Browned. Butter. Pizzzzookie (Need I Say More?)

Are you acquainted with The Pizzookie? Or are you giving me/your monitor a funny look right now? You're in good company if you are. When I offered P a pizzookie, his initial response was a raised eyebrow and "what is that? sounds dirty..." Well one bite was all it took to make him a believer (plus it's hard to maintain a smirk when your mouth is full of cookie dough ^_^).

I think of pizzookies as cookies on steroids. You simply start with almost any cookie dough, press it into some oven-safe dishes, bake just long enough to set the edges, then hit 'em with the best vanilla ice cream ya got. It sounds simple enough, but when you experience your first mouthful of warm n' gooey meets cool n' creamy, it's like arriving in a brave new (cookie) world. The take-home message is: If you like cookies, ice cream and all that's good on this green earth, you need some pizookie in your life. XD

And while we're aiming for the ultimate cookie experience, let's talk butter. No ordinary "room temperature" butter will do for the true cookie connoisseur. What we want, need is warm, aromatic browned butter. Despite being a self-proclaimed "foodie" for years, I'd somehow missed this amazing ingredient! Never imagining that a few minutes of stove time could give my cookies such complex, nutty flavor. Trust you me, I'll be playing with this butter in all sorts of sweet and salty dishes going forward. With gratitude for inspiring me to discover a new ingredient, I'm sending these pizzookies over to Elissa of 17 and Baking, our lovely host, for the browned butter edition of Sugar High Fridays.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pizzookie [Printable Recipe]
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.