A cookie tart is one of my favorite desserts. It’s basically one gigantic cookie, but a much more thick and gooey one. Another favorite of mine: browned butter. Browned butter takes just minutes to make and produces a deep, caramel-hazelnut-butterscotch flavor that you’ll never get with regular melted butter. I thought it would be fun to include chocolate-covered espresso beans instead of chocolate chips to add another dimension of flavor and crunch.
½ cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups packed flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate-covered espresso beans
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-10″ tart pan with removable bottom.
2. Chop butter and add to a light-colored (so you can observe browning) skillet over a medium flame. The butter will first melt before foaming and bubbling rapidly. Stir periodically with a rubber spatula. After a few minutes, bubbling will subside and golden specks will appear on the bottom of the pan, and the butter will start smelling nutty. This means your butter is browned! Warning: Butter should have golden/amber specks, not completely brown ones. If the butter is too browned, your tart may have a burnt or bitter taste.
3. Immediately remove skillet from heat and pour browned butter into a large bowl to stop the cooking. Make sure to scrape in all the golden specks from the bottom of the pan.
4. Stir brown sugar into browned butter. Whisk in egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract until mixture is smooth.
5. Pour flour, baking soda and salt over the wet ingredients and stir everything until just combined. Add espresso beans.
6. Drop dough into tart pan and flatten to fill the pan evenly. Bake until the top is golden brown but the center is still slightly underbaked and gooey, 20- 25 minutes.
7. Dig right into the hot tart or let cool completely before slicing wedges.
Yield: 8-10 servings
