Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
These brown butter chocolate chip cookies are thin, chewy, crispy around the edges, and loaded with chocolate chips. Browning the butter gives regular chocolate chip cookies a major upgrade, adding a rich, nutty, almost caramel-like flavor without making the recipe complicated.
You should definitely check out these Cookies and Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies and this S’mores Cookie Skillet while you’re here too!
I love a thick, bakery-style cookie too, but sometimes I want the kind of cookie that spreads out in the oven, gets those perfectly golden crispy edges, and stays nice and chewy toward the center. These are those cookies!
The best part? You don’t have to chill the dough overnight. The little trick that makes these cookies different is what you do with the brown butter after you make it.
Ingredients for brown butter chocolate chip cookies
You probably have all of these ingredients sitting in your pantry and refrigerator already! Double the recipe if you want to make more dough to freeze for when you want a cookie!
- Butter: Start with ½ cup (113 grams) of butter and brown it. The toasted milk solids are where all that extra flavor comes from.
- Brown sugar: You’ll need ½ cup (100 grams). Brown sugar adds moisture, chewiness and that deeper molasses flavor.
- Granulated sugar: ¼ cup (50 grams) helps these cookies spread and gives the edges that slightly crisp texture.
- Egg: One large egg binds everything together.
- Vanilla extract: One teaspoon is plenty to complement the browned butter and chocolate.
- All-purpose flour: 1¼ cups (150 grams). If you have a kitchen scale, weigh your flour. Too much flour is one of the easiest ways to turn a thin, chewy cookie into a thick, dry one.
- Baking soda and salt: ½ teaspoon helps the cookies spread and brown. The salt balances all that sweetness and makes the chocolate and browned butter flavors pop.
- Chocolate chips: Measure these with your heart. Seriously. Use as many or as few as you like. Semi-sweet chocolate chips are my go-to, but milk chocolate, dark chocolate or chocolate chunks will all work.
How to make cookies with browned butter
Trust me, the flavor in these cookies is beyond amazing. Regular melted butter is good, but browned butter has this deep, nutty, toasted flavor that makes a chocolate chip cookie taste so much more interesting.
Melt your butter over medium heat
Simmer the butter in a skillet until it turns a toasty brown color
Add all of your wet ingredients into a bowl
Chop up your semisweet chocolate and get your chocolate chips
Combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients
Scoop your cookie dough onto a lined baking sheet
If you want a more flat cookie, slightly press down on the cookie dough to flatten it before baking.
Pro Tips for making Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Use a kitchen scale if you have one: Baking is a science, and weighing 150 grams of flour is much more accurate than packing flour into a measuring cup.
- Don’t burn the butter: Brown specks are good. Black specks and a burnt smell mean you’ve gone too far.
- Don’t throw away the brown bits: Scrape all of those toasted milk solids from the pan into your mixing bowl.
- Don’t overmix the flour: Fold it in just until everything comes together.
- Give them room: This recipe is designed to spread. Don’t crowd your baking sheet.
- For prettier cookies: Save a handful of chocolate chips and press them into the tops of the dough balls before baking.
- For that bakery finish: Sprinkle a tiny bit of flaky sea salt over the warm cookies. The salt against the chocolate and browned butter is SO good!
FAQ
Not for this recipe. These cookies are intentionally made to spread and develop thin, crispy edges, so there’s no overnight chill required.
Browning butter toasts its milk solids, giving the finished cookies a deeper, nuttier flavor than cookies made with regular melted butter.
Yes. Portion the dough into balls first and freeze them on a baking sheet until firm. Transfer them to a freezer-safe container or bag. You can then bake a few cookies whenever the craving hits.
Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 grams) Butter, browned (unsalted is best)
- 1 cup (200 grams) Brown sugar, dark or light will work
- ½ cup (100 grams Granulated sugar
- 2 large Eggs
- 2 teaspoons (10 grams) Vanilla extract
- 2½ cups (300 grams) All-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon (6 grams) Baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (3 grams) Salt
- 1 cup (170 grams) Chocolate chips, measure with your heart!
- 1 4 ounce bar Semi Sweet Chocolate, roughly chopped (optional, but recommended)
Instructions
- Add the butter to a saucepan or skillet over medium heat. Let it melt, then continue cooking while stirring or swirling frequently. It will foam, then you’ll begin to see little golden-brown bits forming on the bottom.
- Once it smells nutty and the milk solids are golden brown, immediately remove it from the heat. Make sure you keep all those brown bits- that's where the flavor is.
- Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar to a large mixing bowl. While the browned butter is still very warm (almost hot, but not boiling), pour it directly over the sugars.
- Whisk until everything is smooth and glossy. Let the butter-sugar mixture sit for about 2-3 minutes so it's not hot enough to scramble your eggs.
- Whisk in the eggs and vanilla until completely combined and smooth.
- Now add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold everything together until it's just combined. Don't overmix.
- Fold in the semi-sweet chocolate chips and your roughly chopped chocolate bar.
- Keep some of the chopped chocolate to the side to press into the tops of the cookies before baking. Those bigger uneven pieces will melt into those pretty chocolate puddles.
- Use a 1½ tablespoon cookie scoop or tablespoon to scoop the dough into 1½ tablespoon portions onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving plenty of room between each cookie. These are supposed to spread.
- Press a few extra pieces of chopped chocolate into the top of each dough ball.
- Bake at 375°F for 9-11 minutes, until the edges are golden brown but the centers still look slightly soft.
- Let them sit on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Finish with a little flaky sea salt while they're still warm if you want that salty-sweet bakery cookie vibe.
Notes
Equipment
Be sure to tag me on Instagram or Facebook when you make these Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies I would love to see your creation, and give you a shoutout!
