These brown butter chocolate chip cookies are the perfect cookie. The brown butter gives these cookies a rich toffee flavor and a hint of salt. They have crisp, golden edges, a nice crust on the outside, but are still soft and gooey in the center with melty semisweet chocolate.
Why this Recipe Works
I spent years trying to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. I tested dozens before deciding to just come up with my own. The brown butter and high baking temperature I think it what gives these brown butter chocolate chip cookies an edge.
The brown butter offers a subtle nutty flavor that blends perfectly with the molasses in the brown sugar to give the cookie that amazing rich slightly smoky and nutty toffee flavor.
Baking your cookies at a higher temperature will cook the outside of the cookie faster before the inside cooks too much. This trick is going to give you those crispy edges and exterior and keep the inside nice and soft.
Ingredient Notes
- Butter. The amount of butter listed in the ingredients is the amount needed before you brown it. Once browned you will probably lose about 25% of your butter as liquid evaporates during the browning process.
- Brown Sugar. We use a higher proportion of brown sugar to white sugar in this recipe. The molasses in the brown sugar compliments the brown butter well and amps up that amazing toffee-butterscotch flavor. If you want an amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe without brown sugar, we have a delicious and super easy one!
- Flour. A classic, no-frills, all-purpose flour is all we use here. The most important thing when it comes to flour is making sure you don’t use too much—spoon and level, weigh, and check out our guide on How to Measure Flour Correctly.
- Semisweet Chocolate Chips. I prefer semisweet chocolate chips over milk in this recipe. The slight bitterness from the semisweet chocolate chips adds the perfect contrast to this rich brown butter chocolate chip cookies.
How to Make this Recipe
- How to Brown Butter. Start by browning your butter. Place the butter in a heavy bottomed pan, make sure it is large as the butter tends to foam up quite a bit. Keep stirring it over medium-high heat until the butter has reached an amber color and there are brown bits at the bottom. Consult out How to Brown Butter tutorial for FAQs on browning butter, pictures, and a video!
- Chill the butter. Place the butter in a large bowl and chill or freeze until it has returned to a solid state. You want it to be room temperature, solid, but soft enough to be creamed. Chilling the butter is essential to these brown butter chocolate chip cookies, so do not try to skip this step. Picture A shows what the butter will look like after it is chilled and Picture B shows it after it has been moved to the mixing bowl. Notice the toasted milk solids (the dark bits) have sunk to the bottom of the dish. Don’t forget to get all those dark bits into your mixing bowl, they add lots of toasted butter flavor!
- Cream the butter and sugar. Cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar for 1 minute.
- Add the eggs. Then add the eggs and vanilla and beat for another 2-3 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy. Please note: the image pictured is a double batch, which is why you see 4 eggs in the image instead of 2.
- Add the dry ingredients. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix the dry ingredients in so they are just barely incorporated. Overworking the dough will result in tough cookies.
- Add the chocolate chips. Stir in the chocolate chips until they are evenly dispersed throughout the dough.
- Bake. Take 4 tablespoons of dough and shape into round balls. Place on a greased or lined baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Leave plenty of room for the cookies to spread (I typically place 6 cookie dough balls on a baking sheet). Let the cookies cool for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
When butter is browned the milk solids are toasted giving it a nutty and toffee flavor that complements the rest of the ingredients. If 1 ¼ cups of butter seems like a lot to you in this recipe it is because butter loses about 25% of its liquid when it is browned. So you end up with closer to 1 cup of butter by the time you add it into the mixing bowl.
If your cookies are too flat, this is usually a result of not chilling the butter after it has been browned. We need the butter chilled back to room temperature so that air can be whipped into it when it is creamed together with the sugars and eggs. Otherwise you will end up with puddles for cookies.
Typically, if your cookies are hard after they have cooled it means that you didn’t make the cookies large enough. Remember, we’re using about 4 tablespoons of dough per cookie. If you make them smaller they will end up slightly overbaked and won’t have that same soft center that you get with the larger cookies.
Expert Tips
- Make sure your flour is measured correctly. Too much flour is a cardinal sin in baking. You need to take care when measuring it, I prefer to weigh my flour, but otherwise take a second to review our guide on How to Measure Flour Properly. Too much flour in your brown butter chocolate chip cookies can make them dry, tough, crumbly, or too thick, none of which are good.
- Get all the brown bits in your brown butter. After you brown your butter you’ll see all sorts of little brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Those are toasted milk solids and they add a delicious toasted and salty flavor to the brown butter chocolate chip cookies. So scrape every last bit of them into your bowl for maximum flavor.
How to Make Pretty Cookies
- Make your cookies big. Bigger cookies look prettier. I use ¼ cup of dough for the perfect crispy and gooey ratio. This is my favorite cookie scoop to use.
- Top the off. Before you put your cookie dough balls in the oven top them with a few extra chocolate chips. This makes sure you've got some chocolate chips picture perfect on top of every cookie.
- Bang the Pan. Right when your cookies come out of the oven bang the pan on the counter. the pushes the cookies out and gives them those beautiful wrinkles.
- Make them circular. If your cookies are a little misshapen it's okay, you can fix them. While the cookies are still hot take your spatula and gently push in the edges anywhere the cookies aren't perfectly round. You can also use a large round cookie cutter or even a large mason jar to shape your brown butter chocolate chip cookies. Just move the cookie cutter in a circular motion around the cookie to make it a perfect circle.
How to Store this Recipe
How to Freeze Cookie Dough
I love to have a stock of these in my freezer for when I'm craving a cookie or in case I need to bring a little treat to someone fast! So here's what you'll want to do:
- Scoop the cookie dough into ¼ cup balls and line them up on a lined cookie sheet and place the entire cookie sheet in the freezer for 30-60 minutes. This is going to make sure they maintain their shape and don't get squished and misshapen in the freezer
- Then you can place them in a freezer safe gallon back or stack them on top of each other in a tupperware container, I like to place a piece of parchment paper, wax paper, or even plastic wrap in between the layers of cookie dough so that they don't get stuck to each other. You can freeze these for up to 3 months.
- Before baking, pull out however many cookie dough balls you want and let them sit out at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Then bake according to normal instructions, you may need to add a minute to the baking time
How to Store at Room Temperature
- To maintain the crispy edges and soft centers, my preferred method of storing these is to leave them on a plate or tray and loosely cover them with a towel overnight.
- If you decide to store them in a sealed container (like a Ziploc bag or Tupperware) The cookies will likely lose their crisp exterior and take on a chewy texture overall (still delicious though!).
You May Also Like These Other Cookie Recipes:
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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup butter (280 grams) see notes
- ¾ cup granulated sugar (150 grams)
- 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar (200 grams)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 ¾ cups of flour (357 grams) measured correctly
- ½ teaspoon of salt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2-2 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips (360-480 grams)
Instructions
- Brown 1 ¼ cups of butter in a medium-large saucepan, stirring constantly over medium-high heat, until you reach a deep honey color. Remove from heat and pour into your mixing bowl. Cool butter in fridge or freezer until room temperature consistency, you want your butter to be solid. If you use it when its still liquid your cookies will be flat.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease baking sheets with cooking spray or line with silicone mats or parchment paper.
- Once butter has set up, cream together butter and both sugars for 1 minute. Add in eggs and vanilla for and additional 2-3 minutes until the mixture is pale and fluffy. (Make sure you get all those toasty brown bits at the bottom of your brown butter!)
- Add in flour, baking soda, and salt. Only mix the dry ingredients in until just barely combined—over mixing will make the cookies tough. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Take ¼ cup of dough (about 68 grams) and shape into round balls bake for 8-10 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit until the top and edges are just golden. Cool cookies on baking sheet for 2-3 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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originally published August 19, 2018
Tiffani C
Best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever ! I’ve tried many recipes, many cookies from various bakeries and bakers. These are my favorite, every time ! Chocolate chip cookies are one of my top three favorite desserts, this recipe never disappoints the craving !
Judi
So glad I found this recipe. Doubled the batch and used dark chocolate chunks of 2 extra large Hershey bars. Used salted and unsalted butter in equal amounts and dark brown sugar bc it’s what had on hand. Definitely the best brown butter chocolate “chunk” cookies I’ve ever made. Undoubtedly gift worthy!
Ak
These are absolutely delicious cookies! Everyone loved the taste and texture. My cookies did not flatten much in the oven and came out a but pale, despite measuring everything in grams. Is there a reason?
In Fine Taste
Hi Arianna, I'm so glad you liked them! it's hard to troubleshoot exactly why without being there. It could be that you didn't brown the butter as long as I did, resulting in a lighter colored butter? Or it could be that you are at a lower altitude than me, that can affect how much cookies flatten? if You want them flatter next time and they aren't doing it themselves, you can flatten the tops of the cookie dough balls before baking to assist them in flattening and spreading a bit more.
- Alyssa
Sue dun
The recipe made such a delicious batter but when cooked it makes a very firm on the outside and very gooey on the inside. Not my style so I tired to bake at 350 for 10-12 mins and they turned hard.
Courtney
I get so many compliments on these cookies. I make them every other week to sell at the High School to raise money for after prom. They sell out so fast! I’m kinda famous and I give all my credit to this fabulous recipe and Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips. (Don’t hate on me for using milk chocolate)
Rita
These are the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever made. I think the brown butter is the secret.
Connie
This is by far the best recipe I’ve found for brown butter chocolate chip cookies! They were perfect.
Lacey
This is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe you will find! If you bring these to a potluck, you will forever be asked to make chocolate chip cookies! I am now the cookie person for Scouts, my husband’s work and family event we have. The best part is that they are easy and quick.
Keisha
This recipe is DIELICIOUS👌🏾🔥
David
Any help on why the cookies didn't spread out and were higher than expected. I measured using weight.
In Fine Taste
Hi David, this sometimes happens if the butter was browned a little longer than I did. Then more liquid would boil out resulting in a slightly thicker, drier dough that won't spread as much. I'll have to measure the weight of the butter browned next time and add that to the information in this post! I hope they still tasted good even though they didn't spread as much.
- Alyssa
David
Thanks for your prompt reply. I'll try again with a shorter browning time. The one thing I did note is that the quantity of chips to dough made the inside of the cookies more like chocolate bars. I used the higher amount of chips in your range, so I'll drop that down next time as well.
Julie
Made these cookies today. OMGosh these are delicious! They turned out the perfect crisp edges with the softest heavenly center. Browning the butter then solidifying it is my new favorite twist. Definite win!
Keia
The best cookies I've ever made!
Danialah
AHH-MAZING! My cookies always looked pitiful-regardless of what I tried! I've become a pro at these. Also, I've learned the value of the kitchen scale in weighing your ingredients...follow each step in the blog...they will be perfect!
Thank you for the best recipe EVER!
Hansika Kunduru
Any tips on why my cookies are coming out pale?
In Fine Taste
Hi there, sometimes color difference can depend on how long your brown your butter for. I would also recommend your oven has preheated for at least 20 minutes to make sure the oven is hot enough and add some color to the outside of the cookies.
- Alyssa
Lindsay
These are amazing 🤩 I did increase the bake time to 12 minutes but that might have been needed due to the size I rolled out (user error on my side) Amazing taste though!!
Janet
My husband is a chocolate chip cookie connoisseur and his vote is for this recipe!! I can’t wait for the grandkids to try them!
I did make them smaller by half because they will be for the kiddos!!
I made the first batch using your measurement but they are just too big ( but gorgeous!!)
Anisah Richards
I finally found the best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie!!!
Jeni
Followed recipe to the T, bit my cookies after 10 minutes didn’t were mushy in middle. Let them cool off.. but falls apart when picking up. Help .. they taste good though! Should I have left in longer?
In Fine Taste
Hi Jeni, if they are that soft in the middle in the center, definitely try baking them a few more minutes and see if that solves the problem!
- Alyssa
Cheryl
These are the best. chocolate chip cookies ever. This was my first time making brown butter and it was very flavorful. Thank you for shing this recipe. I will make them again!
Mary
I have been making and sharing this recipe with everyone! We all agree these are the best chocolate chip cookies!
JSR
Delicious chocolate chip cookies! For Christmas I filled a tub of these cookies and took them to the firehouse where my husband works. Not exaggerating… in 5 seconds the entire container was empty. They ate every single one! They’re firefighter approved!! 🙂
BB
Made this for my coworkers and they could not stop talking about it!
Tara
Not sure how this recipe has any negative reviews. I’ve tried multiple chocolate chip cookie recipes and I think this is the best one I’ve ever made! I followed the recipe to a T and holy cow, SO good!!! Thank you for sharing!!!