Somehow, I never tire of cookies. No matter how many hundreds, maybe even thousands, of batches I’ve made in my life I still crave them regularly. That’s why I’m always experimenting and tweaking cookie recipes in the kitchen, especially chocolate chip cookies. Sometimes all I want is an ultra rich, gooey, and chewy chocolate chunk recipe.
These Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies are absolute perfection because they are loaded with that rich and nutty brown butter, salty-sweet, butterscotch, and pure chocolate flavors. Chocolate chunk cookies can easily become too ooey and gooey (too much of a good thing exists!) so I made sure these were the perfect balance of gooey, chewy, and crunchy.
I’ve included tons of tips below so your cookies turn out perfectly! Best of all? These cookies require no electric mixer required.
How to Make Perfect Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Browning the Butter
Follow the directions closely for browning the butter. It’s super simple, just be sure not to walk away from it. It quickly goes from browned to burnt.
Do You Have to Use Bread Flour?
The bread flour in this recipe helps make the cookies ultra chewy and thick. It’s my go-to trick for incredible cookies so I always have some on hand. If you don’t have any feel free to use only all-purpose flour, though your cookies might lose some chewiness.
Sugar
A high ratio of dark brown sugar makes these cookies moist, chewy, and rich in flavor. I love it. Again if you don’t have any on hand, you can use light brown sugar but your cookies will lose a little bit of awesomeness.
Chocolate
This recipe calls for both regular semisweet chocolate chips as well as chocolate baking wafers. I used the Guittard brand of semisweet chocolate wafers. You can also find these specifically at Whole Foods, Williams Sonoma, or Sur la Table. You could also use the Valrhona brand of wafers (they call theirs “chocolate feves”). They don’t hold their shape like chocolate chips do. Instead they turn into little chocolate puddles that are a delight to bite into. If you can’t find them feel free to use 2 cups of semisweet chocolate chips instead.
Sea Salt
This is optional, but you can add a sprinkling of flaky finishing sea salt to the cookies right after pulling them out of the oven.
The Best Baking Tips:
I always use a kitchen scale to weigh my ingredients, especially flour, and an oven thermometer to ensure baking accuracy. Incorrectly measured flour can lead to cookies that are tough, crumbly, dry, too thick, or just blah. Most ovens run a little hot or cold, so checking the temperature with an oven thermometer ensures the best cookies possible.
Chilling the Dough
It might be a little annoying to see that I call for chilling the dough for a minimum of 24 hours in this recipe. But believe me, it makes a big difference here. Both the taste and texture improve during this time. Think of it as a marinating time where everything just gets better and better!!
Size
I’ve found these are best made as big cookies, using a 3-Tablespoon large cookie scoop. This provides the perfect texture: crisp at the edges, slightly gooey in the center, and chewy throughout. If you want to make smaller cookies, use a 1.5-Tablespoon cookie scoop and reduce the baking time to about 10 minutes.
Why Use a Cookie Scoop?
Using a stainless steel spring-loaded cookie scoop when portioning out cookie dough is one of the KEYS to beautiful, uniform, evenly-shaped and evenly-baked cookies. My cookie scoop is one of my most frequently used kitchen gadgets. A spring-loaded scoop saves you *so much time* in forming the balls of dough. When using a scoop, you ensure each ball is evenly sized so the cookies bake evenly, meaning you don’t have any small overbaked cookies or large underbaked cookies. Learn more about Cookie Scoops and how to use them here!
Make Ahead
You can make the dough ahead of time and refrigerate it for up to 3 days. I like to scoop balls of dough onto a small baking sheet and freeze them until solid. Then I transfer the frozen balls to a ziptop bag and store in the freezer. Let the balls come to room temperature before baking. This way I can bake off small batches of fresh cookies whenever I feel like it! Check out my full post on how to freeze cookie dough and bake from frozen here.
This recipe was the September 2020 selection for our monthly baking challenge. Every month you can join a challenge by baking the recipe and snapping a photo for a chance to win prizes! Learn more about my monthly baking challenges here. Check out everyone’s cookies:
Is it normal for the dough to be kind of runny? It doesn’t have the same texture as regular cookie dough. I’m putting it in the refrigerator tonight, hoping part of that process is to firm it up. Thanks for your help!
Hi Maureen! Because the butter is melted and browned, instead of creamed, this method will produce dough that’s a little softer and looser than usual cookie doughs. This is part of the reason for the mandatory 24-72 hour chill, as Tessa mentions in the pink tip box (above the recipe). During this chill time, the butter re-solidifies, and the moisture in the eggs hydrates the flour, so the end result is a thick, delicious cookie. I hope that makes sense, and I hope you enjoy these cookies!
Thank you so much! I baked one last night and it didn’t turn out great. Going to give it another try after being refrigerated longer. The dough taste amazing so I’m not giving up.
Best cookie recipe ever! I do have a question, a lot of times when I make this my sugar doesn’t get completely dissolved and my cookie has that grainy texture. Anyone got tips for this? Thanks
Hi Lydia! So glad to hear that you’re enjoying this delicious cookie recipe! Butter can have difficulty dissolving entirely in brown butter because sugar needs liquid to dissolve. During the process of browning the butter, we’re driving off the water that butter contains, so the butter has less water in which to melt. That’s where the refrigeration period comes in: during this 24-72 hours in the fridge, the water in the egg whites can help break down the sugar granules further (among many other magical things). If this is still leaving you with cookies a bit grainy for your preference, you can experiment with this: when adding the butter to the hot browned butter, you can try tossing an ice cube in, to replace a little of the lost water and assist in melting your sugar a bit more, before proceeding with the recipe as written. We haven’t tried this to see how it will work in this recipe, so this would be purely experimental – but it may help with your textural issue. If you’re interested, Tessa has a fantastic online course you can take to learn more about the deep-dive ingredients make in baking. Check out The Magic of Baking Course here! I hope this helps! Happy baking 🙂
Hi! Have you tried making the dough as usual and then adding white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts rather than regular chocolate? I wonder if swapping these would affect the cookies
Hi Manahil! Feel free to swap the chocolate chips with the same amount of any other mix-ins you like! Happy baking 🙂
I bought your book and started with the control cookie. Then I moved on to this one. Those semi-sweet chocolate wafers are impossible to get here in central Mississippi. I found one premium market that said they had the Guittard ones but, when I went there, they only had the bitter-sweet variety. Amazon does not have them. Guittard will ship them direct but, this time of the year, will only ship them overnight. $9 for the wafers and $50-something for shipping. I’m making this one with all chips (no wafers) today to bake on Labor Day.
Looking forward to scoring some Guittard semi-sweet wafers soon but it may have to wait for cooler weather or my local Fresh Approach to get their act together.
Hi Frank! Feel free to use a high-quality chocolate block and chop it coarsely, in place of the wafers – the cookies will still taste incredible! Happy baking 🙂
I complained to Fresh Approach corporate HQ about the local situation. I was shocked when they called me back. She said the problem at the local store was due to an administrative screw-up. She said they had ordered them and would call me when they were back in stock. Yesterday, I got that call. Now a die-hard Fresh Approach fan again!
I’m making the browned butter chocolate chip holy trinity (wafers toffee and butterscotch) today for a luncheon on Thursday. There is a disparity in the three recipes that I do not understand. The wafer recipe in your book calls for ¼ t baking powder. The toffee and butterscotch recipes on your site call for a whole teaspoon. Otherwise, they are pretty similar. Is this intentional?
Hi Frank! Glad to hear that you got your hands on the chocolate! As for the differences between cookies, it’s all due to slight differences in the recipes and slightly different desired outcomes. If you’re interested, Tessa has a fantastic online course you can take to learn more about the deep-dive differences little tweaks like this make in baking. Check out The Magic of Baking Course here! Happy baking 🙂
These turned out perfect! I ended up putting the dough in the freezer for 1 hour and then baking them, instead of refrigerating for 24 hours. The cookies still turned out great. My new go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe!
These turned out delicious! It was a little too much chocolate for me but everyone else loved them. I followed the directions exactly the first time. The next time I only used 10 ounces of chocolate chips and I rolled the dough into balls before I refrigerated it. It made it much easier when baking. They were still amazing!
Omg these came out perfect!!! This will be my new go-to cookie recipe.
So happy to hear that, Ella!
Hi Tessa! Love all your recipes. Bought your cookie kit and I’m loving the cookie scoops! Getting ready to make your browned butter chocolate chip cookies. I don’t have baking wafers but do have Sees candy very large chips or Giradelli semi sweet baking bars which I could chopped. Would either of those work? Your science of baking blogs are amazing- have read them all – making me a better baker!! Thank you!
Barb Cattie
Hi Barb! So glad to hear that you’re loving Tessa’s recipes and Cookie Kit! I’ll be sure to pass your sweet message along to Tessa – she’ll be so happy to hear your kind words 🙂 Either of those chocolate options will work well, but if the See’s chips are milk chocolate, just keep in mind that will up the overall sweetness of the cookie, since milk chocolate is a little sweeter. Feel free to use a mix of the two types of chocolate, too! Be sure to read through all the tips and info Tessa has packed into the pink tip box (above the recipe) before starting. Let us know what you think of these cookies once you’ve given them a try! Happy baking 🙂
Hello there! I heard these cookies were really good and wanted to give them a try. However, it says that this recipe makes a batch of 25 cookies. That’s a bit much in my opinion. Do you think I could cut the recipe by a half or even a quarter? Will it still turn out right? Would I have to chill it for a full day still? If I shouldn’t cut the recipe, how many days can the cookies last? Thank you so much!
Hi Kina! You could halve this recipe, but then you’ll also have to try to cut an egg yolk in half (or quarters, if you wish to cut the recipe in 1/4!), which can be a bit of a pain. Our recommendation is to make the full recipe as written, and then follow the directions in this post to freeze the cookie dough (after the chill period). Then you can bake off a few at a time, whenever you like! Alternatively, if you do decide to cut down the recipe, we still recommend chilling for 24-72 hours for best results. I hope that helps! Let us know what you think of these cookies once you’ve given them a try 🙂
Thank you for getting back to me!! Made the cookies with the See’s large chips which were semi sweet. They were amazing and the hardest part was waiting 24 hours to enjoy! Baked 6 and froze the scooped dough to enjoy warm cookies whenever we are in the mood!
Every recipe I have tried has been delicious! My husband and daughter love the brownies made with the “expensive ingredients “. Well worth the money! Looking forward to fall baking so bring on those recipes!! Enjoy the rest of your summer!!
Yay! So thrilled to hear this, Barb! Thanks so much for letting us know 🙂
Best cookies I’ve ever made! I always use this recipe, and it has never failed!!!
These were absolutely fantastic, my friends loved it! I actually mixed all the ingredients into the brown butter while it was slightly warm to melt my chocolate. Oh my god it was so good
I made the dough, and it’s in the fridge hailing. I have rolled them into logs and will slice them chilled. Maybe that is the secret? I don’t have a rating yet, but all definitely let you know if rolling the into lag shape does anything to help the baking process
Hi Barbara! We haven’t tried rolling these cookies into logs and slicing to bake – that trick is usually best for cookies with more of a shortbread texture, but it may work great here too. Let us know how it goes with these! We hope you enjoy them 🙂
From a flavor and texture standpoint – 10/10. I love how crisp yet chewy / soft these cookies are. The brown sugar and browned butter make them rich and delicious. I did however only do 1 stick of butter versus 2 and found that to be perfect.
Thank you for sharing!
First time making these and they were delicious. Question- when bringing to room temp before baking, the dough resembled the texture and temp of the pre-fridge step….so, do you bake while slightly chill from the fridge?
thanks
I noticed the butter calls for 2 sticks( 227 grams) is this after the butter is brown? if you are using the sticks and not the grams after the butter is browned it does not equal 227 grams. I have been melting about 3 sticks to get to 227 with some left over. I have made this recipe several times and it comes out perfect all the time. I just wanted to know.
Thank you
Hi Debbie-Ann! This recipe asks for 2 sticks (227 grams) butter, and then we brown it in the first step of the recipe, and use the entirety of the brown butter we’ve just made. I’m glad your alterations have been working so well, but no need for the additional butter, as the recipe is written to take the evaporation from the browning process into consideration. Thanks for checking 🙂
The flavor of the cookies was nice, but they turned out flat and personally, too big. Still good, though!
Hi Alyrah! I’m sorry to hear that these cookies didn’t turn out as they should. Were the cookies chilled for a minimum of 24 hours, as advised in the recipe? I know that can be so hard to do – but it is integral to this recipe’s outcome, as explained in more detail in the pink tip box above the recipe. Also, how do you measure your ingredients? By volume (using cups), or by weight (using a digital kitchen scale)? When measuring by volume, it’s so easy to mis-measure ingredients (particularly flour) and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe. Check out Tessa’s article here, where she talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time. How old are your leavening agents? If your baking soda/powder are not fresh, they won’t do their jobs and your cookies may over-spread, among other things. Tessa talks about the science behind leavening agents, and how to test for leavener freshness, in this article here! Finally, if these cookies are too large, feel free to experiment with a smaller (1.5 Tablespoon) cookie scoop, for a smaller cookie size – just keep in mind that the baking time will need to be lowered, and the texture will change slightly, too. I hope something here helps, Alyrah! Happy baking 🙂
Would the recipe need to be changed any if I wanted to use dark chocolate instead of semi-sweet? I have made so many of Tessa’s cookie recipes! They are the best ever!
Hi Sandra! Yay, we’re so happy to hear that you enjoy Tessa’s cookie recipes! 🙂 The chocolate chips can be swapped out for any other type of chocolate chip or mix-in you like – just swap out the type of chocolate you prefer for the same amount as written in the recipe. Just keep in mind that darker chocolate will lower the sweetness level of the cookie, but it will still be super delicious! Let us know what you think once you’ve given these cookies a try! 🙂
I love this recipe but anytime I make it the cookies don’t flatten really much at all. I end up with big dome cookies and wondering what I could be messing up in making them. Could I be over mixing the dough would that cause them not to flatten?
Hi Liz! How do you measure your ingredients? By volume (using cups), or by weight (using a digital kitchen scale)? When measuring by volume, it’s so easy to mis-measure ingredients (particularly flour) and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe – and the most likely culprit when cookies are too domed and don’t spread as they should. Check out Tessa’s article here, where she talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time. I hope this helps! Feel free to reach back out with any further questions, we’re always happy to help 🙂
Hello again,
I feel like a complete dummy, I forgot the chocolate!
Will it be fine if I add the chocolate after chilling?
I’ve tasted the dough, and taste amazing these cookies gonna taste sooo good(hope even though I messed up a bit)
Hi there! Oh no – I’m so sorry to hear that! We’ve never tried mixing in the chocolate and I’m a little worried that your dough will get overmixed if you add it now, but there’s only one way to find out! Just be careful to mix only as absolutely necessary, and you can always add the majority of the chocolate to the tops of the cookies, to avoid too mcuh additional mixing. Fingers crossed they’ll still be totally delicious. Let us know how it goes!
Mmm, cookies were still so good
I’ll me making these again this week!
Hello!
I was wondering if I could perhaps use all-purpose flower to replace to bread flower?
Hi there! Tessa explains this in the pink tip box above the recipe. Yes, you can, but the cookies won’t be as chewy or thick. Be sure to check out all her tips and tricks there before trying these delicious cookies 🙂 Happy baking!
I only have aluminum-free baking powder. 1) do I need to alter the recipe if I use it? 2) is the freshness test the same as you mention in your article on Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder?
BTW, I don’t usually ask questions, but I really enjoy how well you answer them. Your knowledge and passion really shows! <3 <3 Thank you.
Hi Joanne! I’m so glad you enjoy the way our team answers questions! We all try to give the best baking knowledge we possibly can! 🙂
To answer your question, it depends whether or not your aluminum-free baking powder is double-acting or not. Aluminum-free baking powders are sometimes only single-acting, which means they primarily react only with liquid, which makes them react more quickly than most double-acting powders. Double-acting baking powders react with both liquid and heat, which slows the process down, and means they will maintain leavening power, even after your dough has chilled for a length of time. Because these particular cookies contain melted, browned butter, it’s very important that the dough be chilled for at least 24 hours, not just to greatly improve their flavor, but also to improve their structure. You can learn more about chilling dough and the associated benefits here! I believe that this lengthy chill time, if using a single-acting baking powder, would kill most of the rising/spreading power the leavener had, and your cookies therefore might not turn out well. Of course, you’re more than welcome to experiment and see if they still turn out okay – perhaps they’d just be a bit less puffy/flatter, but they may still taste good! There is no adjustment that we are aware of, if using a single-acting baking powder, that would make the cookies turn out exactly as they should. You could instead try using Tessa’s Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, which doesn’t require refrigeration (although they are definitely better when the dough has been chilled a day or two).
If your aluminum-free baking powder is double-acting, no adjustments are needed and you can proceed with the recipe as written!
Aluminum-free baking powder can be tested for freshness the same way any baking powder can be. As you noted, this is explained in Tessa’s Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder article.
I hope this answers your questions! Feel free to reach back out if you have further questions – and let us know how your cookies turn out 🙂 Happy baking!
These are outstanding! And so, so easy. Love that they didn’t require a mixer. Definitely going to be on repeat at my house. I don’t keep bread flour on hand so I used all purpose for all of it. I made half after 20 mins of chilling and the other half after 24 hours of chilling. Don’t think I could tell the difference in a blind taste test. Both were soooo good. Brown butter for life!
tastes just like the whole foods brown butter cookie!
This is my new go to. First time didn’t refrigerate long but still were heavenly. The batch I just made I refrigerated not quite as long as you’re supposed to. I added Reese’s cups and Lindt white chocolate I had leftover to each and they’re super greasy— assuming because of those ingredient I added before baking. I think the truffle is a big oily and obviously the peanut butter is.
The rest of the dough is still in the fridge. Can I form it in to smaller balls and freeze for future use or is that not recommended?
Hi Ashley! Yes, you can absolutely roll the remaining dough into any sized balls you wish, and freeze in an airtight container for future baking. Learn more about that process (and how to bake from frozen) here! As for your greasiness issue, it could be that your mix-ins were a little greasier than regular chocolate chips, and it could also be from a shorter refrigeration period. A longer chilling time will give the flour more time to absorb the water content in the butter, creating thicker, less greasy cookies. If you continue to have issues with greasiness, I recommend trying out bleached flour (if that’s accessible to you – it absorbs more moisture than unbleached flours), and also perhaps try a different brand of butter, as some butters can be greasier than others. I hope something here helps, Ashley! Happy baking 🙂
These are my new favorite chocolate chip cookies. So good!
I rarely make the same cookie recipes more than once, but I have made these cookies four times now, and I am making more today to add to the cookies trays at one of our holiday parties.
When I took them to my son’s football banquet people were tracking me down to ask how to make them.
They are THAT good!
These are absolutely luxurious! I have the dough chilling now, but I needed to sample one by baking a few right away. Fabulous recipe!!
hi there! these look delicious 🙂 i was wondering if i can make these in the airfryer, and if so, what the temperature and size of the cookies should be? thank you!
Hi D! I’m sorry, but we have never tried baking any of our recipes in an air fryer! I think it would all depend on your specific model, size, etc, so you will need to do some experimenting. I’d recommend starting with one cookie and see how it goes 🙂 Be sure to chill your dough for at least 24-72 hours, too! Let us know how it goes!
I love this cookie recipe! I’ve made it several times and I never stop talking about it. However I do find they come out a little greasy, am I able to reduce the butter to make them less greasy?
Hi Jasmeaux! Hmm, these cookies shouldn’t be greasy. What kind of butter are you using? Butters with a high butterfat content (such as European style butters) can leave a slight greasy feel in some cookie recipes. Do you chill the dough for a few days, or at least 24 hours, before baking? Chilling for this extended period of time can help immeasurably with greasiness, as the flour has time to absorb more of the moisture, therefore making the cookie less greasy. You can read more about this here! Lastly, if you aren’t already, I recommend using a bleached flour for cookies. Bleached flour better absorbs moisture, compared to unbleached flour, which could also help combat this greasiness. Hopefully something here helped – and if not, feel free to reach back out so we can further troubleshoot together 🙂
I made these. The dough is sticky and went so flat in the oven. I froze tow balls for 2 hours and then baked them.
Hi Abeer! Unfortunately, these cookies need to sit in the fridge for 24 hours before baking, and freezing just can’t work the same magic! Find out more about why here!
These are great when made right, but many comments say they’re greasy/runny. It’s because there’s a typo in the weighed ingredients! AP Flour says 190 grams, but I think it should be about 300 grams! Please fix this, I’ve nearly ruined my batch twice when following the directions, but luckily I catch it before baking when I see how runny the dough was! I commented this once before but looks like the recipe was never fixed. Otherwise I love these cookies!
Hi Rachel! No, the recipe’s flour measurements are correct. 1 cup of flour weighs 127 grams, so the all-purpose flour measurement of 1 1/2 cups will weigh 190 grams (technically 190.5 grams), plus the additional cup / 127 grams of bread flour. After the mandatory chill period, these cookies will bake up beautifully soft and chewy, exactly as pictured. Be sure to check out all the tips and information in the pink tip box, above the recipe, for best results 🙂
I find this recipe too sweet. My throat hurt from the sweetness. Made me sad because I spent good money on the ingredients. Sorry.
Hi Martina! I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t enjoy these cookies. How do you measure your ingredients? By volume (using cups), or by weight (using a digital kitchen scale)? When measuring by volume, it’s so easy to mis-measure flour/sugar/etc and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe – and end up with a baked good with the wrong consistency, too flat, or too sweet. Tessa talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time, in this article here! I would also recommend using a darker or bittersweet chocolate in these, to balance the sweetness more, if you are sensitive to sweetness. I hope you give these cookies a try another time – they really are delicious! Happy baking 🙂
very yummy
Hello! If I wanted to make a double batch of these, would you recommend making 2 separate batches or can I double it at the same time/in the same bowl? Can’t wait to try these, thank you!
Hi Nicole! You could definitely double it, just use a large bowl to mix everything in and also keep in mind that your butter may take a bit longer to brown due to the increased quantity. I’d suggest to divide the dough in half before chilling as it will make the time coming back to room temperature to scoop your dough much quicker! Let us know what you think of this recipe when you give it a try 🙂
This looks lovely! I’m loving what feels like a recent trend towards “brown butter” style cookies that eliminate the need for creaming/mixers.
I might suggest that it could be much easier to scoop the cookies before they go in the fridge for a few days (rather than after) because the dough is softer then.
Keep up the awesome recipes !!
That’s a great option 🙂 Just make sure that your cookie scoops are in an airtight container so they don’t dry out! I hope you give our recipe a try, let us know if you do! 🙂
I have made this recipe many times and it’s simply the best chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever had!! I bake a lot of bread and only had bread flour in hand when I found this recipe. Serendipity!! Thank you for sharing it with the world. I now use brown butter in so many other recipes. It’s a game changer! Kerry Gold butter just got an upgrade. 🙂
These are awesome but I can taste the salt I didn’t chill them I did a taste batch
Hi! Can I reduce sugar in this recipe? How much can I cut without ruining the integrity of the cookies? Thanks!
Hi April! We really recommend sticking with the original quantity of sugar in any recipe, for many reasons. Sugar doesn’t just sweeten baked goods; it moistens, provides tender structure, assists with gluten formation, extends the shelf-life (meaning it will be fresh and moist longer), and assists in creating a taller and lighter finished product – just to name a few things! Reducing the sugar content in a recipe doesn’t just lower the level of sweetness; it messes with the recipe’s chemistry and creates a totally different baked good. If you wish to reduce the sugar, we recommend making the recipe as written once, and then slowly reducing from there, to a point where you are pleased with the results; but making it first as-written is key, so you have something to compare it to! Happy baking!
Very Good Cookie…Resting the dough is the best..Went 6 days and they were amazing..
This is by far our favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and brown butter recipe! Sooo sooo good! I will say, each time I make it though, they come out slightly different each time, my favorite version was when my dough appeared a bit more crumbly, not worrisome, just not as greasy looking (and I always weigh my ingredients). They seemed to spread less, but still chewy and gooey once baked!
My question is, would waiting for the brown butter and sugar mixture to cool completely/begin to solidify before mixing in egg result in that crumbly texture of dough?! I can’t figure it out 😉
Hi Jess! I’m so glad to hear that you love these cookies! So strange that your cookies are different each time!! Have you used any different ingredients between batches? Or even different egg sizes? Seemingly slight variances can have a huge impact on a cookie’s outcome – particularly egg size, flour type (even brands of flours, too), and type of butter (store brand vs quality butter vs European butter). It could also be how much you are browning your butter each time. The browner the butter gets, the more water is evaporated, so the batches you’re finding are crumblier may have had the butter browned longer/more because they therefore contain less moisture. The cooling time can have some effect on the outcome, but I wouldn’t expect it to have as much of a variance as the other things I listed here! I hope this helps! Happy baking 🙂
Literally the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve ever found. Every time I make this recipe I get so many compliments.
I made these and they spread soooo thin in the oven. I followed the recipe exactly and actually made a quadruple batch of dough to freeze so I really hate to lose all those ingredients. Could I still salvage the dough? It’s chilling in the fridge now as I made it this morning. Could I still add more flour or something else to make them spread less or do I have to scrap it?
Hi Avie! Oh no, I’m so sorry to hear that these cookies didn’t turn out as you had hoped! Although it’s hard to say exactly what may have happened here without having backed alongside you, I do have a few thoughts here. Firstly, did you refrigerate the dough for at least 24 hours before baking the first batch? Here at Handle the Heat, we advise you chill pretty much all cookie doughs for 24 – 72 hours to maximize the flavor! Think of it like marinating meats, but for cookies! All that depth of flavor happens while the dough rests. It’s especially important for browned butter or melted butter doughs, as it’s so important to give the dough a chance to set up properly in the fridge, before baking.
Also, how do you measure your ingredients? By volume (using cups), or by weight (using a digital kitchen scale)? When measuring by volume, it’s so easy to mis-measure flour/sugar/etc and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe. Tessa talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time, in this article here!
What type of pan are you baking on? Different materials of pans conduct heat differently, so some are much better suited to cookie baking than others. Tessa shows the differences between a variety of baking pans in this article here!
I just want to mention your leavening agent. If your baking/soda powder are not fresh, they won’t do their jobs and your baked goods can not rise properly, s[read too much, fall after baking, and much more. Tessa talks about the science behind leavening agents, and how to test for leavener freshness, in this article here!
Hopefully something here helped and you can salvage the rest of your cookies!! Feel free to reach back out to us with any further questions – we are always happy to help!! 🙂
So good. They are very large and soft so how do you store them since you can’t stack them
Hi there! I’m sorry, maybe I’m not understanding your question? The chocolate on top of these should solidify once cooled, so you should be able to stack them to store for a couple of days!
Hi, do you have a recipe video for these brown butter chocolate chip cookies? Thanks
Hi Marie! Yes, we do! Unfortunately our “watch video” button up the top is not working (we are working on reformatting our recipe posts, so hopefully it will work soon!), but if you scroll down just a little bit, the video is underneath the second photo, under the heading “Recipe Video”. Let us know what you think of this recipe when you make it!! Happy baking 🙂
I forgot the cooling step 🙁 I didn’t let the sugar and browned butter mixture cool all the way before adding the eggs and vanilla, but I did let that mixture cool in the fridge for about 15 minutes before combining it with the flour mixture.. did I ruin them? Should I not even bake them? lol
Hi Britany! The reason we cool the sugar/brown butter mixture is just so we don’t cook our eggs when adding the hot butter! Too much heat introduced to the eggs cooks them, and you end up with gross, sweet scrambled eggs!! It’s been a few days now, so if you did not bake them yet, and did not freeze the dough, I would advise throwing out the dough now, as it’s probably been sitting in the fridge too long and may have spoiled at this point … but I hope you decided to roll the dice and bake them anyway! Hopefully you were pleasantly surprised with the results 🙂
Hi these look delicious!
Could you please help with a substitute for egg in this recipe? Thank you
Hi Srishtti! Unfortunately, we do not test our recipes with egg replacements or substitutes. Eggs bring so much structure, moisture, color, flavor, tenderization and more to baked goods, and we have not found anything that can replace the real thing. I know others have experimented and found something that works for them, so feel free to try out different things and see what works for you. Good luck! 🙂
Hi I was wondering what if I put my cookie dough in the fridge for more than 72 hours?
Because I’m thinking of making them and also freezing them in the freezer, would that be a problem?
Hi Marlenn! It depends how much longer your cookie dough was in the fridge! We generally advise that cookie dough only sits in the fridge for 24-72 hours because exceeding that window can dry out the cookie dough — but also, if it’s much past 72 hours, you run the risk of spoilage! If the dough was covered well, or in an airtight container, and it hasn’t been sitting much past 72 hours, you should be fine to bake some and freeze the rest. Smell them and make sure they smell good, and inspect them carefully. If you see any signs of mold, or if the edges have started to discolor and turn darker, throw them away! Good luck!
I LOVE this recipe. My kids aren’t huge fans of chocolate chips can I just leave them out or would I need to find a new recipe or make changes to this one?
Hi Sandra! You are welcome to experiment without the chocolate chips, but we have never tried this, so I can’t say for sure how that will go. The cookies will very likely spread much more and be thinner without the chocolate chips, but it may work just fine. Let us know how it goes if you give this a try – or alternatively, I highly recommend Tessa’s Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookie recipe – they’re SO amazing. Happy baking 🙂
Any suggestions for a gluten free sub on the bread flour? I am thinking about trying tapioca starch, but I’m so excited about this recipe that I don’t want to mess it up!
Hi Jackie! I’m sorry, we don’t test gluten free substitutes for our recipes, but The Loopy Whisk (she has a website and is also in Instagram) is a great resource for GF recipes. I’d suggest checking her out/giving her a follow! Good luck 🙂
Is it ok to use convection oven to bake cookies?
Hi Cindy! Yes, absolutely! Just drop the temperature 25°F, and begin to check for doneness earlier, at least 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through the recommended baking time. If you like, you can read more about the differences between ovens here, in Tessa’s “Ovens 101” article!
I love these cookies! The brown butter flavour is amazing. Question. Could I form the dough into balls right away and then chill the dough balls overnight before baking? Instead of chilling the full block of dough and then forming into balls? This would save me time when ready bake and I think it would work? Thought?
Hi Christy! Here at Handle the Heat, we prefer to chill the entire mass of dough. I know this makes scooping the balls of dough harder when it’s time to bake; however, by allowing all of the dough to chill together, you’re allowing the flavours to marinate more deeply. Also, smaller, pre-portioned balls of dough tend to dry out faster in the fridge. We recommend chilling in one big batch for 24-72 hours, and then allow the dough to sit at room temperature until it’s malleable enough to portion out (about an hour, depending on the temperature of your kitchen). I hope this helps!
Thank you, Kiersten @ Handle the Heat
I love this recipe. For anyone who struggled with scooping the chilled dough — I usually just chill it for about 15-20 minutes and then scoop the cookies onto a tray. Then I chill the dough balls for the full 24 hours before baking. That way no muscling through hard cookie dough later and they are all set for you when you’re ready to bake.
Hi Beth. I’m glad you found a way that works well for you, and that you love this recipe! Thanks for the comment!
I’m gonna have the unpopular opinion, but I found these to be way too sweet and have too much chocolate. Waiting for a report back from my sugar loving friends, but so far they’ve been reviewed with “these are fine”. I’m looking for “OMG!!!”
I do like the no mixer aspect, as when I visit family they don’t have any mixers, so I will keep it in the back pocket for that reason alone. But will definitely cut back on the chocolate.
Hi Willow! I’m sorry to hear that these cookies were not as you had hoped! Just a thought: did you brown the butter until it was a fairly deep brown, and the bits on the bottom were amber? I find if the butter is browned until that deep brown stage, the nutty toffee, butterscotchy flavors are a nice offset to the sweetness. You could also try a darker, bittersweet chocolate chip/wafer, instead of the semi-sweet. You can also (of course) cut down on the chocolate, as you said, if you prefer! Please let us know if you would like to troubleshoot any further – we are always happy to help 🙂
How many grams should the brown butter weight once it’s melted? Thanks! Looks delicious
Hi Gigi! With any HTH recipe that contains brown butter, you don’t need to weigh it after browning. We take the evaporated water content of the butter into account when writing the recipe. Can’t wait for you to try this, let us know what you think!
Hi! I can’t wait to try this recipe, but I have a question about the butter. When you brown the butter, it reduces the amount to less than original 227 grams that is listed. So should I just use what is left after browning the butter which is likely to be much less than 227 grams, or should it be 227 grams of melted brown butter that goes into the batter? Thanks in advance!
Hi Gigi! Yes, use what is left after browning the butter, you won’t need to make any adjustments to the amount 🙂 Let us know what you think when you give this recipe a try!
Hii i wanna know is the bread flour compulsory.
Hi there! Please check out the pink tip box above the recipe for more details 🙂
I have made thousands of cookies in my life, and probably a dozen different chocolate chip cookie recipes. This one sits as one of the better ones that I have tried (and my taste testers certainly enjoyed them, too!), but I don’t think I’ll be making this one again. I followed the recipe to the letter, including letting everything cool down before adding the dry ingredients, and leaving in the fridge for 24 hours. It was incredibly easy to mix with just a silicone spatula (this may be the first cookie recipe I didn’t use my stand mixer for!).
I use a kitchen scale for every recipe (been using one for almost five years now!), I buy good quality ingredients, and I know how to measure an oven temperature. None of that was the problem.
The problem with this recipe is that the cookie dough turns out like cement. It took me almost 15 minutes to scoop 30 cookies out of this recipe, and that’s after leaving the cookie dough on the counter for an hour to soften up! (I tried scooping after 30 minutes, but it was rock-solid still. One hour didn’t make a difference at all!) I bruised my wrist and gave myself welts on my hands trying to scoop this cookie dough. My husband didn’t have any more luck than I did.
I was worried that the terrible dough would mean terrible cookies, but to my surprise they turned out wonderful. Everyone loved them. I just don’t enjoy getting injured while baking. I love this recipe, but there are so many other chocolate chip cookie recipes out there that don’t involve bodily harm, so I most likely won’t be making this again.
Thanks for your feedback, Lauren! Cookie dough definitely hardens up quite a bit after refrigerating overnight due to the butter content, and the length of time it can take to soften up depends on the temperature of your kitchen. Feel free to place the dough in a warmer place in your home to help speed up the process, but I”m so glad that the flavor and texture of these cookies turned out great!
Hi can I substitute blueberries in this recipe?
We haven’t tried that! Let us know how it goes if you do.
I have a half stick of butter I’d like to use. Would it be possible to scale this recipe to 1.5 sticks of butter instead of 2, or would you suggest I just buy another full stick?
Hi Shina! For best results, I wouldn’t suggest reducing the amount of butter. Decreasing by that much will affect the texture and flavor of your cookies. If you’re not able to use 2 sticks, I’d recommend halving the recipe instead and using only 1 stick. Or to include that additional half stick, you’d need to increase all of the ingredients by 1/4 amount (though that gets a little more complicated!). I hope that helps!