Add the butter to a light-colored skillet or saucepan over medium heat. Allow it to melt, then continue cooking while stirring frequently. The butter will foam before the milk solids begin turning golden brown.

Once the butter smells nutty and you see deeply golden-brown specks at the bottom of the pan, immediately remove it from the heat.

Pour the brown butter, including all of the toasted milk solids, into a large heatproof mixing bowl. Allow it to cool until no longer hot.

Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar to the cooled brown butter and whisk until thoroughly combined.

Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Whisk until the mixture looks smooth and cohesive.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, fine yellow cornmeal, baking soda, and kosher salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.

Use a rubber spatula to fold everything together just until a few streaks of flour remain.

Reserve some of the prettiest pieces of white chocolate and caramel corn for topping the cookies.

Gently fold the remaining chopped white chocolate and caramel corn into the dough. Don't aggressively mix or crush the caramel corn.

Divide the dough into approximately 60–65 gram portions and arrange them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Press a few reserved pieces of white chocolate and caramel corn into the top of each cookie.

Refrigerate the portioned cookie dough for 30–45 minutes.

While the dough chills, preheat the oven to 350°F.

Arrange the chilled cookie dough several inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets.

Bake for approximately 10–12 minutes, until the edges are set and lightly golden but the centers still look slightly underdone.

Avoid waiting for the centers to look completely baked.

Immediately after removing the cookies from the oven, sprinkle each with flaky sea salt.

For an extra bakery-style appearance, you can gently press additional pieces of white chocolate or caramel corn into the tops while the cookies are still warm.

Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 8–10 minutes before carefully transferring them to a wire rack.