Brown butter chocolate chip walnut cookies

Brown nine cups (18 sticks) of butter over medium to medium low heat, stirring constantly once the water has cooked out so the sediment does not stick and burn; this took at least 25 minutes.

Take the brown butter further than usual, to about the colour of Guinness, and stop when you are 90 percent sure it is done because it carries over in the hot pan.

Let the butter cool five to ten minutes off the heat, then add ice cubes to cool it and put back the roughly 15 percent of weight lost as water.

Scrape all the bits out, spread the butter evenly on a sheet tray and freeze to solidify, about 30 minutes.

Scrape the solidified butter into a bowl and whisk it together so the sediment on the bottom and the fat on top are evenly emulsified.

Split the brown butter by weight, half for the light dough and half for the dark, and return it to the freezer to solidify again.

Chop two and a half cups of the brown butter into small cubes as you would chilled butter.

Add to a stand mixer with the light brown sugar and white sugar and whip until it starts to cream, without letting it stick up the sides.

Beat in four eggs and one tablespoon of vanilla extract.

Add the cake flour, all-purpose flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt.

Split the dough and mix in a third of a cup of walnut pieces with about two cups of chocolate chunks for one half.

Chill the dough; work only with cold dough.

Divide into large balls of six to seven ounces, rolling then splitting and inverting them so the surface is craggly rather than smooth.

Bake at 390 degrees convection for about 10 minutes, watching the whole time.

Half the dough was baked chilled and half frozen; the chilled balls spread more, the frozen ones held their shape.

Variation with chocolate chips: same base dough, a third cup of chopped walnuts and two cups of chocolate chips, same process, baked at 390 Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes.

Variation: same light dough with a cup of toffee bits and two cups of chocolate chunks instead of walnuts.

Final modification: all white sugar, no baking powder, and the dough balls left to age uncovered in the fridge and in the freezer to dry the surface out.

The modified batch had the craggly crust and correct shape with no puffiness; not using baking powder or baking soda gets closest.

He concludes a quarter of the sugar should have stayed brown sugar, since all white sugar left the colour too pale.