These brown butter chocolate chip cookies are bakery style chewy cookies! The brown butter adds a gourmet flavor to the cookies. If you are looking for a richer cookie, these are for you! These cookies are chewy with crisp edges and two types of chocolate chips. These are the perfect upgrade to a simple chocolate chip cookie.
How To Make Brown Butter
Making brown butter is actually super easy, and all it involves is melting the butter until the milk deposits separate and brown. Brown butter is a bit nutty in flavor, but once baked you can’t taste any of the nuttiness.
- Make the butter early- The butter needs to chill overnight. So make it up to 1 week before using.
- Use a frying pan- The larger the surface, the faster it will brown.
- Melt the butter- Melt the butter in the frying pan. Once melted, it will start bubbling. Stir occasionally.
- Let the butter foam- The next step is the butter foaming. Right before the milk deposits separate, it will get very foamy and it will be hard to see the bottom of the pan. Stir constantly at this point
- Let the milk deposits brown- The milk deposits (little specks) will separate. Keep stirring until the butter turns amber.
- Chill butter- Chill the butter overnight. The goal is to make the brown butter, and turn it back into a solid (like the butter you just melted).
- Room temperature brown butter- Pull the brown butter out 2 hours before baking. It should be soft enough to slide your finger through it. If it is too hard, place the butter on a plate. Then, microwave both sides for 10 seconds. It shouldn’t be melty, but soft room temperature butter.
Making The Cookie Dough
To make this dough, there are 4 steps.
- Step 1: Beat the brown butter, brown sugar, and sugar together until very light and fluffy. The fluffier the butter, the chewier the cookie.
- Step 2: Add in vanilla and eggs. Mix these until everything is combined.
- Step 3: Mix in dry ingredients. Mix in the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt. Mix until a dough forms. It will be a soft dough.
- Step 4: Add in chocolate chips. Add in chocolate chips and mini chocolate chips. The mini chocolate chips add more pockets of chocolate in each bite.
Scooping The Dough
To get bakery style cookies with chewy middles, bake them into large cookies. Use a 3 oz cookie scoop to get large cookies.
When scooping the dough, it will create ripples on the cookie dough balls. Once baked, the ripples will show through. Which looks so good!
Tips To Prevent Dough From Spreading
- Chill the dough- This is mandatory. This chill process helps to solidify the butter and also marinates the cookie flavor. Chill the dough for 30 minutes!
- Use parchment paper- To prevent spreading, use parchment paper on the cookie sheets. Baking the cookies straight on the cookie sheets or on silicone baking mats will cause the cookies to spread more.
- Chill cookie dough balls- After forming the cookie dough balls, keep them in the fridge before baking. They should be as cold as possible. Cold dough will prevent the butter from spreading.
Baking The Cookies
Bake the cookies for 13-15 minutes until the edges are lightly golden brown. To get the most round cookies use a spoon to form the edges back into a circle. Then, for extra drama, add chocolate chips and flaky sea salt on top while the cookies are warm.
Storing The Chewy Cookies
These brown butter chocolate chip cookies should be stored at room temperature in an air tight container. The cookies will last up to 5 days.
Freezing The Cookies
You can freeze both the cookie dough balls and the cookies themselves.
Freezing the cookie dough balls: After the initial chilling period, form the cookie dough balls. Wrap them in an air tight container and freeze. Freeze up to 3 months. Then, bake the cookies right from the freezer. It will take a few extra minutes of baking.
Freezing the cookies: Once the cookies are completely cooled, wrap them in an air tight container. Freeze up to 30 days. To thaw, place cookies on the counter for 1-2 hours before eating.
Other Cookie Recipes To Try
- Reese’s peanut butter chip cookies
- Sprinkle chocolate chip cookies
- Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies
- Caramel chocolate chip cookies
Make sure to tag me on Instagram @stephaniesweettreats and leave me a review below if you made these cookies. I hope you loved it! To get more ideas follow me on Pinterest.
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup Plus 2 TBSP unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup White granulated sugar
- 1 cup Brown sugar packed light or dark
- 1 tsp Pure vanilla extract
- 2 Large eggs room temperature
- 2 1/2 cups All-purpose flour
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Cornstarch
- 1 3/4 cup Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup Mini chocolate chips
Instructions
Brown Butter
- Use a large frying pan (between 10-12 inches) on medium heat, start melting the butter. The larger the frying pan, the quicker the butter will brown. If you do use a smaller pan it will take 5-10 minutes longer to brown.
- Once the butter is melted, whisk occasionally until the butter starts to foam. It will take 5-10 minutes to get the butter to start to foam. Once it does, whisk continuously because it will be hard to see what is happening underneath it.
- Once it starts to foam, there will be milk solids that will sink to the bottom. Those milk solids will start to turn a light brown after 1 minute. Heat until the milk solids are amber in color, then take off heat.
- Pour the butter into a glass measuring cup (or a thick glass jar). Make sure to scrape all the brown bits into the cup, that is where the flavor is! There should be exactly 1 cup of brown butter. The extra 2 TBSP will evaporate as the butter cooks.
- Cover the glass measuring cup with cling wrap, and place in the fridge. Chill overnight or until super solid. Before baking, let the butter sit on the counter for 2 hours. It should be soft like regular room temperature butter. If it is still hard, place butter on a plate and heat each side for 10 seconds in the microwave.
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cornstarch. Set aside.
- Use a mixer, and beat the brown butter, sugar, and brown sugar on high speed for 2 minutes. The butter should be light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla and mix until combined. Add in eggs one at a time. Mix until combined.
- Slowly add in the dry ingredients on low. Mix until combined. Add in semi-sweet chocolate chips and mini chocolate chips and mix on low for 10-15 seconds. Cover and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Use a large ice cream scoop (3 oz) and scoop the cookie dough. Compact the dough into the scoop and then place on cookie sheet. Don't try to manipulate the dough because we want the nice ripples on the cookie dough ball. Place the cookie dough 3 inches apart on the cookie sheet. I usually do 6 cookies per cookie sheet.
- Preheat oven to 350F, and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. While waiting for the oven to preheat, place first batch of cookie dough balls in the freezer to get really cold. The rest of the cookie dough balls should be in the fridge until ready to bake.
- Bake the cookies 13-15 minutes until lightly golden brown on the edges and on top. Let the cookies sit on the pan for 4 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Mary Walker
Hi. Can this dough be prepared and refrigerated ahead of time?
Stephanie Rutherford
Yes it can! Store it covered in the fridge. Then, take it out of the fridge 1 1/2- 2 hours before baking because it will be cold and very hard to scoop. Once it gets to be more room temperature, you can bake as normal.
Nikki
I’ve tried this recipe 3 times and I can’t seem to get good results. There is so much butter it’s literally oozing puddles out while baking. Thus causing them to spread too much. The edges burn and the center is raw.
I’m going to try one more time and I’ll add a considerable amount more flour.
Stephanie Rutherford
I am sorry to hear that is causing you troubles! Here are a few things that could help
1. If browning the butter, the butter will cook off and when you pour it into the a glass measuring glass it should equal 1 cup. If there is more than that, you only need 1 cup. More butter will cause that problem.
2. Let the butter cool completely in the fridge and then let it come to room temperature. Using warm kinda melty butter will cause the problems you describe. The consistency you want is if you grabbed regular stick butter and then let it come to room temperature for 2 hours. In this case its the brown butter.
3. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes. This helps to solidify the butter again, which also helps prevent the spreading.
I hope this helps!
Ann
Very straight forward recipe. Making the brown butter really takes no time at all. I actually enjoy that part. Brown butter really sets the chocolate chip cookie recipe over the top!! Highly recommend
Lorna
These were the bomb! My only change was to chill the dough before baking. This recipe is my new go to.
Rene
What does the corn starch do for baking these cookies
Stephanie Rutherford
The cornstarch helps to break down the gluten in the flour. This gives you a chewier cookie.
Sahar
Hi
May i use regular butter?
Stephanie Rutherford
Yes! Use 1 cup room temperature butter.