Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are plenty of brown butter recipes to make, but these brown butter chocolate chip cookies will always steal the show, in my humble opinion. Sweet, salty, and nutty, what’s not to love about these cookies!?

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe for brown butter chocolate chip cookies was inspired by a magazine article I had read on the use of brown butter in baking. I decided to test out some browned butter in my chocolate chip cookies and all I can say is, why didn’t I do this sooner!?

These are literally some of the best chocolate chip cookies ever! If you like your cookies crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside with lots of great flavor, then these cookies are it!

Brown Butter for Cookies

The brown butter just adds this extra dimension to the cookies, providing depth in a subtle, yet noticeable way.

The resulting nutty flavor from browning your butter pairs incredibly well with the sweet and salty flavors in the chocolate chip cookies.

If you’ve never browned your butter before, these brown butter chocolate chip cookies are the perfect place to start.

How to Brown Butter

When you brown butter, you’re simply cooking the butter until it’s golden, making the butter taste nutty and caramel-like, so you get those extra notes in each bite.

Browning your butter is also pretty quick and effortless, so it’s not like it’s a tedious extra step you have to take in carrying out this recipe.

All you do is melt your butter in a saucepan over low heat for approximately 10 minutes, giving it a swirl every minute or so to make sure it evenly cooks. Then, just wait a few minutes for the butter to cool before mixing it in with the sugar and the rest of the recipe ingredients. It’s a small step, but it makes an noticeable difference in flavor.

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

I topped a few of my brown butter chocolate chip cookies off with some fleur de sel before baking them, which is totally optional. Because there’s that slight caramel flavor in the cookies, the salty contrast from the salt on top is delicious.

If you do decide to make salted chocolate chip cookies, sprinkle some flakes on top of your cookie dough balls before you bake them.

Also, make sure you use fleur de sel rather than sea salt flakes (even though it seems like fleur de sel and sea salt are the same thing). Fleur de sel is actually finer than the course sea salt flakes you find in your normal grocery store.

Or you can just forget all that salt nonsense and enjoy these brown butter chocolate chip cookies as is since they’re fabulous on their own!

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: 26

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Sweet, salty, and nutty chocolate chip cookies made with browned butter. 

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Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 12 oz semisweet chocolate chips (see note)
• fleur de sel, (optional) for sprinkling on top

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with silicon mats or parchment paper. 
2. Melt butter over medium-low heat in a small saucepan for about 10 minutes, swirling the butter in the pan every minute or so. Butter should be golden in color and smell somewhat nutty when it's ready. As it's getting closer and closer to the color you want, keep an eye on the butter rather than periodically checking on it. Remove from heat and allow butter to cool until it's just warm. Hint: if you poor the butter into a cool bowl/measuring cup, it'll cool faster than if you leave it in the saucepan.
3. Mix butter with sugar until combined. Add in eggs and vanilla and mix again. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Add this combination to the wet ingredients and mix until dough clumps together. The dough will look glossy and not quite as stiff as other cookie doughs - this is normal.
4. Stir chocolate chips into cookie dough. Measure out 2-tablespoon size balls of cookie dough and place on baking sheet. If adding any fleur de sel, sprinkle on top of cookie dough balls. For the first batch, pop into the freezer for 5 minutes. (For remaining batches, you don't need to do this as the dough will stiffen up as it rests on the counter.)
5. Bake cookies for approximately 13 minutes until golden along the edges and cracked all over the top. Allow cookies to cool on a wire rack for a few minutes before moving onto a plate.

Notes

Note: Feel free to mix in chopped chocolate instead of some or all of the chocolate chips. You can use a semisweet chocolate bar, dark chocolate bar, or even milk chocolate bar. I love using the Valhorna chips they sell at Whole Foods and sometimes do a mixture of semisweet chocolate chips with chopped Valhorna milk chocolate.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 30 Serving Size: 30 Servings
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 164