? They both periodically sends me recipes they'd like "for next time". In fact, her husband sent me one as I was typing this very post.

One of the first recipes my best friend sent me was for brown butter chocolate chip cookies, stuffed with Nutella and topped with sea salt. I had made her sea salt chocolate chip cookies several times before and she was looking to up the ante.

Until recently Liv & her family were the only people I had made these cookies for. And the only reason that changed was the sad, pouty puppy dog eyes she threw me when she realized the cookies I had made for our favorite musicians were not her cookies.

We were headed to a concert and I had a batch of cookies prepared that Liv had mistakenly assumed were of the Nutella stuffed variety. This discovery took place over Skype the night before the concert and after the shock wore off her insistence that we needed to make those cookies won me over.

What resulted was me giving her instructions on measuring ingredients and the equipment I would need her to bring from home to our hotel room. The following day, I made the cookies in our hotel room with her pre-measured ingredients and success - the musicians they were intended for were more than happy with both their batches of cookies.

These cookies are beyond anything you can fathom without having tasted one. The browned butter makes the dough rich and deeper tasting. The sea salt enhances and sharpens the chocolate flavors. And the Nutella, well, the Nutella provides a creamy center that oozes out when you take a bite. It truly is impossible to imagine a better cookie.

I made another batch of these cookies this week and discovered an ingredient substitution that can easily be made without any impact on taste. The original recipe calls for natural Greek yogurt. It's an easy ingredient to forget when you are compiling a shopping list, something I can personally attest to. This batch I actually substituted sour cream for the yogurt with amazing success.

The change was so successful I think I shall actually make it a permanent change to the recipe. I'll have to make another batch soon for my best friend so I can gauge her reaction to my recipe adjustment. They are her cookies after all.

Cheers,
Joo