Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Brown butter chocolate chip cookies are here! These might just be the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made.
These cookies are exactly what I imagine when I think of the perfect chocolate chip cookies: ever so crisp on the outside but still super chewy on the inside, loaded with chocolate chips (2 kinds!) and sprinkled with sea salt. The brown butter gives them a hint of toffee that just puts them into over the top good territory. Let make them!
Brown butter chocolate chip cookie ingredients
- Brown butter – we just start with regular unsalted butter and will make the brown butter on our own, instructions below
- Brown sugar & white sugar
- Vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract – I used paste
- Egg – just one!
- Dry ingredients: all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda
- Chocolate chips or chunks – I did a combo of mini chocolate chips and regular
So no surprises here, just your typical chocolate chip cookie ingredients. And we will make them in the typical fashion except lets first talk about…
How to make brown butter
Brown butter had eluded me for some time and now that I’ve made it I can’t believe it took me so long and I want to put it in everything. It is amazing. The smell. OMG. Nutty, toffee-like… I love it!
First, melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium heat
Once it melts, don’t walk away! Stir occasionally. It will start to get foamy and that is okay.
Continue to cook, stirring often until it starts to brown and takes on a whole new, delicious scent that has the aforementioned qualities (nutty, toffee-y, etc). If it still just smells like regular butter, it’s not done! You will also notice little brown flecks settling on the bottom when it’s near done.
To use this in these chocolate chip cookies, you are going to have to let it re-solidify.
Using brown butter in baked goods
In order to get the brown butter to the right consistency for cookies you can either make the browned butter the night before you plan to make the cookies and leave in an airtight container on the counter overnight or you can put it in the fridge to speed up the process.
Once your brown butter is ready, we make these just like 99.9% of chocolate chip cookies. Beat that butter and sugar, add the egg and vanilla, then the dry ingredients and then the chips.
Do you have to refrigerate the dough?
Ummmmm yes. But just for one hour.
Then…
Scoop and drop
Scoot and shake
Sprinkle with that sea salt for the perfect finish.
And there you have it: brown butter chocolate chip cookies in all their glory. Worth every bit of wait time, I promise.
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
The best brown butter chocolate chip cookies!
- Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 55 minutes
- Yield: 20 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert, Cookies
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- sea salt for topping (optional )
Instructions
Brown the butter
- The night before you plan to make the cookies, place butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Allow it to melt and continue to cook, stirring occasionally until little brown flecks star to settle on the bottom of the pan and the butter takes on a nutty scent.
- Transfer the butter to an airtight container and allow it stay on the counter overnight. (If you don’t want to do this ahead of time, you can place it in the fridge until it reaches the consistency of soft, room temperature butter).
Make the cookies
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Place brown butter and both sugars in a mixing bowl. Use an electric mixer to beat until light and fluffy, this will take about 5 minutes.
- Add the egg and vanilla and continue to using the mixer to beat until combined. Add the flour, salt and baking soda and continue beating until fully combined.
- Stir in chocolate chips.
- Use a 1.5 tbsp cookie scoop to scoop and drop dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 10 minutes. Top with sea salt immediately after removing from the oven. Allow them to sit on the baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
- Enjoy!
