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 adds so much flavor. Other than that, this recipe is simple!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Amazing cookies that are SO full 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 I made sure these cookies were the perfect balance of gooey, chewy, and crunchy.
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Best of all? These cookies are super easy to make – you don’t even need an electric mixer!
Sprinkle of Science
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 as it can burn quickly. 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.
The Sugar
A high ratio of dark brown sugar makes these cookies moist and chewy, with a rich depth of flavor. You can use light brown sugar instead (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 baking – learn more about sugar’s role in baking here.
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 also find these at larger supermarkets or specialty kitchen stores.
- 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 semi-sweet chocolate chips instead.
- You can use milk chocolate or dark chocolate instead if preferred – just note that this will alter the final cookie’s sweetness levels.
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:
- 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.
- 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 light-colored baking tray 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.
- 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.
Freezing does not work the same as chilling, so there are no shortcuts here. 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 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.
Portioning the Cookie Dough Before or 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 find it too challenging to scoop the dough at this point, feel free to scoop before chilling. Then simply bake the pre-portioned Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies straight from the fridge after the 24-72 hour chill time!
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 first, 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 feel like it! 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
- Black & White Chipper Cookies
- Marbled Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Brown Butter Dulce de Leche Cookie Cups
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
This post was originally published in 2015 and recently updated with recipe improvements and new photos. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
I’ve been baking my way through online recipes searching for the perfect chocolate chip cookie, and I think my search officially ends here! I LOVE the balance of a crunchy exterior + chewy cookie + little bit of gooeyness in the middle and it’s also the first brown butter choc chip cookie I’ve made that holds its shape and doesn’t spread too much!! These are absolutely f-ing delicious and I need to find one of those timer-activated locked boxes for the dough or else I will bake/eat all of it in one sitting. THANK YOU!!! (however I will probably resent this blog slightly when my jeans don’t fit anymore which is absolutely going to happen very soon now that I have this recipe)
I have no idea what I did wrong. Help! They spread out so much that they are just mush.
The only thing I deviated from is I didn’t have bread flour so used all purpose.
Oh no, I’m sorry to hear that, Melissa! Using all-purpose flour instead of bread flour only affects the chewiness, so that wouldn’t cause excessive spreading. The most common culprit is the butter being too warm. Since this recipe uses browned butter, it’s super important to let it cool completely to room temperature after mixing in the sugars (end of step 1). If it’s too warm when the other ingredients are added, the cookies will spread in the oven. In this case, chilling the dough overnight can help, but it won’t completely fix the issue. Did you happen to skip any of the cooling steps—both at the end of step 1 and the minimum 24-hour dough chill in step 4?