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!
MK
My family loved the cookies! One thing though, after I chilled my brown butter for about 15mins.. it hardened and it changed into a lighter color when I had to wait for it to melt to cream it with the sugars. Do I really need to chill it in the fridge or just let it stay in room temp after browning it?
jam
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
Modern Honey
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
Modern Honey
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.
jam
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.
Tricia Hosaka
When baking tbe cookies, whiche is better? Bake, bake-convec or true convec? Also should the temp remain at 385 deg? Thank you!
Angie
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. 🙂
jam
I did mine on a convection oven and had good results 🙂
Chelsea
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!
Esther Gomez
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!!!
Leah Riczker
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!!
jam
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
Debzie
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.
ruth tomada
hello, is the dark brown sugar packed?
jam
yes
Angelica Portillo
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!
Amina
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?
Gisi
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
Vicky
Hello! I tried to make these last night. I browned the butter, left it to chill for an hour, used a stand mixer for the ingredients and made sure to cream the butter and sugar, and I left the dough in the fridge overnight. I went to make them this morning and the cookies are way too puffy. My friend made the recipe earlier this week and the cookies came out great. What am I doing wrong?
Kay Star
I burned the bottoms of 27 cookies, because 385 degrees is too high. I am very disappointed, but what can I do? I have wasted a lot of money and time.
John
Just made these...WOW. So delicious!
Linda Welk
The flavor is absolutely amazing however when I did the first batch of 12 cookies after the time spacified they flattened out very thin and we’re very dark. My second batch with the same dough- I took out of the oven after six minutes as they were already getting very flat and crisp at the edges. What do you think I may have done incorrectly?
Vivian
I followed the recipe, but it didn't turn out the way I expected. I wanted a thinner, chewier texture, but it was more cake like. What did I do wrong? Did I mix the batter too much?
Diane
Just found your site and recipes look great . . . Especially the brown butter chocolate chip cookies! Before I start, can I double the recipe or should I make two separate batches?
celeste
These cookies are the BOMB.COM and I mean it! that brown butter really makes a big difference those browned bits at the bottom are what make this cookie over the top! Thanks for another great recipe!
Janet
Ok, so it's the next day and I just took the last pan ok cookies out of the oven. All I can say is OH MY GOD, THESE ARE THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES I HAVE EVER HAD. Thank you I will never make cookies without the brown butter.
Janet
It's a cool night here in Chicago, so I thought I would give them a try. I'm so excited. My brown butter is cooling right now.????