Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
These bakery-style brown butter chocolate chip cookies have crisp, caramelized edges, dense and chewy centers, and puddles of melted dark chocolate.
Ingredients
- 2 cups Flour AP, plain flour
- 1 teaspoon Baking soda
- 1 cup Butter unsalted
- ⅓ cup Granulated sugar
- 1 ¼ cups Brown sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 Egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 ½ cups Chocolate chunks
Instructions
- Brown the Butter & Cool: Add the butter to a light-colored saucepan over medium heat. Light-colored pans allow you to monitor the color change accurately. Swirl the pan constantly as the butter melts, boils, and foams.
- Watch for the crackling sound to stop and for small golden-brown specks to form at the bottom of the pan. The butter will smell distinctly nutty.
- Immediately pour the brown butter (and all brown specks) into a heat-safe mixing bowl to stop the cooking process. Allow the brown butter to cool until it is lukewarm to the touch (around 15 to 20 minutes).
- Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, kosher salt, and vanilla extract to the cooled brown butter. Whisk vigorously until smooth and combined.
- Add the room-temperature egg and egg yolk. Whisk until the mixture becomes slightly paler, smooth, and glossy.
- Sift the all-purpose flour and baking soda into the bowl. Fold gently with a rubber spatula until a few dry flour streaks remain.
- Add the chopped dark chocolate chunks. Fold just until no dry flour remains. Do not overmix.
- Chill: Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 to 2 hours (overnight yields the best flavor development). Chilling hydrates the flour and firms up the butter fat to prevent excess spreading.
- Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Use a 1 ½-tablespoon cookie scoop to portion dough into balls onto the prepared sheets, leaving 2 inches between each cookie. Press a few reserved chocolate chunks into the top of each ball.
- Bake for 11 to 12 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and set, but the centers still look soft and slightly underbaked.
- The Cookie Scoot: Immediately upon pulling the tray from the oven, place a large round cookie cutter over a hot cookie and gently swirl it in a circular motion against the baking sheet for 3–5 seconds. This pulls in stray edges and creates a perfectly round, thick cookie.
- Sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to set completely.
Notes
- Weigh Your Ingredients: For consistent bakery-quality results, weigh dry ingredients (especially flour) in grams using a digital kitchen scale. Measuring by volume often packs in excess flour, creating dry, cakey cookies.
- Cool the Brown Butter: Let the browned butter cool for 15–20 minutes until lukewarm before whisking with sugars and eggs. Hot butter will scramble the eggs and melt the sugars prematurely, leading to greasy, flat cookies. Be sure to scrape all golden-brown specks into the mixing bowl.
- Use Bar Chocolate: Use high-quality 56%–70% cocoa dark chocolate bars (such as Lindt, Ghirardelli, or Guittard) chopped by hand. Standard chocolate chips contain stabilizers that hold their shape and prevent them from forming signature melted chocolate pools.
- Don't Skip Chilling: Chill dough for at least 1 to 2 hours (or overnight for maximum flavor). Chilling fully hydrates the flour and solidifies the butterfat, preventing the cookies from spreading too thin.
- Bake Time & Pan Rest: Pull cookies at the 11 to 12-minute mark when edges are golden and set, even if centers look soft and slightly underbaked. Let them rest on the hot baking sheet for 5 minutes post-bake so residual heat sets the fudgy interior.
- The Cookie Scoot: Immediately after removing the pan from the oven, swirl a round cookie cutter around each hot cookie for 3–5 seconds to push in stray edges and create perfectly uniform, thick centers.
- Freezing & Baking from Frozen: Portion dough into 1 ½-tablespoon balls, flash-freeze on a tray for 1 hour, and store in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. Bake straight from frozen at 180°C (350°F) for 12 to 13 minutes without thawing.
Nutrition
Calories: 341kcalCarbohydrates: 41gProtein: 3gFat: 18gSaturated Fat: 11gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0.5gCholesterol: 54mgSodium: 244mgPotassium: 139mgFiber: 2gSugar: 27gVitamin A: 394IUCalcium: 33mgIron: 2mg
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