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.
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.
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. Also, 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!
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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
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)
- ½ cup Sugar
- 2 large Eggs
- 1 large Egg Yolk
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 2 ¼ 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.
Happy Baking, my friends! Don't forget to sign up for my newsletter below. Thank you for following along!
Ben E
The cookies turned out pretty enough to sell! And delicious! Great brown butter flavor.
Charlene Lynch
These are the best! I have been trying all the recipes out there and this one is easiest and by far the one. It will be my go to. Search is over!
Bay
Oh my goodness! I love baking from scratch and these cookies are some of the best I’ve ever had. The dough does look greasy, but after chilling in the fridge not so much. Once baked, my cookies weren’t greasy at all. Also, I used light brown sugar because I was out of dark brown sugar. I’ve made other cookie recipes from this site that were tasty, but these will be my new go to. Thank you!!! God bless & JESUS loves you!
Diane
just made these and they came out great. I added about a cup of toasted chopped pecans and walnuts. Portioned out the cookies and chilled in fridge for about two hours. They baked perfectly and taste amazing.
Cassandra
These cookies are a hit. I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out great. I did add a teaspoon or cornstarch for the chewy effect.
Carolyn
Can the brown butter be made ahead? If I make it ahead, and refrigerate it, should it be brought back to room temperature, or should it be somewhat warmed so that it is in a liquid state again?
Willow
Family loved it! Added some extra kosher salt sprinkled on top and used salted butter, it was HEAVENLY!
Lisa
I made these as written except I added about 1/2 cup of finely chopped pecans. I let the dough rest in the refrigerator for 24 hours and formed them into 2 Oz balls that I pressed down slightly. I baked them at 385 for 9 minutes but they were still a little raw so I baked them at 350 for 3 more minutes. The cookies looked really pretty with a nice color and held their round shape. They were just entirely too sweet for me and also a little too greasy so I won’t be making these again. The next recipe I will try is the mock crumbl cookie one.
Sophie
I made the recipe and it was very runny. I put it in the fridge overnight, then assembled the cookies and put them in the oven. They melted completely, and were runny 🙁 I don't know what I could have done wrong. How can I fix it? I would be sorry to waste so many ingredients.
I used brown sugar as you recommended
Carol Arthur
What type of butter, salted or unsalted?
Lyndi
These cookies are delish! I formed my dough into a log and wrapped it good before chilling, it was easy to slice that way. I just tore off the amount I wanted for each cookie, then I weighed them so they'd all be the same size for an even bake. I baked up some yesterday and then today. I'm gonna try your browned butter snickerdoodle cookies next. I love your recipes! They're easy to follow and very concise. Thank you!
Hope
I’m not sure if I did it wrong or not but did anyone else’s cookies start smoking when baking but wasn’t burning?
Lola
are these cookies soft or chewy cookies?
Danielle
Hi! This recipe looks absolutely amazing! Should I use salted or unsalted butter to brown?
MK
Hi! I love this cookie recipe but the dough is just very hard to work with after chilling because it becomes stiff and can’t scoop it into balls right away. My question is, can I scoop it right after mixing AND THEN chill the dough balls? Or will that affect the resting process of the cookie dough?