Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are pure heaven in a cookie.

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 chip cookie.

These Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are absolute perfection because they are loaded with rich and nutty brown butter, butterscotch flavors, and pure chocolate.

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.

Sprinkle of Science

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. Be sure to scrape all the brown bits into the mixing bowl – that’s where the flavor lives! Learn all my tips and tricks for browning butter in my How to Brown Butter article here.

Do You Have to Use Bread Flour?

You don’t absolutely have to use bread flour, but it adds a ton of chewy texture to these Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, so I always have some on hand. If you don’t have bread flour, then just use all-purpose flour in place of the bread flour in the recipe, but note that you will lose some chewiness. Make sure to weigh your flour accurately. If you add too much flour, your cookies may end up dry, dense, or crumbly and barely spread.

The Sugar in Brown Butter Cookies

A high ratio of dark brown sugar makes these Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies moist, chewy, and rich in flavor. I love the depth of flavor, but if you don’t have any on hand, you can use light brown sugar – but your cookies will lose a little bit of awesomeness. Whatever you do, don’t reduce the sugar in these cookies. Sugar does so much more beyond sweetening baking – learn more about sugar’s role in baking here.

What Chocolate is Best for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies?

• This Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe calls for both regular semi-sweet 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, and even some larger supermarkets.
• You could alternatively 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 baking wafers/feves, feel free to use 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips instead.
• You can use milk chocolate or dark chocolate instead, if preferred – just note that this will alter the final cookie’s sweetness levels.

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. I love the salty-sweet combination, and I think it really adds something special to these Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Tips for Perfect Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1. I always use a digital kitchen scale to weigh my ingredients, especially flour. Incorrectly measured flour can lead to cookies that are tough, crumbly, dry, too thick, or just blah.
2. I also swear by using an oven thermometer to ensure baking accuracy. Most ovens run a little hot or cold, so checking the temperature with an oven thermometer ensures the best cookies possible.
3. Use a quality unlined light-colored baking tray, like these ones. Line with parchment paper for best results. The pan you bake on has a huge impact on your cookies. Learn more about the best and worst baking pans here.
4. Don’t skip the chill period!! More on that just below.

Chilling the Cookie Dough

I know it’s annoying to have to wait to enjoy cookies, but I promise you it’s SO worth it. Both the taste and texture of these Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies improve as the dough chills. Freezing does not work the same as chilling, so there are no shortcuts here. Learn more about how and why to chill cookie doughs in this article here.

What Size to Make Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies?

I’ve found these Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies 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.

Portioning the Cookie Dough Before vs. After Chilling

• I recommend following the directions in the recipe for chilling the dough in one big mass, and then portioning the dough because it prevents the dough from drying out while chilling.
• However, if you’re finding it too challenging to scoop the Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie dough at this point, feel free to scoop before chilling.
• There’s a bit more risk that your dough will dry out in the fridge this way, so just be sure to store the cookie dough balls in an airtight container or good quality ziptop bag, to prevent them from drying out.
• Then simply bake the pre-portioned Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies straight from the fridge after the 24-72 hour chill time!

Can I Freeze Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough?

Yes – but make sure you chill the dough first, before freezing. Learn why chilling the cookie dough first is important here. I like to portion out the dough and place it on a baking sheet, then freeze just until solid. Transfer the frozen dough balls to a ziptop bag and store in the freezer for up to 6 weeks. This way, you can bake off small batches of fresh cookies whenever you feel like it! Check out my full post on how to freeze cookie dough and bake from frozen here.

More Cookie Recipes You’ll Love:

• Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies (one of my most popular recipes!)
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Black & White Chipper Cookies
• S’mores Cookies
• Brown Butter Dulce de Leche Cookie Cups

See ALL of my chocolate chip cookie recipes + tips & insights into the SCIENCE of cookie baking here!

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How to Make

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

By: Tessa Arias

4.87 from 336 votes

Yield: 25 large cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes mins

Chilling: 1 day d

Cook Time: 35 minutes mins

Total Time: 1 day d 50 minutes mins

Review Print SaveSaved!

Chewy, gooey, and crunchy Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are loaded with flavor and will surely become your new favorite cookie recipe! No mixer required.

Ingredients 

• ▢ 2 sticks (227 grams) unsalted butter
• ▢ 1/2 (100 grams) cup granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 1/4 cups (250 grams) lightly packed dark brown sugar
• ▢ 1 1/2 cups (190 grams) all-purpose flour
• ▢ 1 cup (127 grams) bread flour
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ▢ 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• ▢ 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
• ▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla
• ▢ 1 1/2 cups (255 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
• ▢ 1 cup (140 grams) semisweet chocolate baking wafers (from Guittard or Valrhona)

Instructions

• In a small saucepan set over medium heat, melt the butter. Swirling the pan occasionally, continue to cook the butter. It should become foamy with audible cracking and popping noises. Once the crackling stops continue to swirl the pan until the butter develops a nutty aroma and brown bits start to form at the bottom. Once the bits are amber in color, about 2 to 3 minutes after the popping stops, remove from heat and pour into a mixing bowl. Add in the sugars, stir, then set aside to cool completely.
• In a medium bowl combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
• To the browned butter mixture, add the eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir with a rubber spatula until combined. Slowly stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and wafers.
• Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours but no more than 72 hours. Let dough sit at room temperature just until it is soft enough to scoop.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Divide the dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls and drop onto prepared baking sheets, leaving about 3 inches between each piece of dough to spread.
• Bake for 11 to 13 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

Show us!If you make this recipe, be sure to snap a picture and share it on Instagram with #handletheheat so we can all see!

Recipe Notes

Learn all my tips and tricks for browning butter in my How to Brown Butter article here.

This post was originally published in 2015 and recently updated with recipe improvements and new photos. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.

Previous Baking Challenge

This recipe was one of our recent picks for the Handle the Heat Baking Challenge. Every month, we select a recipe, you make it, snap a photo, and enter to win PRIZES!

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