Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Ridiculously flavorful! SO much depth of flavor without being overly sweet.
Texture: Incredibly chewy and gooey in the middle and a little crunchy at the edges. Perfection.
Ease: Browning the butter is an extra step, but I find the process fun and it adds SO much flavor. Other than that, this recipe is simple!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Thick, chewy cookies with unparalleled depth of flavor.
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Loaded with rich and nutty brown butter, butterscotch flavors, and dark chocolate, these Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are absolute perfection.
I have hundreds of cookie recipes on my site, but there’s something extra special about cookies made with brown butter. It provides an unparalleled depth of flavor that’s such a joy to eat.
Chocolate chunk cookies can easily become too ooey-gooey, so while testing and tweaking this recipe, I made sure these cookies were the perfect balance of gooey, chewy, and crunchy.
What Makes Cookies Chewy, Crisp, or Cakey?
My free guide reveals the ingredients and tweaks that matter.
Best of all? These cookies are super simple to make – you don’t even need an electric mixer!
Reader Love
this is the easiest, most delicious cookie i’ve ever made! my sister and i have been on the quest to find the perfect cookie, and this blows our former #1 (the jacque torres’s 72 hour cookie) out of the water. amazing!
–
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Perfect Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Browning the Butter
Brown butter is made by melting butter and then continuing to cook it until the milk solids in the butter become toasted, creating a deeply nutty, caramelized, butterscotch flavor that perfectly enhances chocolate chip cookies.
Brown butter is super simple to make – just be sure not to walk away from it as it can burn quickly. Be sure to scrape all the brown bits into the mixing bowl as that’s where the flavor lives!
Learn all my tips and tricks for browning butter in my How to Brown Butter article here.
Do I Have to Use Bread Flour?
Bread flour contains a higher percentage of protein than all-purpose flour, adding a ton of chewy texture to these Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, so I strongly recommend using it if possible.
If you don’t have bread flour, just use all-purpose flour in place of the bread flour in the recipe, but note that you will lose some chewiness.
⭐ Tessa’s Tip: 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. Too much flour also makes the cookies go stale more quickly.
The Sugar
This recipe uses the perfect amount of sugar to ensure moist, chewy cookies with the perfect amount of spread, without being too sweet. A high ratio of dark brown sugar makes these cookies moist and chewy, with a rich depth of flavor.
If needed, you can use light brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar (1:1 ratio), but your cookies will lose a little bit of moisture and flavor.
Whatever you do, don’t reduce the sugar in these cookies. Sugar does so much more beyond sweetening – learn more about sugar’s role in baking here. Note that cookies taste sweeter when served warm.
What Chocolate is Best for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies?
- This recipe calls for both regular semi-sweet chocolate chips and chocolate baking wafers.
- I used the Guittard brand of semisweet chocolate wafers. You can find these at larger supermarkets, specialty kitchen stores, or online.
- 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.
- I’ve also enjoyed using Guittard Super Cookie Chips for this recipe.
- If you can’t find baking wafers/feves or super chips, feel free to use 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips instead.
- You can also use blocks of baking chocolate, chopped coarsely, if preferred.
- Feel free to use milk chocolate or dark chocolate instead if preferred – just note that this will alter the final cookie’s sweetness levels. Learn more about Chocolate in Baking here.
- Some readers have felt this recipe uses too much chocolate. There’s no such thing in my book, but feel free to scale back the amount slightly. Note that scaling back too much may result in thinner cookies.
Topping Cookies with Flaky 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:
- Measure correctly: Always use a digital kitchen scale to weigh your ingredients, especially flour. Incorrectly measured flour can lead to cookies that are tough, crumbly, dry, too thick, or just blah.
- Correct temperature: 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.
- The baking pan: Use a quality light-colored baking pan for baking cookies. 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.
- Leavening agents: Make sure your baking soda and baking powder are fresh and active to ensure your cookies spread and rise perfectly. Learn more about these two leaveners and how to test for freshness in my Baking Soda vs Baking Powder article here.
- Don’t overbake: Bake these cookies just until the edges are set and golden brown. The middles may still look a little ‘wet’ – that’s okay! The pan’s residual heat will continue to cook them through to perfection.
- Chill the dough: 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 cookies improve as the dough chills. The flour is able to absorb the liquid in the dough, for thicker cookies, and the flavors intensify.
If you don’t want to wait for your cookies, feel free to bake off a few after chilling for at least two hours, just to satisfy the craving, and bake the rest after 24 hours!
Freezing does not work the same as chilling, so there are no shortcuts here. A minimum of 24 hours (and up to 72 hours) in the fridge is required to develop the flavor and texture fully. Learn more about how and why to chill cookie dough 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 large 3-Tablespoon cookie scoop. This size 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 medium 1.5-Tablespoon cookie scoop and reduce the baking time to about 10 minutes. Note that the texture will be affected with a smaller scoop of dough.
Portioning the Cookie Dough Before or After Chilling?
Both work; it depends on which option works best for you!
If my fridge space is more limited, I’ll refrigerate the entire mass of dough because it takes up less room and is more easily stacked with other containers in the fridge. Sometimes I’m in a rush when making the dough and don’t have time to portion before chilling.
However, refrigerating the entire mass means you need to allow plenty of time for the dough to come to room temperature before portioning. Do not scoop cold dough, you will break your scoop. For this reason, the easiest option is to scoop, then chill.
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.
Can I Freeze Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough?
Yes – but make sure you chill the dough for 24-72 hours 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 freezer bag and freeze for up to 6 weeks. This way, you can bake off small batches of fresh cookies whenever you like! 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
- Marbled Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Brown Butter Dulce de Leche Cookie Cups
- Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
See ALL of my cookie recipes + cookie Baking Science tips here!
Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Ingredients
- 2 sticks (227 grams) unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) 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 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 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.
Recipe Notes
The Ultimate Cookie Handbook
Learn the sweet SCIENCE of cookie baking in a fun, visual way to customize your own recipes frustration-free. Plus, my best 50+ homemade cookies!
This post was originally published in 2015 and recently updated with recipe improvements and new photos. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
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!