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This rich, buttery brown butter chocolate chip cookie has a chewy center and crisp edges and highlights the nutty richness of browned butter. The caramel-like flavor perfectly complements pockets of melted, gooey chocolate. These browned butter chocolate chip cookies are the ultimate upgrade to the classic chocolate chip cookie.
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
I am obsessed with brown butter chocolate chip cookies. A simple step of melting and browning the butter on a stove will transform your chocolate chip cookies. It is a game-changing trick to create toffee-flavored, rich buttery cookies by just elevating one ingredient. It is truly remarkable! These are the best chocolate chip cookies!
I have been making brown butter chocolate chip cookies for at least 15 years and they have become one of my signature cookies. I shared my MJ’s Top Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies, all made in one saucepan, which is one of my go-to cookie recipes.
Since I am always playing in the kitchen with different ingredients and methods, I wanted to work on melting and browning the butter until it is a perfectly warm amber color and letting it chill in the refrigerator before creaming the butter and sugars in a mixer. Since some of the liquids can evaporate when browning the butter, I needed to compensate for that. I decided to add one egg yolk, which adds both liquid and fat.
Ingredients:
- Butter (melted until an amber color with browned bits on the bottom of pan)
- Dark Brown Sugar (may use golden brown sugar)
- Sugar
- Eggs + Egg Yolk
- Vanilla Extract
- Flour
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Chocolate Chips or Chocolate Chunks
What type of chocolate should I use?
Use high-quality chocolate chips or chunks for the best flavor. Semi-sweet or milk chocolate complements the richness of the browned butter. I like to use a mix of semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips. My favorite brands are Guittard and Ghirardelli.
How to Brown Butter:
This is an important step. The butter will go through different phases. It will begin to melt and bubble. Take a wooden spoon or spatula and stir often and around the sides of the pan. Let the butter melt and watch for it to begin changing colors from a creamy yellow to a deep amber yellow.
The butter will begin to foam and this is why it is important to stir often so you can see what is going on below the foam. Small brown bits will begin to form and that will be a signal that the butter is officially browned. Butter can burn quickly so watch carefully. It is better to pull off of the heat a little early instead of browning too long and risk burning it.
Since you want the butter to chill quickly, pour it into a large bowl and place in the refrigerator. Use a spatula to get every bit of butter out of the pan. Every bit of butter matters! Let it chill in the refrigerator for at least 40 minutes.
Creaming the Brown Butter and Sugars:
This is an integral step as it creates a smooth and creamy dough and gets rid of the graininess from the sugars. It needs to be creamed for at least 4-5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl often. The eggs and egg yolk can be added one at a time, mixing for 30 seconds after each addition.
Why is chilling the cookie dough important?
If time is on your side, an easy way to make chocolate chip cookies even BETTER is to chill the cookie dough. The chilling process is important because it helps the ingredients marry together and you end up with a richer chocolate chip cookie. Chilling the dough allows the fats to solidify, which means your cookies will spread less and have a thicker, chewier texture. It also enhances the flavor and texture of the cookies.
The dough doesn’t spread as much in the oven so you end up with a chewier cookie with crisp edges. Trust me on this one, chilling the dough is worth the sacrifice!
How to make Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies:
- Place butter in large pot or deep skillet. Melt butter over medium-low heat. The butter will go through different phases. It will begin to melt and bubble. Take a wooden spoon or spatula and stir often and around the sides of the pan. Let the butter melt and watch for it to begin changing colors from a creamy yellow to a deep amber yellow.The butter will begin to foam and this is why it is important to stir often so you can see what is going on below the foam. Small brown bits will begin to form and that will be a signal that the butter is officially browned. Butter can burn quickly so watch carefully. It is better to pull off of the heat a little early instead of browning too long and risk burning it.Since you want the butter to chill quickly, pour it into a large bowl and place in the refrigerator. Use a spatula to get every bit of butter out of the pan. Let it chill in the refrigerator for about 40-60 minutes.
- Pour chilled butter into mixing bowl. Add brown sugar and sugar and cream for 4-5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl often.
- Add eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each addition. Stir in vanilla.
- Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir just until combined, avoid overmixing. Stir in chocolate chips.
- If time allows, wrap cookie dough tightly and let chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour. If time allows, chill for 24-48 hours.
- Preheat oven to 385 degrees. Place parchment paper liners or Silpat liners on baking sheets. Roll balls of cookie dough and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 9-10 minutes or until edges starts to become a light golden color.
FAQ’s:
Store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you want to keep them longer, freeze the baked cookies or freeze the dough. You can freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months. Scoop the dough into balls, freeze them on a baking sheet, then transfer to a freezer-safe bag. You can also freeze baked cookies and reheat them in a low oven for a few minutes. To enjoy frozen cookies, let them thaw at room temperature or warm them in the oven.
The cookies are done when the edges are set and golden brown, but the centers are still soft and slightly underbaked. They will continue to firm up as they cool on the baking sheet. If you prefer crispier cookies, bake them until the entire surface is golden.
Substitutions:
Can I use regular butter instead of browned butter?
Yes, but browned butter adds a deep, nutty flavor that elevates the cookies. If you use regular butter, the cookies will still be delicious but have less toffee flavor.
Can I use light, golden brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar?
Absolutely! The dark brown sugar creates a chewier cookie but both brown sugars work well in this recipe.
Here are some of my favorite baking tools:
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If you love chocolate chip cookies, check out these other popular recipes:
- MJ’s Top Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Charmina’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
More Popular Cookie Recipes:
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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup Butter (melted until an amber color with browned bits on the bottom of pan)
- 1 cup Dark Brown Sugar (may use golden brown sugar)
- 1/2 cup Sugar
- 2 large Eggs
- 1 large Egg Yolk
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 2 1/4 cup Flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 2 cups Chocolate Chips (may use more and a combination of chopped up chocolate bars and chips)
Instructions
To Brown Butter:
- Place butter in large pot or deep skillet. Melt butter over medium-low heat. The butter will go through different phases. It will begin to melt and bubble. Take a wooden spoon or spatula and stir often and around the sides of the pan. Let the butter melt and watch for it to begin changing colors from a creamy yellow to a deep amber yellow.The butter will begin to foam and this is why it is important to stir often so you can see what is going on below the foam. Small brown bits will begin to form and that will be a signal that the butter is officially browned. Butter can burn quickly so watch carefully. It is better to pull off of the heat a little early instead of browning too long and risk burning it.Since you want the butter to chill quickly, pour it into a large bowl and place in the refrigerator. Use a spatula to get every bit of butter out of the pan. Let it chill in the refrigerator for about 40-60 minutes.
- Pour chilled butter into mixing bowl. Add brown sugar and sugar and cream for 4-5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl often.
- Add eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each addition. Stir in vanilla.
- Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir just until combined, avoid overmixing. Stir in chocolate chips.
- If time allows, wrap cookie dough tightly and let chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour. If time allows, chill for 24-48 hours.
- Preheat oven to 385 degrees. Place parchment paper liners or Silpat liners on baking sheets. Roll balls of cookie dough and place on cookie sheet. Bake for 9-10 minutes or until edges starts to become a light golden color.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Happy Baking, my friends! Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter below. Thank you for following along!
Hi! I love this recipe, during quarantine we tried lots of recipes and this one was the best. It remained soft even at room temperature for a week.
Question, if I transform this into a triple chocolate cookie (with cocoa butter in the dough) how will I tweak the recipe? I just really like this recipe and I just want to adapt it to other flavors. THANKS! <3
Let me see if I can carve out some time today and recipe test it for you. You don’t have to twist my arm to do cookie recipe testing. Haha! I will keep you posted. 🙂 — Melissa
I did sneak in some time to recipe test yesterday and created a double chocolate version of the recipe. I will photograph them and post the recipe soon but I will let you know what I did. You get first dibs! 🙂 Add 1/3 cup of cocoa powder and since you are adding unsweetened cocoa powder, you want to add 2 Tablespoons of sugar to offset. If you like things less dark, I would suggest adding 3 Tablespoons of sugar. It will result in a very slightly flatter cookie, but will have a sweeter flavor. I hope that helps! Everything else stays the same.
Waaah! I didn’t notice that you replied, I just checked again because I’ll be making the cookies again. THANK YOU THANK YOU! I tried this dough recipe and I scooped out a 45-50g cookie dough and put in 1/4tsp dutch-processed cocoa powder and mixed it before adding dark & milk chocolates to make triple chocolate cookies and they were so good! Your recipe makes a good base.
Just an additional question, I’m trying to use weight to have a more accurate recipe and may I know how packed are your dark brown sugar? I see many differing quantities saying 1 cup of brown sugar can go 200-240g depending on how packed it is.
When baking tbe cookies, whiche is better? Bake, bake-convec or true convec? Also should the temp remain at 385 deg? Thank you!
I love your 3 Levain cookies. They are the best. Just a quick question, do you used convection or conventional oven when you bake your cookies. I will try this one. Browning butter sounds like fun!
I hope to hear from you. 🙂
I did mine on a convection oven and had good results 🙂
These were so tasty! I’m obsessed with the taste of the dough. Going to be experimenting with turning this into a safe-to-eat-raw cookie dough!
THIS WAS AMAZING!!! So delicious! My kids and I have been making a lot of your recipes and we are all left stunned. You totally rock! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!
Hi!! I was wondering if I could freeze the dough and bake it a week later? Does that ruin the consistency and chewiness of the cookies. Also how long can I store it in the fridge for? Thanks so much, I LOVE this recipe!!
I think cookie dough on the fridge can only be stored maximum 3 days. I made my cookies 2 weeks after it was frozen it was still good. But around 1 month, they didn’t taste as good anymore
These cookies are good… but greasy! I followed the recipe exactly and chilled the dough for an hour. I feel like they need more flour.
hello, is the dark brown sugar packed?
yes
Love this recipe! We are officially addicted to these cookies in my house. I make them often. I double the batch and then make a few cookies as needed, like every day. Follow the recipe exactly, including the temperature of 385. Actually, I think I do 8 minutes but it’s because I make the balls a little smaller. Thank you for this recipe!
Hi! Is it okay if i add the butter while its hot to the sugars? What difference does it make if i do not chill it in the refrigerator?
Hi Melissa, I’m a hobbybaker from Germany. I love your blog and the recipes. These cookies are unbelievable!!! And the cookies with m’ms and Brezels are also very delicious. Thank you for sharing your recipes and spend your time for us. Have a good time and greetings from Gisi from Germany