Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

How to Make Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Step 1: Brown the butter. Add the butter to a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly. The butter will melt, then foam, then the foam will subside, and you'll start to see golden-brown bits (the milk solids) forming on the bottom of the pan. When the butter smells nutty and toasty, and the color has deepened to an amber, remove it from the heat immediately. This took about 12 minutes for me - give it the time it needs, but watch it closely to make sure it doesn't burn.

Step 2: Cool the butter. Immediately pour the browned butter into a room-temperature bowl and let it cool for about 10-15 minutes. It should be warm but not hot when you use it.

Step 3: Mix the dry ingredients. While the butter is cooling, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon until combined. Set aside.

Step 4: Mix the wet ingredients. Add the sugars to the same bowl as your cooled browned butter and stir to combine. Then, add the eggs and vanilla extract. Mix well.

Step 5: Combine & Fold in the chocolate. Slowly add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and stir until just combined. Don't overmix. Check your cookie dough first. If it's still warm from the butter, let it cool a bit before adding the chocolate, or it will melt into the dough. Once the dough has cooled enough, gently fold in the chocolate chunks.

Step 6: Shape and chill. Use a 1 ½ -  2-tablespoon cookie scoop (or roll by hand into balls about 2 inches wide), pressing firmly. The dough will be slightly greasy from the brown butter, which is completely normal. For flatter cookies, press gently with the back of a measuring cup. Chill the cookie dough balls for at least 1 hour, or overnight. ( I usually just cover the cookie sheet with plastic wrap and pop the whole thing into the fridge.)

Step 7: Bake. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Arrange the chilled dough balls (or discs!) on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, spacing them at least 2 inches apart. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt if using, then bake. When done, the edges should look set and lightly golden, but the centers will still look soft and slightly puffed, which is exactly right. They'll sink and finish setting as they cool on the pan to create the perfect chocolate chip cookies ever!

Expert Tips

• Give the butter time. The browning process is not quick. You should expect it to take 10-15 minutes over medium heat. If your butter is browning in under 5 minutes, your heat is too high. Brown flecks and a nutty aroma are what you're looking for (but not burnt butter!).
• Let the butter cool before using. Adding hot brown butter to the sugars and eggs can start to cook the eggs and throw off the dough. Slightly warm is fine; hot is not.
• Check your dough temperature before the chocolate goes in. If the dough feels warm to the touch, wait a few minutes. Warm dough melts the chocolate chunks before they make it into the oven, and you lose those deliciously silky pools of chocolate.
• The chill time really matters. An hour minimum; overnight is better. Chilling solidifies the butter and helps the cookies keep their shape, develop better flavor, and achieve that chewy texture. If you skip it, you risk having flat, greasy cookies.
• Pull them slightly early. The cookies will look a little underbaked at 14-16 minutes, but trust me. They carry over on the hot pan and set up to exactly the right texture as they cool.
• Weigh your flour if you can. Too much flour is the most common reason a chewy cookie comes out cakey instead. 300 grams is what you'd need here if you're pulling out the scale. If you're measuring by cup, spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level it off - don't scoop directly from the bag.

Troubleshooting Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

• Cookies spread too much. The dough was too warm going into the oven, the butter wasn't cooled enough before mixing, or the dough needed more chill time. Make sure your dough balls are cold before baking.
• The cookies didn't spread enough. Too much flour, the dough was chilled too long and baked straight from very cold, or the dough balls were packed too tall. Let them sit at room temperature for 5 minutes before baking if they've been in the freezer.
• Cookies taste bitter. The butter likely went past browned and into burnt. Look for a golden brown color and a nutty, toasty aroma - not dark brown or a sharp, acrid smell.
• Chocolate melted into the dough. The brown butter mixture was still too warm when the chocolate was added. Let the dough cool until it's just warm to the touch before folding in the chunks.
• Cookies are dry or cakey. They were overbaked, or the flour was overmeasured. Pull at 14-16 minutes even when they look underdone, and consider weighing your flour next time (I'll be honest - I usually don't bother weighing my ingredients for baked goods, even though I probably should, but if you feel that you're consistently having trouble with dry cookies, this can help.)

How Do You Know When Brown Butter Is Ready?

Brown butter is ready when the color has shifted from yellow to amber, the butter smells nutty and toasty (like toffee or popcorn), and you can see small brown flecks forming on the bottom of the pan. The foam that builds up during cooking will have subsided, making the flecks easier to see. Pull it off the heat the moment you spot them - butter goes from browned to burnt in less than a minute. Immediately pour it into a room-temperature bowl to stop the cooking.

Variations and Substitutions

• Chips vs. chunks. Chocolate chips work great here, but chunks create better pockets of chocolate throughout the cookie. A mix of half chips, half chunks gives you the best of both. Good chocolate coverage and pools!
• Mix in some nuts. Fold in half a cup of toasted walnuts or pecans along with the chocolate for a chewier, nuttier cookie.

Make Ahead, Storage, and Freezing

Make ahead: The dough can be made and shaped into balls or a cookie-dough log, up to 48 hours ahead. Keep the balls covered in the refrigerator until ready to bake.

Freezing the dough: This is the real move. I love shaping the dough into a round log, wrapping it in plastic wrap, and placing it in a ziplock bag in the freezer. When I get the itch for a cookie, I just pull the cookie dough log out of the freezer, slice off the number I want to make, then bake them as directed above. This is brilliant when you just want to satisfy your chocolate fix without losing control over a whole batch of cookies!

Storing baked cookies: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. They stay soft for the first 2-3 days and firm up slightly after that (still delicious, just a slightly different texture).

Freezing baked cookies: Baked cookies can also be frozen for up to 3 months. (This is perfect if you're one of those people who make a gajillion different kinds of cookies at the holidays to give away.) Thaw at room temperature for about 30 minutes, or warm in a 300°F oven for a few minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions