Brown-Butter Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

1. Brown the butter. In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. It will foam and turn from pale yellow to toasted light brown. Make sure you don’t rush this step and burn the butter! Set aside to cool.

2. Mix the wet ingredients. Place the melted brown butter, bacon fat, vanilla paste, brown sugar, sugar, sea salt, egg, and egg yolk in the bowl of a mixer fit with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until everything is smooth and even.

3. Add the chunky bits. Add the dark and milk chocolate chunks and the bacon bits and mix on low speed until they are mixed and even.

4. Mix in the dry ingredients. Sift the flour and baking soda together and add them to the bowl. Mix on low speed, pulsing the mixer on and off to avoid the flour poofing out of the bowl. When the flour is 50 percent incorporated, let the mixer run at low speed until the dough comes together, about one minute.

5. Scoop the dough and bake. Line a baking sheet pan with parchment paper. Scoop with a 2-oz. cookie scoop into balls. Sprinkle a little sea salt on top if you like. Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes, until the cookies puff up and then just start to collapse on themselves. The centers should feel gooey, and the edges should appear golden brown and crisp. When the cookies are done, remove the pan from the oven and let the cookies cool on the pan for 10 minutes before removing them.