Brown Butter Banana Bread Chocolate Chip Cookies

Luscious, gooey-in-the-middle brown butter chocolate chip cookies with a banana twist, making them taste like a combination of your favorite chocolate chip cookie and a slice of freshly baked, still-warm banana bread. It’s the perfect recipe to use up that sad single banana languishing on the countertop (you only need a single egg yolk too!)

With a deep and nutty flavor from the brown butter, a hearty kick of banana flavor, and studded with a mix of semisweet and dark chocolate pieces that melt into luscious puddles of molten chocolate in the oven, these lengthily-named cookies will become a fast favorite.

So we’ve done BBCCCs (brown butter chocolate chip cookies), but what about BBBBCCCs (brown butter BANANA BREAD chocolate chip cookies)? Indeed, adding a banana to my favorite cookie recipe makes for a cookie that tastes like a perfect mashup between chocolate chip cookies and banana bread.

The idea for this recipe came about when Taylor — who has a banana every morning for breakfast — somehow wound up with an extra banana that quickly turned (let’s just say he likes his bananas medium rare, even a speck of brown and he won’t touch it). I couldn’t very well let that sad, lonely banana go to waste, but given that it was just a single banana, it wasn’t quite enough to make a loaf of banana bread or even my banana bread muffins, at least without more math than my morning brain was willing to do.

But I figured banana cookies sounded pretty good, so why not?

Turns out you can’t just go adding banana to cookie recipes willy-nilly though. Since bananas have a high water content, simply adding banana will lead to puffy, cakey cookies. And I, for one, am not a fan of cakey cookies (whoopie pies being the one and only exception).

To make up for the extra water content, I removed the whole egg, leaving just egg yolk, and removed the splash of milk as well (the banana more than makes up for the water lost while browning the butter, which is why the milk is there to begin with). A single egg yolk combined with the equivalent of one small banana is enough to give these cookies a fudgy, toothsome, and borderline-gooey texture that is anything but cakey.

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10 Pantry Ingredients to Level-Up Your Baking

I’ve been baking all my life, and developing my own recipes for the last 15 years, and during that time have learned and developed a few tricks and secret ingredients to level-up homemade treats, taking them from good to downright extraordinary.

I’m not one for keeping secrets, so I’m here to spill the beans on these 10 (no longer) secret ingredients that will make your bakes look and taste more like professional, bakery-made treats. Plus, they can all be stored in the pantry for months and even years.

You may have noticed one or more of these ingredients listed as optional in many of my recipes. While their omission won’t necessarily cause the recipe to fail, they are included in the recipe for a reason, usually to level-up the recipe by enhancing the flavor, texture, and/or appearance.

Sometimes I’ll utilize a few of these secret ingredients together at once (like my next-level brown butter chocolate chip cookies which feature dry milk powder, instant espresso powder, flaky sea salt, AND good chocolate). While one of these things on its own might not be super apparent in the final product, together they make for some of the best cookies I’ve ever made (and I don’t say that lightly!)

Just a heads up that some of these ingredients won’t be available in your local supermarket, so it does take a bit of foresight and planning to acquire them online or from a specialty baking supply store (and I’ve included links to the products I use where appropriate). But they are all long lasting and shelf stable in your pantry, so they’ll keep beautifully for a year or more, giving you plenty of opportunity to put them to good use!

(Note this post contains affiliate links.)

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Chewy Crinkle-Top Brownie Cookies

Everything you love about a chewy, fudgy brownie in cookie form! With a double dose of chocolate in the form of melted semisweet chocolate and Dutch-process cocoa powder, and a hint of espresso powder to deepen the chocolate flavor even more, these (no chill!) chewy chocolate brownie cookies come out of the oven with paper-thin, shiny, crinkly tops. A sprinkle of flaky sea salt is the perfect finish.

While you can opt to make larger cookies if you prefer, I like a smaller size (about 2.5-inches diameter). That paired with the soft texture makes them perfect sandwich cookies (might I suggest some mint chip ice cream?) though they are plenty satisfying on their own as well.

The recipe is similar to my chocolate raspberry sandwich cookies, with slightly tweaked proportions and ingredients to produce that shiny, crackly top that’s one of the signature features of perfect brownies.

The smaller size and flat shape, not to mention the soft and chewy texture, make them an excellent base for cookie sandwiches. Might I suggest a rich chocolate ganache and jam filling, or maybe this pistachio white chocolate ganache (yes please!)

Or, better yet smash a scoop of homemade mint chip ice cream between two of these cookies and thank me later. The softness of these cookies makes them particularly suitable for ice cream sandwiches since the soft cookie won’t cause the ice cream to squish out when you bite it.

These cookies are rich and fudgy like a brownie, but thin and chewy like a cookie, with that iconic shiny, crackly crust that you expect from the perfect brownie. Not too sweet either, with a balanced sweetness that contrasts beautifully with the deep chocolate flavor and the flake salt on top.

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White Chocolate Focaccia Bread

This sweet and salty twist on a classic Italian focaccia features hidden pockets of white chocolate infused into the tender crumb and a bubbly, golden brown crust topped with flaky sea salt and crunchy turbinado sugar. It’s made over the course of 3 days/48 hours for a full flavor and extra bubbly crust, but with only 45 minutes of hands-on time required.

This unique focaccia can be made with instant yeast or sourdough (the method is nearly identical), and bakes into a crisp, bubbly, and golden brown focaccia with a sweet surprise hidden inside: pockets of molten white chocolate that almost caramelize in the high heat of the oven, melding with the tender crumb of the bread. It’s a sweet, salty, and sensational twist on focaccia that you won’t soon forget!

My sister and I have long been obsessed with this magical white chocolate bread we had at ClubMed in the 90s. You know how some flavor memories are seared into your brain? That bread is one of those things.

I made a regular loaf version of it based on the official ClubMed recipe a few years back, and haven’t thought much about it since. Until my sister fell head first into her own sourdough obsession (you’re only 6 years late, Robs) and set about making a sourdough loaf studded with white chocolate chips (in short: yum).

I’ve been leaning hard into focaccia lately, maybe because it feels like lazy-girl’s sourdough since you don’t have to deal with shaping or scoring or be overly concerned with proofing times. Despite making over a dozen loaves in the last few months, I’ve mainly stuck to basic flavors so far (dried fennel seed is my favorite focaccia flavoring, another throwback to our favorite date night restaurant in college). But I digress.

Despite baking so many loaves, I don’t have a solid go-to focaccia recipe just yet; it’s something I tweak and change pretty much every time I make it, and likely will continue to do so for some time. While I’ve shared same-day focaccia recipes in the past (this peach and thyme focaccia is a particular favorite), I’ve decided that I prefer the more complex flavors, exaggerated bubbles, and crusty exterior I get from an extended timeline.

So taking into account my focaccia fixation and my sister’s forays into white chocolate sourdough, you can see how the idea of white chocolate focaccia came to be. And it turned out fabulous if I do say so myself (not that I’d be sharing it if it didn’t, but still).

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Strawberry Elderflower Jelly (with Strawberry Rose variation)

Strawberries, particularly perfectly ripe, just picked berries, often have subtle floral undertones. By adding flower-infused syrup to the strawberry juice base, we play up that floral characteristic, giving this flower-infused jelly a unique and complex flavor that tastes just like spring feels.

Made with fresh elderflowers, ripe strawberries and classic pectin for a ruby red, crystalline jelly with a subtle undertone of floral elderflower flavor. This small-batch recipe can be water-bath canned for shelf-stable storage, or refrigerated or frozen instead if you prefer.

Also included in this recipe is a variation for strawberry rose petal jelly using dried rose petals (or any other edible flower, really).

Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of this post to download the free printable labels (both elderflower and rose variations included!)

I have so many strawberry jam recipes. I mean, how many is too many? Asking for a friend…

Without fail, every year I end up picking at least two baskets worth at the pick-your-own farm near us. I just can’t resist the lure of these springtime gems.

In lieu of yet another strawberry jam recipe, I thought I’d mix it up a little bit. Hence: strawberry jelly! The main difference between jelly and jam is strained fruit juice versus whole fruit (more on that below). If a smooth, even texture is your jam—excuse me, your jelly—then this recipe is for you.

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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (Extra Large, Bakery Style)

These cookies are just… extra. Extra large, extra gooey-in-the-middle, with an extra toasty, extra brown buttery flavor and a texture I can only describe as lush. Tollhouse could never.

This small batch recipe makes 6 obscenely large cookies (equivalent to 12 normal sized ones), but feel free to double or triple the recipe (they freeze beautifully before or after baking). Even better… because it uses melted brown butter, there’s no electric mixer required—the entire recipe can be mixed by hand.

There are a million and one brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipes out there on the internet, but I wanted something impeccable, that was just a little bit different than all the others.

Which is… harder than it sounds.

Needless to say, these cookies have been a long time coming.

And by a long time I mean I’ve tested least 7 test batches baked over the course of the last few months (a sacrifice I’m happy to make). Each time tweaking one tiny little thing to improve the texture, flavor, and/or appearance (or all three). I think there is a reason I haven’t done a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe before now (the closest I’ve come is probably these ganache-stuffed beauties) and that’s because all my years of baking knowledge and know-how was needed to tweak these cookies to perfection.

Normally I go for cookies that spread thinly and evenly for an overall chewy experience, like these pistachio chocolate chip cookies. But this time I wanted a cookie with more substance, a cookie with some meat on its bones, thick and plush and even borderline fudgy, gooey in the middle but still crisp and chewy on the edges, with the perfect balance of buttery cookie to pockets and puddles of rich, dark chocolate.

That’s… a lot to ask of a cookie. (Now you see why it took me so long?)

I ultimately achieved this cookie convergence by precise proportions of flour, sugar, and fat, baking soda (and definitely no powder, which caused the cookie to be overly cakey for my tastes), and by shaping the dough into, of all things, snowmen. Plus a thorough chill and a nice hot oven temperature.

The resulting cookies are oversized and flavor packed, with a robust, toasty brown butter flavor that’s complimented and enhanced by a combination of not-so-secret ingredients: dry milk powder, dark brown sugar, and instant espresso powder, plus cornstarch and an extra egg yolk for the most tender and fudgy cookies of your dreams.

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Pistachio Ganache (with White Chocolate and Pistachio Butter)

This ultra creamy, vibrant green pistachio ganache is made with white chocolate and naturally flavored with real pistachio butter for a sweet, nutty, and earthy pistachio flavor that’s perfect for a wide variety of fillings and frostings for cakes, cookies, and pastries.

With only three main ingredients and a mere 20 minutes of active time (plan on an hour or two for it to set, but it can also be made further ahead of time), this homemade pistachio ganache is a true showstopper, and easily adaptable depending on the exact consistency and flavor you desire.

My pistachio obsession is showing no signs of abating any time soon.

After making a truly otherworldly whipped pistachio ganache to top my exquisite raspberry pistachio frangipane tart, I decided that a standalone pistachio ganache recipe was probably a good idea, as it makes such an incredibly versatile frosting or filling.

This recipe is for a standard soft-set pistachio ganache (perfect for truffle filling or macarons), but it’s easy enough to turn it into a whipped ganache by just adding additional cream and then whipping it to silky smooth, airy perfection the next day.

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