Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

A close-up on a stack of four brown butter chocolate chip cookie halves, showing their gooey insides.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are the queen of all cookies! Browning the butter takes mere minutes and adds incredible depth of flavor to these cookies, with caramely, nutty notes. Bonus - these cookies are practically effortless, with no chill time and no mixer needed! With crisp exteriors, gooey insides, and puddles of melty chocolate - it's guaranteed love at first bite.

Course Cookies

Cuisine Dessert

Keyword Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookies

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 9

Servings cookies

Calories 439kcal

Author Stephanie Simmons

Ingredients

1 cup + 2 tbsp salted butter Start with 254 grams. You'll want 206 grams left after browning. See note below.
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed you can use light or dark brown sugar! 163 grams
3/4 cup granulated or cane sugar 156 grams
2 large eggs
1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour, spooned & leveled 390 grams
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups chocolate chunks or chips
flaked sea salt for topping

Instructions

Brown the Butter: Add butter to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Melt the butter, stirring occasionally. Once it's melted, turn the heat to medium-low, and continue cooking the butter, stirring frequently. The butter will get foamy and bubbly, then turn a deep golden shade with a nutty, caramely aroma. (This will take about 4-6 minutes once the butter has melted.) Pour into a large bowl, making sure to scrape in the brown bits from the bottom of the pan, and allow to cool while you gather the other ingredients. (See note about butter below.)
Make Cookie Dough: Add the sugars to the mixing bowl of butter, and whisk to combine. Add the eggs and vanilla, and whisk until smooth and combined, about 30-45 seconds. Stir in the dry ingredients, then the chocolate chips or chunks last. Let the dough rest on your counter for about 20 minutes. Pre-heat your oven to 400℉ (yes, that's correct) and line a few cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats while you wait.
Scoop Dough Balls: Scoop the dough into balls that are 100 grams in size. This is about the size a large cookie scoop or an ice cream scoop will give you, or about 4.5 tbsp each.
Bake: Place 5-6 cookies on each baking sheet, and bake one at a time. Bake for 4 minutes at 400℉, then turn the temp down and bake at 350℉ for 4 to 5 minutes, for a total of 9 minutes. This will give you a nice crisp exterior, while keeping the cookies soft and gooey on the inside.
Serve & Store: Let cookies cool on the baking sheet on a wire rack for 5-10 minutes, or until cooled just enough to handle. Dig in while they're warm and gooey! Sprinkle with flaked sea salt if desired. Store cooled, leftover cookies in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
Freezing Cookie Dough & Make-Ahead Tips: Cookie dough can be balled, frozen on a sheet pan until solid, then transferred to a freezer bag or airtight container. Freeze for 1-2 months. Bake from frozen, adding 1-2 mins to the bake time. The cookies will hardly spread, but will be done when the edges appear and feel just set. Same goes if you refrigerate the dough balls (they keep 3-4 days in the fridge). Add 1 min or so to the bake time. They will not spread out of the fridge either.

Notes

A note about Brown Butter: When you brown butter, you will lose some of the volume, as some of the water content in the butter will evaporate. In theory, browning 1 extra tbsp of butter per stick (or 1/2 cup) will ensure you end up with the correct amount. However, I've noticed that when I brown 1 cup of butter + 2 tbsp, I end up with slightly under 1 cup in the end. Keeping the butter at that amount slightly under 1 cup turned out to be the perfect amount for this recipe. So, after your butter is browned, if you care to measure it you should have 206 grams, not 226 (which would be 1 cup). If you do have less than 206, add a bit of water to make up the difference. If you have more, your cookies will spread a bit more, or you can remove some butter to get to 206 grams. 206 grams is equal to 14 and 1/2 tablespoons of butter.

Regular Butter: If you don't want to brown your butter (but why not!?) use 206 grams or 14.5 tablespoons of regular salted butter instead.

Brown Sugar: I prefer the depth of flavor that dark brown sugar adds in this recipe, but you can use light or dark.

Nutrition