Salty “Brown Butter” Chocolate Chip Cookies (Vegan)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 375 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Use a scale or the spoon and level method to measure and combine the dry ingredients, except the chocolate chips, in a bowl.
  (Steps #2-3 involve browning vegan butter. Refer to this source to see pictures and more detailed instructions)
• In a light-colored saucepan over low-medium heat, warm up 1/2 cup (1 stick, 113g) of the butter with peanut butter. Once the butter melts, take the pan off the heat. With a rubber spatula, mash the peanut butter into the butter to combine them.
• Turn the burner’s heat up to medium, and place the pan back on the heat. With the rubber spatula, keep mixing the butter constantly. Watch for the color to change from milky, thick yellow to clear, golden brown. Follow this guidance from A Virtual Vegan: “You will notice it deepen in colour. It can be a little hard to see because of the foam over it, but keep going until the solids toast in the butter and turn a deep, golden amber colour. It will smell intensely buttery, toasty, nutty, and rich. The longer you keep it cooking the deeper the flavour will get, but beware that it can go from golden to burned and black extremely quickly so it’s best to err on the side of caution and not risk taking it too far. When it’s done remove from the heat and carefully pour the butter into a bowl.” The browning process should take 5-10 minutes.
• Once butter is done browning, pour it in a heatproof bowl. Wait one minute for it to cool, and then gradually add remaining 1⁄4 cup (1⁄2 stick; 56 g) of butter to the browned butter. The added butter should just melt. If the first addition of butter foams and sizzles, wait another minute before adding the rest of the butter.
• Pour aquafaba into large mixing bowl and beat with hand mixer with the whisk attachment on highest speed for 5 minutes. Turn off the mixer every minute for a few seconds to let the mixer cool off—otherwise it may overheat. After 5 minutes, the aquafaba should be white and foamy, and it should cling to the bottom of the bowl.
• Add sugars and butter to the aquafaba mixture and beat with the whisk attachment until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is smooth (about 30 seconds).
• Add vanilla, and beat or whisk to combine for a few seconds.
• Add dry ingredients (except the chocolate chips), and use the rubber spatula to combine wet and dry mix just until you can’t see flour bits. Try not to over mix.
• Add chocolate chips, and use rubber spatula to combine. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
• Form 2 tbsp balls of dough. If you don’t want to bake the cookies right away, refrigerate or freeze the dough balls in a sealed container. If you’re ready to bake, place the dough balls on the parchment paper-lined pan with room since the cookies will spread (about 2 inches in between).
• Bake 8-10 minutes until golden brown (I lean more towards 10 minutes).
• After removing the sheet from the oven, top the cookies with sea salt flakes and let them cool on the baking sheet. The cookies will be very soft initially, but they will firm up as they cool (about 10-15 minutes).