Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies have a delicious nutty flavor and are thick, chewy, and are packed with chocolate chips.

5 cookies stacked and topped with chocolate chunks and chocolate chips.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Brown butter is what makes this chocolate chip cookie really stand out against traditional chocolate chip cookies.

Brown butter is a method used to create an intense buttery flavor with nutty hints of flavor.

Brown Butter

Brown butter is pretty simple to make it just requires a watchful eye to prevent burning the butter.

To make brown butter, melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. You will need to stir occasionally as the butter melts. Once the butter melts and is stirred, it will create a foam. That's great, you're almost there!

The next step is to look for little brown bits that form in the bottom of the skillet. Don't forget to keep stirring, it will burn quickly!

Once the brown bits start to form on the bottom of the skillet, remove from the heat immediately and transfer careufully (it will be very hot!) to a heatproof bowl.

Allow the butter to cool and to speed up the process, place it in the refrigerator or the freezer long enough for it to reach a softened stage. About 40 minutes in the refrigerator and 20 minutes in the freezer.

Once the butter is at a softened stage it can be added to the ingredients to make the brown butter chocolate chip cookies.

RELATED: Brown Butter Sugar Cookies

Brown butter chocolate chip cookies on a black cooling rack.

Ingredients for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Salted Butter
Brown Sugar - makes the cookie chewy
Granulated Sugar
Eggs
Vanilla Extract
All-purpose flour - spoon & leveled
Baking Soda
Salt
Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips - chips or chunks

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Chocolate chip cookies made with brown butter on a red cookie sheet and plaid napkin.

Making These Chocolate Chip Cookies

To make these chocolate chip cookies successful it's important to allow the browned butter to return to a semi-solid state before combining it into your ingredients.

Chilling these cookies for at least 30 minutes will also reduce spread and will result in a thick and chewy chocolate chip cookie vs. a flat and spread out cookie.

If these steps are skipped the cookies will be very spread out and very flat. The extra patience is worth it especially when a thick cookie is desired!

Once the dough is chilled for these cookies, they are then transferred to a non-stick cookie sheet or a cookie sheet lined with silicone mats.

The easiest way to freeze the cookies is to scoop the cookies using a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop (a #40 scoop) or just by rolling them into 2 tablespoon balls before freezing.

Using a cookie scoop also helps when creating the same size cookies.

This way, the dough is all ready to go, and no need to scoop frozen dough or allowing it to soften to make the balls. It certainly makes the process simpler!

Place the balls of dough for the brown butter chocolate chip cookies two inches apart on the mats or cookie sheet before placing them in the oven to give ample space between the cookies while baking.

That way you don't' run into the risk of the cookies running together while baking.

Once these chocolate chip cookies are done baking, sprinkle some sea salt on while they're cooling for extra flavor.

Side view of brown butter chocolate chip cookies on a cooling rack.

Freezing Cookie Dough

You can freeze this chocolate chip cookie dough for up to three months. Portioning out the cookie dough first is a huge help when freezing cookies.

By doing this the portioned cookie dough can be sat out to reach room temperature before baking.

The frozen cookie dough can also be baked right out of the freezer and baked. The baking time will increase by a few minutes and you'll need to check for browning around the edges to make sure they are done. Oven times do vary so it's a good idea to keep an eye it.

📖 Recipe

Yield: 20 cookies

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Name: Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 20
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 3/4 cup salted butter; 1 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed; 1/4 cup granulated sugar; 1 egg + 1 egg yolk; 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract; 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, spooned & leveled; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 3/4 teaspoon salt; 11 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks (or a half & half of both); 1 teaspoon sea salt

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies have a delicious nutty flavor and are thick, chewy, and are packed with chocolate chips.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Additional Time 30 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Ingredients

¾ cup salted butter
1 ½ cup brown sugar, packed
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, spooned & leveled
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
11 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks (or a half & half of both)
1 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

Brown Butter

Heat a skillet over medium heat and melt the salted butter.
Stir occasionally and allow the butter to start to foam.
Stir until little bits of brown start to form in the skillet. This takes roughly 8 minutes.
Stir and remove immediately once the brown bits start to form.
Pour the mixture into a heatproof bowl to prevent over-browning or burning the butter.
Cover and place in the refrigerator for 40 minutes or in the freezer for 20 minutes or until the brown butter reaches a softened stage.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350°
Cream the softened brown butter and the brown sugar and the granulated sugar together until creamy.
Beat in the eggs.
Add the vanilla extract.
Combine the spooned and leveled flour, salt, and baking soda together.
Beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture, careful not to overbeat.
Stir in the chocolate chips or chunks.
Scoop the dough into 2 Tablespoon balls and freeze for at least 30 minutes before baking.
Place the cookies on a non-stick or silicone lined cookie sheet 2 inches apart.
Bake for 9-12 minutes or until the bottoms are browned.
Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
Sprinkle with sea salt if desired.