The Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Homemade chocolate chip cookies get an easy upgrade with the rich, nutty flavor of brown butter.
- Nutritional Analysis
- Per Serving
- Serving Size
- 1 of 25 servings
- Calories
- 292
- Total Fat
- 14 g
- Saturated Fat
- 9 g
- Carbohydrates
- 40 g
- Dietary Fiber
- 1 g
- Sugar
- 28 g
- Protein
- 3 g
- Cholesterol
- 44 mg
- Sodium
- 153 mg
Article By Emily Saladino
These brown butter chocolate chip cookies are soft, chewy and loaded with pools of melty chocolate and rich toffee flavors. The Food Network Kitchen team carefully calibrated the ingredients and method to create perfectly tender brown butter cookies that are easy and can be prepped months in advance.
How to Make Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Like a Pro
With a few expert tips from the Food Network Kitchen team, you can make chewy chocolate chip cookies with the nutty flavor of brown butter any time the mood strikes.
How to brown butter for cookies. Keep a close eye on the butter in your pan. As soon as the milk solids at the bottom start to darken, get ready to take it off the heat immediately to keep them from burning. For step-by-step instructions, check out our guide, How to Brown Butter.
Measure the flour carefully. The Food Network Kitchen team suggests spooning flour into a dry measuring cup and using an offset spatula or the flat side of a butter knife to level off any excess. This keeps the measurements accurate and prevents scooped flour from compacting in the cup, which can lead to dry cookies.
Use dark brown sugar. After testing brown butter chocolate chip cookies with different ratios of white and brown sugars, our recipe developers find that using all dark brown sugar produces the best taste and texture.
Customize the chocolate chips. We like the way that unevenly chopped bars create pools of melted chocolate in these brown sugar cookies, but you can also stir in chips, chunks, or a mix.
Don’t skip the rest. The longer the brown butter cookie dough sits in the fridge, the better the baked cookies taste. Refrigerate the scoops of dough for at least eight hours and up to three days for big, soft cookies with lots of toffee-like flavor.
How to Freeze Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Anyone looking for cookies you can freeze is in luck: these brown butter chocolate chip cookies can be frozen for up to three months. The key is to rest the cookie dough balls in the fridge for at least eight hours before wrapping them in plastic and storing them in an airtight container in the freezer.
When you’re ready to bake the chocolate chip cookies, defrost them overnight in the fridge and bake as directed in the recipe. Or bake them straight from the freezer on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets at 325 degrees F until the edges are golden brown, approximately 18 to 20 minutes.
How to Reheat Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you prefer warm chewy chocolate chip cookies, our recipe developers recommend putting them on a foil-lined sheet in the toaster oven or heating them in the air fryer.
Other Recipes to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
Whether you’re craving extra chocolate or a wholesome oatmeal base, the Food Network Kitchen team has all sorts of homemade chocolate chip cookie recipes to try.
Chocolate Chip Cookies. This expertly tested classic recipe is ready in just over an hour—including baking time—and never disappoints.
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies. You can customize these extra chocolatey cookies by stirring in dark, semisweet, or white chocolate chips, or chopped Hershey’s or M&M candies.
Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies. This easy recipe puts sweetly spiced banana bread and chewy chocolate chip cookies in the palm of your hand.
Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies. Like your cookies with a bit more crunch? This buttery brown sugar chocolate chip cookie recipe has you covered.
Oatmeal-Flax Chocolate Chip Cookies. Loaded with oatmeal and ground flaxseed, this chewy cookie is wholesome enough to eat for breakfast.
Air Fryer Chocolate Chip Cookies. No baking sheet? No problem! This homemade chocolate chip cookie recipe comes together right on the countertop in the air fryer.
The Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Level: Easy
- Total: 9 hr 30 min
- Active: 50 min
- Yield: 24 to 26 cookies
-
- Nutritional Analysis
- Per Serving
- Serving Size
- 1 of 25 servings
- Calories
- 292
- Total Fat
- 14 g
- Saturated Fat
- 9 g
- Carbohydrates
- 40 g
- Dietary Fiber
- 1 g
- Sugar
- 28 g
- Protein
- 3 g
- Cholesterol
- 44 mg
- Sodium
- 153 mg
- Level: Easy
- Total: 9 hr 30 min
- Active: 50 min
- Yield: 24 to 26 cookies
-
- Nutritional Analysis
- Per Serving
- Serving Size
- 1 of 25 servings
- Calories
- 292
- Total Fat
- 14 g
- Saturated Fat
- 9 g
- Carbohydrates
- 40 g
- Dietary Fiber
- 1 g
- Sugar
- 28 g
- Protein
- 3 g
- Cholesterol
- 44 mg
- Sodium
- 153 mg
Ingredients
Directions
- Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat; this will take about 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, until the milk solids are browned and the butter fat is golden, about 4 minutes longer. The butter will be covered in foam when it is almost browned; remove the saucepan from the heat and stir until the foam subsides to check the color. If the butter isn’t deep golden, cook for another 30 seconds and check again. Remove from the heat and let cool completely, about 20 minutes. The milk solids and butter fat will continue to darken and turn deeper brown in the pan. (See Cook’s Note.)
- Line the bottom of a large airtight container with parchment paper and set aside.
- Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, fine sea salt, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl until thoroughly combined.
- Whisk the brown sugar, eggs, vanilla and cooled brown butter together in a large bowl until smooth. Stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture with a rubber spatula until just a few streaks of flour remain. Stir in the chopped chocolate until evenly distributed and all the flour is hydrated.
- Scoop the dough up with a 2-ounce cookie scoop or by generous 3-tablespoon portions. Round the dough if necessary and place into the parchment-lined container. Stack the dough between layers of parchment if necessary so the cookies don’t stick together. Cover with the lid and refrigerate at least 8 hours and up to 3 days to improve the texture and flavor. You can also freeze the dough (see Cook’s Note).
- When ready to bake, position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Arrange 6 dough portions on each lined baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches all around each. Bake both sheets until the cookies are golden around the edges but still soft in the middle, 15 to 17 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and switching them from bottom to top about halfway through.
- Sprinkle the hot cookies with flaky sea salt. Let the cookies cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Let the baking sheets cool completely, line them with fresh parchment if necessary and repeat the baking process with the remaining dough. Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days (see Cook’s Note).
Cook’s Note
When measuring flour, we spoon it into a dry measuring cup and level off excess. (Scooping directly from the bag compacts the flour, resulting in dry baked goods.) If the butter starts smoking, the milk solids have burned and will taste bitter; you’ll have to discard the butter and start over, so keep a watchful eye. The formed cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months and thawed overnight in the fridge before baking as directed above. Or you can bake the cookies right from frozen at 325 degrees F until the edges are golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Try warming leftover cookies in a toaster oven or air fryer for the best flavor and aroma.
