Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Ridiculously flavorful! I love it when desserts have a beautiful depth of flavor instead of just being sweet.
Texture: Incredibly chewy and gooey in the middle, crunchy at the edges. Absolute perfection.
Ease: Browning the butter is an extra step but I find the process fun and adds so much flavor. Other than that, this recipe is simple!
Pros: Amazing cookie recipe.
Cons: None!
Would I make this again? Absolutely yes.
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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 cookie1
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 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. 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.
Sugar
A high ratio of dark brown sugar makes these Brown Butter 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. Please don’t reduce the sugar in these cookies – learn why here.
Chocolate
- This Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie 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 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 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. I love the salty-sweet combination, and I think it really adds something special to these Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.
My Best Tips for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies:
- I always use a 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Don’t skip the chill period!! More on that just below.
Chilling the 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.
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.
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 Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough?
Yes – but make sure you chill the dough first, before freezing. Learn why 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 AMAZING Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes:
- Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies (one of my most popular recipes!)
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Black & White Chipper Cookies
- S’mores Cookies
See ALL of my chocolate chip cookie recipes + tips & insights into the SCIENCE of cookie baking here!
Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
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.
Recipe Notes
This post was originally published in 2015 and recently updated with recipe improvements and new photos. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
September Baking Challenge
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:
Hi Tessa,
Any substitute for bread flour?
What is baking wafers?
I just love the flavor of browned butter! Before your recipes I would have just dismissed this thinking I didn’t have brown butter or that it sounds rather expensive. Silly to say but honestly I didn’t know much about baking. But when I came across your recipes I have never felt more confident. You basically teach us everything we need to know within your recipes. I love it!! Brown butter is now my favorite! I love the nutty flavor it brings and the crackling effect it gives cookies and brownies.
Hi! I hope you’ll answer me I have a question which is can I use bread mix flour instead of bread flour?
Hi, your original recipe called for a teaspoon of baking powder and a quarter teaspoon of baking soda, the revised recipe calls for reverse. Wouldn’t these cookies spread too much because they are made with melted butter and baking soda helps cookies spread?
I made the Brow Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies! They look FABULOUS! And sooo yummy!
Hi Tessa,
Just wanted to clarify that we’re really supposed to add the sugars RIGHT AFTER taking the brown butter off the heat? What would the difference be if we add it once the butter is completely cool instead? Can’t wait to try these!
Adding the sugar to the hot butter helps it dissolve better so you get that slightly crackled appearance on the tops of the baked cookies 🙂
Best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever! It’s not that different from the Tasty 101 recipe, except yours utilizes the proper amount of flour (seriously, the Tasty recipe is a full 3/4 cup short) and they instruct to reconstitute the water in the brown butter, and theirs doesn’t utilize baking powder. When I made your recipe, I made both small and large cookies, and both were prefectly crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. Love it so much and I’ll be sharing the hell out of it with my family
A couple of modifications I made: I don’t keep brown sugar around because I don’t use it frequently enough, so swapped out the 250g brown sugar for an additional 200g white sugar plus 50g molasses (somehow making BS at home results in more molasses flavor, which is good for chocolate chip cookies), and I used chopped up chocolate bars for all the chocolate chips.
Which one did you like better? the tasty 101 recipe or this?
i must leave the batter so it reach the rom temperature?
I have made these five times in the last three weeks. I pass a few to my neighbors every time I make them and they always say they are the best cookies they’ve ever had. Make sure to salt them at the end!!
At the top of The recipe It says a 24 hour chill is not required But then in the instructions it says to chill for 24 hours…Can you please clarify?
If I add walnuts, will I need to adjust the recipe at all?
I would probably replace some of the chocolate chips with the walnuts so you don’t have too many mix-ins.