Chocolate Chip and Almond Cookies with Smoked Salt

I have been having a 6 year love affair with smoked salt. Not just any smoked salt, I am talking about Halen Mon Smoked Salt from Wales. I love it so much, I wrote a post about it, on the same day that I knocked on the unmarked door of a grey building downtown, handed over a small bundle of bills, and took home a one pound plastic bag of the salt, from the worker at a candy factory.

I have been thinking for a while that my smoked salt would taste really good on a cookie. I needed a cookie recipe worthy of my Welsh flakes of salty gold. I turned to Cooks Illustrated for the basic "Perfect Chocoalte Chip Cookie" recipe in the May/June 2009 issue.

"Perfect" cookies, made better by smoked salt 

I thought that almonds would work better with the salt, and I used the extra smooth fat chocolate chips that the Guittard company makes (If you live in the Seattle area, Central Market sells them in the bulk bins). To compensate for the smoked salt that I sprinkled on top, I reduced the salt in the recipe by 1/4 teaspoon.

browning butter for the cookies

The Cooks Illustrated cookie recipe is terrific. It calls for some odd steps, like browning the butter and beating then resting, beating then resting, beating then resting the dough. But all that craziness makes some good cookies.


Ingredients
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks)
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspooons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
3/4 cup nuts 



You can find a full re-print of the recipe here.

I hope Santa appreciates these.