Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Thick and chewy, full of milk chocolate chips and gorgeous nutty caramelized flavors these brown butter chocolate chip cookies are fabulous. Your new favorite cookie recipe! Step-by-step photos teach you how to make this chocolate chip cookie recipe!

this recipe

When I first discovered the power of brown butter a few years ago I fell in love. The flavor of butter is ignited and spectacular.

I made these cookies last night. So as I am writing this post at 9am I feel the need to eat a cookie or five to really tell you how fabulous this brown butter chocolate chip cookie is.

A chewy, caramel, nutty, soft chocolate chip cookie is what this recipe makes. It is a go-to recipe for me.

I love to use a combination of milk, semi-sweet, and dark chocolate for the cookies!

Let's get to the recipe.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Recipe Card
• Recipe Ratings & Comments

Ingredients

Here are the ingredients needed:

• All-Purpose Flour. I cannot stress enough how critical it is that you measure your flour properly. Too much or too little flour can drastically effec the texture and flavor of the cookies. I highly recomend measurin gy grams with a scale but if you must measure by cups then use a spoon to scoop the flour and add to your cup then use a knife to level it off.
• Baking Soda. This chemical leavening agent helps the cookies rise and spread. Make sure your baking soda is still working.
• Baking Powder. While most cookie recipes call for just baking soda, I prefer to use a combination of baking soda and baking powder. I find I get the best chewy but crispier edge cookie.
• Salt. This ingredient helps all of the other ingredients profiles shine through as well as helps balance out the sweetness.
• Salted Butter. You will brown 5oz of the butter and add that to 2oz of diced cold butter. I prefer to use salted because cookies are so sweet, but you can use unsalted too! 
• Granulated Sugar. White sugar helps cookies spread and sweetnes them up beautifully.
• Light Brown Sugar. Brown sugar adds more moisture, chewyness and flavor to the cookies.
• Pure Vanilla Extract. The key to a great CCC cookie in my opinion! Dont' use the imiation stuff!
• Eggs. You'll need one whole egg and one egg yolk. The extra egg yolk provides more richenss and fat to the cookie dough creating a chewier cookie.
• Chocolate. You can use chocolate Chips or chocolate chunks. My favorite combo is the Trader Joe's pound plus bars chopped and the Callebaut Chocolate Callets.
• Sea Salt. I like to add a sprinkling of Fleur de Sel, sea salt to the cookis when they come out of the oven!

Instructions

Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together and set aside. To brown the butter cook the first 5oz (10 tablespoons) of the butter over low to medium heat. Swirl it every so often. The process will take around 5 minutes, depending on the size of your pan. For a detailed process check out this post on how to brown butter. 

Continue cooking the butter until you get a nutty aroma. The scent is nutty yet caramel-y.

Pour the brown butter into the bowl of an electric mixer or a heatproof bowl. Mix in the last 4 tablespoons of butter diced into small pieces. Mix until completely dissolved in the brown butter.

Add in the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix until fully combined. Add in egg and egg yolk until combined for about 30 seconds.

At this point, you will have a pretty dark brown color, mix for another minute and a half to two minutes until you achieve a much lighter color. 

Mix in the flour mixture until fully combined.

Fold in chocolate chips. Turn the oven on to 375F/1 C. While the oven preheats let the dough sit and "marinate" for at least 10 minutes, this gives the flour time to rehydrate and the cookie dough to meld more together.

When ready use a medium cookie scoop to portion the cookie dough. I bake 8 cookies per half sheet pan lined with a silicone liner or parchment paper. 

Bake for 9-12 minutes or until golden brown but still look a bit undercooked then let cool on the tray for 5 minutes sitting on top of a wire rack then transfer the cookies directly onto the wire rack to cool completely. Store in an air-tight container for up to 5 days

I clumped my dough into 2 tbsp-ish mounds. I don't roll the cookie dough into a ball, instead make it taller. This creates a thicker cookie! Score!

Bake for around 10 minutes. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack. And try one or two hot because NOTHING beats a fresh hot brown butter chocolate chip cookie.

More cookie recipes

Check out this post on my Cookie Baking Tips

Make sure to join our Newsletter and follow us on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter.

★★★★★ Please let me know if you make this recipe by leaving a star rating and comment below!

Print

Recipe Card