There’s as much flavor in one of these brown butter chocolate chip cookies as there is in an entire batch of ordinary chocolate chip cookies. If you’ve browned butter before, you’re familiar with the unsurpassable flavor that comes along with it. Browning butter can be done on the stovetop. The aroma of browned butter alone is enough to make anyone salivate and the flavor is absolutely marvelous.
What is Brown Butter?
Browning butter is a technique that considerably changes the flavor of anything it touches. I wrote an entire tutorial on how to brown butter if you’re interested in learning more about this one ingredient wonder. Browning butter is simple because all you’re doing is gently cooking butter. This melting method gently cooks the butter until it develops a deep nutty flavor, browned color, and toasted aroma. You can taste this upgraded flavor in recipes like brown butter pound cake, banana layer cake with brown butter cream cheese frosting, and today’s chocolate chip cookie recipe.
How to Brown Butter
How to brown butter: Cut the butter into uniform pieces and place in a light-colored pan or skillet over medium heat. The light color of the pan allows for easier visual monitoring of color changes. Stir as the butter melts to ensure even heating. Once full melted, continue to cook. The butter will begin to foam as water content evaporates and the milk solids toast at the bottom of the pan. Watch closely; the butter will turn a golden amber color which indicates that the milk solids have toasted. It will smell nutty, and the sound of sizzling will stop. At this point, immediately remove from heat and pour into a heat-proof bowl. There will be little bits of milk solids at the bottom of the pan. Don’t leave those behind! The toasted milk solids carry flavor.
Can I Use Brown Butter in Any Cookie Recipe?
Going the extra mile to brown butter for cookie recipes makes a good cookie, a great cookie. But browning butter isn’t a technique that will work with ALL cookie recipes. Typically the recipe requires some testing if you’re replacing creamed butter with browned butter or melted butter with browned butter.
What’s the reason? During the browning process, as butter goes from yellow to golden amber in color, it loses some moisture, about a 20-35% loss. This is a considerable amount of moisture to leave out of your recipe! Maybe adding a little extra butter or another egg yolk to the cookie recipe will make up for this moisture loss? But then you may have too much concentrated fat in the cookie recipe. Confused? Trust me, I was too when I was working on this recipe.
Let me make it easy for you. Browning butter = unbeatable flavor with moisture loss. Cookie dough using browned butter needs extra moisture. Adding 1-2 Tablespoons of milk will add the proper amount of moisture back to the dough.
Chilling is Crucial for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chill browned butter: After browning the butter, chill it in the refrigerator. Chilling the brown butter will solidify it. Once chilled into a solid mass, cream it with the sugars just as if you were creaming softened butter. The key to chilling the brown butter? Chill it in a large container or baking pan. The larger the container or pan, the thinner the layer of butter will be and the quicker it will solidify.
- Chill cookie dough: After the cookie dough is all mixed up, you have to chill it again. This takes another 3 hours, but there’s a reason for it. Chilling cookie dough not only ensures a thicker, more solid cookie but an accentuated flavor. Time in the refrigerator develops a heightened flavor.
Chilling the brown butter until it’s totally solid takes about 2-3 hours and chilling the prepared cookie dough requires the same. We’re looking at 4-6 hours of chill time. Taking this time guarantees thick and majorly flavorful chocolate chip cookies. I promise they’re worth the wait!
How does this recipe compare to these popular chewy chocolate chip cookies? That cookie uses melted butter, not browned. You can definitely sub brown butter for melted (in fact, some readers have!) but I find the resulting cookie a little crumbly which is in part to the missing moisture, explained above.
Quick Tips for Perfect Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Cornstarch: Cornstarch creates a softer cookie. Do not leave it out! Use it in my shortbread cookies, too.
- Sugars: Use more brown sugar than white for a chewier, softer cookie.
- Eggs: An extra egg yolk equals a richer tasting cookie.
- Milk: Milk makes up for the loss of moisture in the browning process.
- Plan Ahead: Make sure you plan ahead and have enough time for both stages of chilling. Chilling is everything in this cookie recipe.
- Nuts: Feel free to add chopped nuts like pecans or walnuts, making sure to leave the total amount of add-ins (including chocolate chips) at 1 and 1/2 cups.
- Pro Tip: Sandwich butter pecan ice cream in the center of two cookies. You’re welcome.
If there are any cookies leftover, wait until you try these brown butter chocolate chip cookies on day 2. The flavor is out of this world!
Print
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 7 hours
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 8 hours
- Yield: 24 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Brown butter chocolate chip cookies are thick, chewy, and unlike any other chocolate chip cookie. There’s as much flavor in one of these brown butter chocolate chip cookies as there is in an entire batch of classic chocolate chip cookies!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 and 1/2 cups (313g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) milk
- 1 and 1/2 cups (270g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Brown the butter: Have a large flat heat-proof baking dish, such as a 9×13-inch pan, handy. Slice the butter into pieces and place in a light-colored skillet. The light colored helps you determine when the butter begins browning. Melt the butter over medium heat and stir or whisk constantly. Once melted, the butter will begin to foam. Keep stirring/whisking. After 5-7 minutes, the butter will begin browning and you’ll notice lightly browned specks begin to form at the bottom of the pan, which are the milk solids toasting. Cook until it is golden in color. Once browned, remove from heat immediately and pour into dish. Cover tightly, place in the refrigerator, and chill until solid, about 2-3 hours (or up to 1 day). A large flat dish, as opposed to a bowl, helps the butter solidify quicker.
- Remove solid brown butter from the refrigerator and spoon into a large bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer). Using a handheld mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the chilled brown butter for 1 minute on medium speed until completely smooth and creamy. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat on medium high speed until light in color and combined, about 2 minutes. Beat in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract on high speed. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt together until combined. On low speed, slowly mix into the wet ingredients until combined, then beat in the milk on medium speed. The cookie dough will be thick. Add the chocolate chips and mix on low for about 5-10 seconds until combined. Cover dough tightly with aluminum foil or plastic wrap and chill for at least 2-3 hours and up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory for this cookie dough or else the cookies will over-spread.
- Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator and allow to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes as you preheat the oven. This makes the cookie dough easier to scoop and roll. (If the cookie dough chilled longer than 3 hours, let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.)
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Once chilled, the dough may be slightly crumbly, but will come together if you work the dough with your hands as you roll into individual balls. Scoop and roll dough, about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough each (I use this medium cookie scoop), into balls.
- Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes, or until slightly golden brown around the edges. My oven has hot spots and yours may too so be sure to rotate the pan once during bake time. The baked cookies will look soft in the centers when you remove them from the oven. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet. If the cookies are too puffy, try gently pressing down on them with the back of a spoon. During this time, you can press a few extra chocolate chips into the top of the warm cookies. This is just for looks! The cookies will slightly deflate as you let them cool.
- After 5 minutes, transfer cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 5. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Light-Colored Skillet or Stainless Steel Skillet | 9×13-inch Baking Dish (or similar large heat-proof baking dish) | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Dough Chilling Alternative: Chill the cookie dough as a whole for 1 hour. Then remove from the refrigerator and roll into 1.5 Tablespoon balls, as the recipe suggests before baking. Continue to chill the cookie dough balls for the remaining 2-3 hours (or freeze them as suggested in the last step). Some readers find this easier! If you do this, you do not have to let the cookie dough sit at room temperature in the next step.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking success tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Obsessed. This is my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. I like to add rolled oats to replace some flour to give them more substance, and often sprinkle with flaky salt before baking.
Texture was out of this world!! My “best cookies yet!” was one person’s comment! Even my super picky 13-year old daughter and husband thought that the cookies are superb! The nuttiness of the browned butter is very subtle yet sufficient. I think I’ll add some Maldon salt on top of the baked cookies next time. Thank you so much! I have a new ccc go-to recipe!
These cookies are amazing! Well worth the effort to brown the butter, and they’ve become my go to cookie recipe.
I’d like to bring them to a bridal shower for a friend, but she is gluten free- could these be made with gluten free flour? If so, what would you recommend? Thanks !
Hi Mackenzie, we haven’t tried making these cookies with gf flour, but some readers have reported success with using a 1:1 gf substitute. If you try it, let us know how it goes!
These tasted great, the brown butter flavor was a little more subtle than I was expecting, but it definitely added something to these cookies, which is what I wanted. I followed the recipe exactly, chilled the dough a solid 24 hours, and baked them on silicone mats, but they still ended up spreading more than I thought they would. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I would’ve preferred them a little thicker. I also felt like there were too many chocolate chips in them, so I’d decrease the amount next time, but that’s partly personal preference. I might also used dark chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet next time, since the cookies themselves are very sweet.
I baked the cookies about 13 minutes in the oven, until they were light golden brown around the edges, and had assumed they would firm up quite a bit as they cooled, but they ended up remaining rather soft, and definitely should’ve been baked longer. But that could have to do with the size of my cookies and my oven, so now I know I have to bake them longer than the recipe says! I do plan on making them again though, they were quite simple to make, and I think the brown butter helps to elevate them above regular chocolate chip cookies!
hi! This is delicious, but I want to reduce the sugar (personal preference). What is the minimum amount of sugar I should use if I don’t want the cookie texture to change? Thanks!
Hi Sophie, you can try reducing the sugar, but as you mention, it plays an important role in the taste, texture, and spread of the cookies. We recommend starting small, then adjusting further for future batches.
Loved ’em! Definitely see what the hype is about. I have more of a technical question though.
I used 2 sheet pans on 2 racks in my oven. Swapped levels and rotated pans halfway through. Any thoughts on why one of the sheets always spread, while one stayed nice and fluffy? Everything about the two pans is the same
hi do i need to chill brown butter? can i use it after it cool down?
Hi Hana, yes, see end of step 1 for directions on chilling the browned butter.
Brown butter…how did we not know about this 20 years ago. These cookies are THE BEST. Kicks the “Neiman Marcus” recipe all the way to the curb. ❤️
Can I substitute chocolate chips for chocolate chunks?
Definitely.
yielded crunchy yet somewhat chewy cookies
I am excited to try this recipe! Can I use coconut sugar instead of brown sugar?
Hi Olha, we haven’t tested the recipe with coconut sugar, so are unsure of the results. If you decide to try it, please let us know how it goes!
If I refrigerate the dough in a log could I slice and bake?
I was just wondering can you make these cookies in advance, and by how much?
See recipe Notes for make-ahead details!
Do we have to refrigerate the browned butter and use a mixer thereafter? Could we instead just mix/fold the ingredients into the browned butter once it is warm (but no longer hot)?
Hi Ping, we use solid brown butter so that you can cream the butter with the sugars, just as if you were creaming softened butter. If you want to use melted butter, you can definitely sub brown butter for melted butter in our chocolate chip cookies (in fact, some readers have!) but we find the resulting cookie a little crumbly which is in part to the missing moisture, explained in this post. Hope you enjoy the cookies!
I love these cookies, they are the family favorite. I tried to freeze these so I could bake later but they do not flatten out while baking and the outside cooks while the inside stays doughy. Is this recipe freezable and I’m just doing something wrong?
Hi Colleen, we typically recommend you add an extra minute or two to the bake time when baking cookie dough from frozen. If that’s not working for you, you can try thawing the dough a bit before baking. Hope this works!
Just a wonder about the butter. I put it in the fridge and it is rock hard now. How am I supposed to work with that with my mixer? It would wreck my machine. I’m going to try to let it sit out a bit to soften is slightly. What advice would you give?
Hi Nicole, let it sit out or microwave it for just 10 seconds, stir, and then use.
Hi Sally, I’ve made these wonderful cookies a few times now and they are the absolute best. The first time they came out perfectly, but I’ve had trouble the last two times because the cookies haven’t spread. They come out as dense little pucks. I’ve tried leaving them out at room temp a little longer before baking and added an extra minute or two to the bake time, but neither made a difference (and the added bake time just treated to burn the bottoms). I’m perplexed; do you have any ideas on what I’m doing wrong?
Hi Jay, it sounds like there is too much flour soaking up the wet ingredients, preventing the cookies from spreading. How are you measuring your flour? It’s best to weigh with a kitchen scale or spoon and level flour. This post on 5 tips to improve your next batch of cookies (see “What to do if my cookies AREN’T spreading?) will be helpful for more troubleshooting. Thanks so much for giving this recipe a try!
Making your brown butter chocolate chip recipe but adding toffee bits. Difference between 2 recipes is the added toffee calls for rolling before refrigeration. Can I roll them after the requisite 3 hours?
Hi Margie, we find this particular dough to be a bit too soft to roll before refrigeration, but keeping this in mind, you can certainly roll them before if you wish.
These taste great as I expected, but I’m having a hard time figuring out how they differ from the classic chewy cookies. I can’t really perceive any noticeable upgrade in flavor. Either I under-browned the butter (possible but I doubt it) or the brown butter flavor is much more subtle than I thought.
Hi Tony, it sounds like the butter may have been under browned a bit. The flavor should be noticeable but not over powering. Thanks for giving these a try!
Hi Lexi, actually I think I was wrong. They do taste different. They have sort of a deep caramel flavor, which makes sense because the butter caramelizes when browned. I guess I was confused at first because I didn’t know what brown butter tastes like. They’re delicious!
Hands down the best cookies I’ve ever tasted.
The only thing I would change is in step 8. I would recommend waiting 10 minutes instead of 5 because, when I first tried, my cookies were still too soft to be picked up with a flat spatula.
1.5 tablespoons is about 40 grams, correct?
Hi Tony, we usually measure 1.5 Tablespoons of cookie dough at about 35g, but 40 is close enough!
Is it really necessary to use a utensil to stir the butter? I think it would be fine and cause less clutter to just move the saucepan in circular motions as the butter cooks. That would keep it swirling and moving.
I just have a few questions:
Can I use an 8-inch baking dish to chill the butter?
Isn’t it better to let the butter cool a little first before chilling? Because if it’s still hot, then the condensation might drip into the butter, which doesn’t sound ideal.
Shouldn’t the butter come to room temperature first before creaming?
And I noticed a little discrepancy: first it says pour the butter into a bowl first, but then later it says to pour it straight into the dish. It’s a little unclear.
Hi Tony! An 8 inch baking dish would work great. We haven’t had an issue with condensation, but you can certainly cool the browned butter a little before chilling. For this recipe, we use the butter cold from the fridge.
Thank you so much for the responses! But is it okay if I just pour the butter straight into the dish, then, like it says in the recipe? It should stop the cooking process like a bowl would.
Yes. Happy baking!
How long will these cookies last once baked?
How should I store them?
Hi Jake, Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
These cookies taste amazing, but mine spread out a bit more than yours did in your images and the sides were a bit more crispy than the centre. Any tips?
Hi Jake, here’s our best tips for preventing cookies from spreading for next time!
I absolutely LOVE your recipes!!! For cookie dough that needs to be refrigerated for hours, can you force it/speed up the process by using the freezer? THANK YOU!
Hi Becky, We don’t usually recommend chilling the freezer, as it is a less even result.
Do you roll these cookies tall like in the thick and chewy recipe or just into balls?
Hi Paula, you can really do either here!
Hi Sally,
I made a double batch of these brown butter chocolate chip cookies and my husband Vinny and I think these are by far the BEST we’ve ever tasted! I used to have the greatest chocolate chip cookie recipe as everyone always told me that. Now we feel this recipe will be made from here on out! Thank you Sally for sharing this wonderful recipe!
This is my absolute favor cookie recipe ever. i always get compliments on my cookies. i want to try something different this weekend, can i use m&ms instead of the chocolate chips? and if so would it be the same measurement? thanks!
Yes, absolutely!
My favorite combination in brown butter cookies is mini or milk chocolate chips and Kraft Carmel Bits ( little unwrapped caramel balls found in the baking aisle by the other Choc chips, I buy at Target but they are available most places!). The little caramel balls melt and little and just perfect with the brown butter flavor.
I also have used the Heath bar toffee pieces (also found in the baking aisle) and butterscotch chips and those are really great additions too!
The strangest addition I tried was cashew nuts, white chocolate and dried cranberries — sounds odd but I loved them. What you stir into this extra tasty cookie base is only limited by imagination! 🙂
I am so excited to try this recipe! I do tend to like a slightly cakey cookie, could this be achieved by adding slightly more flour?
Hi Samantha, while you could certainly try it, it may take additional tweaks to achieve more of a cakey texture. Simply adding more flour may dry out the cookies instead. Let us know if you give these cookies a try!
Can I scoop the cookies into balls right after the dough comes together , and then chill?
If so, can I chill the balls in freezer to cut down on chill time, or does the fridge work better ?
Rather than chilling the dough as a whole and then rolling into balls. Wasn’t sure if the order mattered. Thanks! The brown butter smells so delicious.
Hi Lexie! We find this soft dough is a little hard to roll right away, but if you have a cookie scoop, that can help. We don’t recommend chilling the freezer, as it is a less even result.
This has become the only chocolate chip cookie recipe I ever use. After the first try, my family and I were hooked! Nothing beats the flavor of brown butter and these cookies are always picture perfect, as well!