Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

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My beloved, tried-and-true classic chocolate chip cookies get a brown butter makeover that gives them a gourmet feel with very little extra work. These cookies have crispy edges and chewy centers, are loaded with both semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips, and get topped off with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt for a truly indulgent cookie. You can also find this recipe on page 16 of my cookbook.

These Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Are Mind Blowingly Delicious

When I first developed my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe back in 2014, I was thrilled to have landed on a cookie that was filled with the perfect amount of chocolate chips (two different flavors and sizes), had slightly crisp edges, and was gooey and chewy on the inside.

Over the years, I’ve made those cookies more times than I can count, they’ve become Insta-famous, and have wow’ed readers all over the world who have adopted the recipe as their go-to one and only.

Once I learned how to brown butter, it was game over for these cookies. Just a simple edit to my beloved chocolate chip cookie base recipe and you have yourself an entirely new cookie recipe, one that just has a little something extra going on.

Why I Love This Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Do I like these browned butter chocolate chip cookies better than the classics? No. That’s like trying to say which child you love more. Impossible.

I love them differently, and here’s why you’ll love them, too:
• they don’t require a mixer
• they use melted butter, so no waiting for the butter to firm back up
• the recipe make 36 cookies, but cookie dough balls freeze beautifully for baking at another time
• they feel fancy without actually being fancy
• the recipe will teach you how to brown butter if you don’t already know how to

Browned Butter: The Secret Ingredient

I know some people think brown butter is overrated, but I’m not one of them. To those people I say “give me all your butter, I will brown it and put it in all the things and share nothing.”

Browned butter is simply butter that’s been cooked until all of the water evaporates, leaving behind the milk solids that sink to the bottom of the pan and turn brown as they cook. These little browned milk solids bring a rich, nutty, toffee-like aroma and flavor to cookies, and while the flaky sea salt isn’t a must, brown butter is just begging for a salty complement. I urge you not to leave it out.

While you’re at it, make my brown butter cream cheese frosting, pumpkin cupcakes, pumpkin bundt cake, brown butter pumpkin layer cake, or frosted pumpkin cookies… Yes, even if it’s not pumpkin season. Brown butter is worth the off-season aroma you’ll have in your kitchen, trust me.

HOW DOES BROWNING BUTTER AFFECT YOUR COOKIE RECIPE?

One major thing to keep in mind is that there is a significant loss of moisture when we turn butter into brown butter. In fact, when I wrote this post about browning butter, I weighed my butter at room temperature and it was exactly 113g. After the browning process, it was down to 90g, which is nearly a 20% loss of moisture. We aren’t losing any solid mass since we’re keeping the ghee and the toasted milk solids, so we know this is water.

Because we’re losing water, we will need to add back in some moisture so the cookies perform exactly as intended in the oven. You’ll add 2 Tablespoons of water into the browned butter while it’s still very warm, stir it together, and allow that whole mixture to cool a bit before proceeding with your recipe.

This reintroduction of moisture ensures your cookie dough has the proper amount of liquid. 

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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Ingredients

UNSALTED BUTTER: we’re going to start this recipe as if you are clueless when it comes to browning butter, so don’t worry if you have no idea what you’re doing.

WATER: this is simply to add moisture back into the butter, since we can lose about 20% of the moisture when we brown it, which can (and will) significantly alter the cookie dough. 

ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR: carefully measured flour is the key to the perfect consistency for these cookies. I cannot stress enough the importance of weighing the flour. 

BAKING SODA: this is my leavener of choice in this cookie recipe! It produces an evenly baked, golden brown cookie, and helps keep these cookies tender.

CORNSTARCH: this is another tenderizer. Just a touch of cornstarch will help keep the insides of the cookie soft while the edges crisp up just a bit. 

BROWN & GRANULATED SUGAR: I like the combination of both sugars for complexity of sweetness and balance of moisture. 

EGG + EGG YOLK: be eliminating one egg white, we’re amping up the fat content which helps keep the cookies fudgy (like brownies) and dense (fewer pockets of air).

VANILLA + SALT: for flavor, of course. Don’t leave either out! “Not enough salt” in chocolate chip cookies is a top 10 “no no” for me in the baking world. 

CHOCOLATE CHIPS: I like to use a combination of milk and semi-sweet chocolate as well as mini and standard size chips. 

How to Make the Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

While this brown butter cookie recipe is a one-bowl situation, browning the butter adds a little more complexity to the process. Most of your attention will be given to tending to the butter, and you must chill this cookie dough.

Oh, there is one other difficult step: trying not to eat all the cookie dough before it’s time to bake it into cookies. 

1. Brown the butter: start by cutting the butter into small pieces to ensure even melting. I highly recommend using a light-colored pan until you’re familiar with what browning butter should look like. For an in-depth explanation and visuals, see my comprehensive post on how to make brown butter. Make sure you’re gathering all of the brown specks in the butter and resist the temptation to remove them!

2. Make the dough: while you don’t need completely room temperature butter to get started on your cookie dough, you do want to make sure the butter has cooled a bit before proceeding with the rest of your ingredients. Chocolate chips will come last, and if your butter is still too warm, your chips will start to melt. Sad times! Don’t let that happen. 

3. Scoop the dough: while you can hold off on this if you want to scoop the dough after chilling, you can, but the dough is much easier to work with when it’s at room temperature.

4. Chill the dough: I know, I know, this is just how life is in Fresh April Flours’ chocolate chip cookie land. Chilling the dough will allow your butter to solidify again, creating crisp edges on your cookies and a fully hydrated flour to promote chewiness. 

Tips For Making Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

WEIGH THE FLOUR: I cannot stress enough the importance of weighing the flour. If there’s one thing I see happen with my chocolate chip cookies time and time again, it’s people over-flouring the cookie dough causing the cookies to come out way too flat or still in a ball shape. Weighing your flour with a kitchen scale is the most ideal, but using the spoon and level method is also acceptable. 

BE PREPARED: when browning butter, you have to work quickly, and things can go from amazing to burned in literal seconds. Make sure you’re setting up your “station” before you get to work so that you don’t wind up with burned butter!

USE A COOKIE SCOOP: I use a #50 cookie scoop for all of my standard cookies. You can use a #40 or #60 for a similar bake time. If you want extra large cookies, go for a #16 or a ¼ cup scoop. See notes for bake times. 

PREHEAT YOUR OVEN FOR EXTRA TIME: I always advise folks wait at least 15 minutes from the “beep! I’m ready!” notification from their oven that it’s at temperature. You need a fully heated oven for even baking of these cookies. Middle rack only, please!

IF YOUR COOKIES ARE SPREADING TOO MUCH: in my decade of experience with folks making my chocolate chip cookies, you can do everything right (weighing flour, chilling dough) and your cookies can still spread. Try reducing your oven temperature to 325ºF (163ºC).

HOW TO BROWN BUTTER FOR CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

For comprehensive steps alongside photos of the process, see my post about how to brown butter for supporting content.

STEP #1: place your light colored pan or skillet on a burner on the stove. Place your heatproof bowl next to your work space. Be prepared to stay with your butter for the next 5-10 minutes as you will need to keep it moving and work quickly as it browns to ensure success with this process.

STEP #2: place the butter in the pan or skillet then turn the burner to medium heat (medium is very important in this process). Use a silicone spatula or wooden spoon to stir the butter constantly while it melts.

STEP #3: once the butter has melted, it will start to sizzle and white foam will appear on the surface. Continue stirring. If the butter is sizzling too aggressively, turn the heat down a bit.

STEP #4: after about 5 minutes, the foam will start to disappear and you will notice white milk solids collecting at the bottom of the pan. These are what will cook and turn the butter brown.

STEP #5: as the milk solids cook, they will go from light brown to brown to amber colored very quickly, at which point, the mixture will start to smelly intensely like caramel and toffee. Remove the pan from the heat, continue to stir in the hot pan, then quickly but carefully pour all of the butter and the milk solids into the prepared bowl to stop the cooking process. You want to stop the process when the milk solids are dark amber but before they burn (there are mere seconds between these two points, so watch carefully).

STEP #6: allow the browned butter to cool a bit so it isn’t piping hot before proceeding with your cookie recipe.

How to Store Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

FREEZING BROWN BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH

This recipe makes 36 cookies with one egg and one yolk, so halving the recipe itself is difficult. Good news! You can scoop and chill or freeze this cookie dough to save it for another time! Cookie dough can stay in the fridge for up to 3 days and the freezer up to 3 months.