Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Shortbread:

Brown the butter: cook butter in a pan over medium-high heat, stirring the whole time, for 8-10 minutes. Once it starts to brown it’ll go pretty quickly, so watch carefully to make sure it doesn’t burn. You’ll know it’s ready because the solids in the butter will sink and turn brown, it will turn from yellow to caramel-y brown, and it will smell incredible. Transfer to a bowl and let set in fridge until solid, about an hour.
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Take the re-solidified butter out of the fridge and add it to your mixing bowl with the sugar. Cream until light and fluffy, then add the vanilla and beat until combined.
Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix until almost fully combined.
Add the mini chocolate chips and mix to distribute throughout. The dough will start to come together but may be a little crumbly- dump out onto a floured surface and use your hands to work it together into a ball.
On a floured surface, roll out the dough to ~¼ in thickness (the chocolate chips will keep you from rolling too thin) and cut out shapes with cookie cutter. Place cookies on a tray lined with parchment paper, about an inch apart. Sprinkle with flakey sea salt, if using.
Bake for 12-14 minutes. These cookies don’t brown at the edges while baking and they’ll still be quite soft when you pull them from the oven, but they’ll set while they cool.
Yield: 20 cookies