TikTok Chef Eitan Bernath’s Killer Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe – Parade Magazine

(Photo by Mark Weinberg)

“My favorite food in the entire world is a chocolate chip cookie!” proclaims young TikTok chef Eitan Bernath of these cookies from his new cookbook Eitan Eats the World. “These are your childhood chocolate chip cookies all grown up.”

In a world of sometimes sketchy (though entertaining!) food hacks, Bernath’s recipes and techniques are always solid. That culinary mastery, plus a generous dollop of irresistible enthusiasm, earned Bernath, 20, a social media following of 6 million and counting that propelled him to become the go-to food guy on The Drew Barrymore Show.

This recipe is a delicious example of a recipe that’s on trend and on point when it comes to technique and ingredients:

  • Brown butter seems to be everywhere right now, and it’s easy to see why. The extra step of cooking the butter transforms it into an umami-packed ingredient. Take Bernath’s advice to use a light-colored pan and keep a close eye on the butter while it cooks, because it can go from perfection to burned in a hot second.
  • Traditional chocolate-chip cookie recipes use a 1:1 ratio of brown sugar and granulated sugar. Bernath opts for lots of brown sugar and just a touch of granulated for deeper flavor.
  • Bourbon is an obvious grown-up element here, but it also goes really well with brown butter and brown sugar to add extra-flavorful heft to these cookies.
  • It may be tempting to just use chips or chunks instead of chopping the chocolate. Don’t. Chopping does a better job of incorporating the chocolate throughout the cookie in the form of gooey chunks and shards.
  • Bernath offers the option of using a cookie scoop or tablespoon to portion the dough. A scoop, like the Vollrath Disher Size 30 ($12, amazon.com), is helpful for consistent, pro-looking results.
  • Don’t skip the step of freezing the portioned dough, says Bernath. It keeps the cookies from spreading too much as they bake. You also can transfer the frozen dough balls to a heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag (it’ll keep up to a year) and bake small batches of cookies as you want.

Next, Here’s How Drew Barrymore “Discovered” Eitan Bernath

[Reprinted with permission from Eitan Eats the World. Copyright © 2022 by Eitan Bernath. Photography Copyright © 2022 by Mark Weinberg. Published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of Penguin Random House.]

Bourbon Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

By Eitan Bernath

Ingredients

  • ½ lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 1¼ cups packed dark brown sugar
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 1 Tbsp bourbon
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¾ tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
  • Flaky sea salt
Key Tags

Directions

  1. Place butter in a medium saucepan (preferably with a light-colored interior so you can monitor the browning) over medium heat. Melt and cook, swirling occasionally, as the butter progresses from lemony-yellow to golden, then to amber. Once it’s amber and you see little flecks of brown on the bottom of the pan (anywhere from 5–8 minutes), immediately remove it from the heat. Pour butter into a heatproof bowl. Refrigerate 15 minutes.

  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream cooled brown butter and granulated sugar on medium speed 3–4 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add egg, egg yolk, bourbon and vanilla; beat 1–2 minutes or until ingredients are thoroughly creamed together.

  3. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add flour, baking soda and kosher salt. Beat on low speed or just until a few steaks of flour remain. Stir in chocolate chunks.

  4. Use a 2-Tbsp cookie scoop or spoon to portion dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Freeze 20 minutes.

  5. Position oven racks in upper and lower third of oven. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.

  6. Transfer cold dough balls to prepared sheet pans, 4 inches apart or about 6 cookies per sheet pan. Bake 12 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Cool on sheet pans 2 minutes. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Sprinkle with flake salt while still warm. Repeat with remaining dough.

Kitchen Counter

Makes 16.