Meet your new go-to: brown butter chocolate chip cookies. This classic recipe gets a gourmet upgrade thanks to the rich, nutty flavor infusion of browned butter. They’re thick, gooey, loaded with melty chocolate and topped with a sprinkle of sea salt. A longtime reader favorite (with hundreds of rave reviews)!
Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (Chewy & Gourmet)
Not to be dramatic, but this isn’t your standard chocolate chip cookie recipe. Brown butter chocolate chip cookies have one game-changing, not-so-secret ingredient that takes them from good, to gourmet. If you’ve been paying attention, I’m sure you’ve guessed it by now: it’s brown butter.
To brown the butter, we cook it on the stovetop until the water evaporates and the milk solids are toasted. Might sound complicated, but it’s an easy process once you get the hang of it and I’ll walk you through it step by step. These extra few minutes of your time are well worth it to infuse a deep, nutty, toffee-like flavor onto every bite of your cookies.
Why You Need to Try These:
- Browned butter adds incredible flavor. By taking the extra time to brown the butter, we unlock deep nutty flavor with toasty notes of caramel and toffee that you can’t get from just plain melted butter.
- Pools of melty chocolate in every bite. We opt for chopped chocolate for rich chocolate puddles throughout the cookies. While some browned butter chocolate chip cookies will overwhelm the dough with chocolate, I was intentional about not doing that here and carefully striking just the right balance so the chocolate is present but highlights the dough without overwhelming it.
- Flaky sea salt puts things over the top. It’s a simple addition, but it elevates the cookies to gourmet status. Don’t go overboard, though, a light sprinkling is perfect.
Ingredients
Despite their gourmet flavor, brown butter chocolate chip cookies use humble, everyday ingredients (it’s all about how we use them that sets this recipe apart). Here’s what you need:
- Butter. We start with regular butter, then brown it on the stovetop (we’ll talk in more deatil about this below). The process only takes a few minutes, but it’s very important that you let the butter cool after browning, which usually takes about 30 minutes to an hour. It’s not necessary for the butter to re-solidify, but it should not feel warm to the touch.
- Sugar. We’ll use a blend of brown and granulated sugar. For the brown sugar, you can stick with all light brown or level things up (my recommendation) by using an even split of light brown and dark brown. The extra bit of molasses from the dark brown sugar adds an extra something to the cookies (all about that depth of flavor here!).
- Eggs. We need all of our ingredients to be the same temperature so they combine properly. This means our eggs and butter both need to be room temperature. I usually set my eggs out the night before I’m going to be baking. If you forget to set yours out, read my tip below!
- Chocolate. I know I call these brown butter chocolate chip cookies, but I honestly prefer to use chopped semisweet (or even dark) chocolate bars. I include instructions in the recipe for using regular chocolate chips, if that’s your preference.
SAM’S TIP: If you tend to forget to set out your eggs ahead of time, read my post on how to quickly bring eggs to room temperature! It can help save you a lot of time.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Step 1: Brown the butter
Brown butter (more formally known by its French name: Buerre Noisette…fancy!), is simply butter that’s been cooked until all of the water evaporates and the milk solids begin to turn brown. The end result is a rich, flavorful butter with a nutty, toffee-like aroma.
Cook the butter over medium heat, stirring constantly. It will foam, sizzle, and pop after melting, keep it moving so nothing burns (just stirring with a spatula works fine). Once the sizzling stops, pay extra close attention. You’ll notice browning beginning to occur on the bottom of the pan. Once you see plenty of brown (not black!) bits, remove from heat and immediately pour it into a heatproof mixing bowl (if you keep it in the pan, it could continue to cook from the residual heat and burn).
The browned butter needs to cool completely before you move on to the next step. It doesn’t need to re-solidify, but it should not feel warm to the touch.
Once you master this technique, you’ll be using it all the time… I recommend you use your new skill in my butter pecan cake or brown butter snickerdoodles next 😉
Step 2: Make the dough
The brown butter chocolate chip cookie dough comes together pretty quickly and easily. I’ll reiterate (because it’s important) that your butter must be cooled, or it’ll melt the sugar and you’ll have a greasy, thin dough that spreads all over your cookie sheet.
Eggs and vanilla go in with the butter and sugar, the dry ingredients are whisked separately then added, then add your chopped chocolate. While chocolate chips work, trust me and make your cookies that much more gourmet by swapping them out for chopped chocolate (the chocolate is way more melty and delicious this way).
Step 3: Chill, scoop, and bake
No one loves waiting for their dough to chill, but it’s a worthwhile step. It helps develop the flavor, helps the cookies stay thicker and spread less, and isn’t just in the recipe to annoy you. So, chill your dough.
Then, scoop your cookies into 2-Tablespoon scoops, roll them in to smooth balls between your palms (not mandatory, but makes them bake up prettier), and bake. Give your cookies breathing room on the baking sheet or they’ll all run into each other and make a mess (2″ is good).
While the cookies are still warm, sprinkle with a bit of flaky sea salt (I like Maldon, I’ll link to it in the recipe card), then let them cool.
SAM’S TIP: Slightly underbake your cookies! When they are ready to come out of the oven, the edges will be just starting to turn a light golden brown, and the centers may still look a bit underdone. The cookies will finish cooking outside the oven on their cookie sheets and will stay soft and chewy for days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Browned butter chocolate chip cookie dough can be made up to a week in advance. If you’d like to do this, just store it in your refrigerator (in an airtight container or tightly covered with plastic wrap) until ready to use. The flavors will actually develop even more as the dough sits.
Keep in mind that if your dough has chilled for longer than 30 minutes, it will likely be pretty firm when you go to scoop it, so you’ll likely need to let it sit at room temperature for a bit before it’s scoopable. Because of this, I prefer to roll the dough into balls right after making it and chill the balls in an airtight container. Note they don’t always spread as much after chilling this way… but I like a good cookie.
The most likely cause is your butter being too warm when you added your sugars. The warm butter can melt the sugars and leave you with a greasy, messy cookie dough that will spread like crazy. Unfortunately there is no way to fix this (even chilling the dough won’t help 😞). This is why it’s very important to let your butter cool before moving forward with the recipe!
If you don’t think your sugar is melted , I would recommend adding a bit more flour, a spoonful at a time, until the dough matches the consistency shown in the video.
On the other hand, if your cookies aren’t flattening out at all, you may have over-measured your flour. I can’t stress enough how helpful it is to use a kitchen scale!
I’ve received a lot of questions about this (on most of my browned butter cookies, actually), but no, you do not need additional liquid or to add water to this recipe. The loss of water is accounted for and important for this recipe to work as it is.
I’d love to hear what you think of these browned butter chocolate chip cookies, please let me know what you think!
Enjoy!
More Ways to Use Brown Butter:
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (225 g) unsalted butter cut into Tablespoon-sized pieces
- 1 cup (200 g) light or dark brown sugar¹ see note
- ⅔ cup (135 g) white sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 ¾ cups (340 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 10 oz (285 g) semisweet chocolate² see note
- flaky sea salt for sprinkling <- (click the link for the Maldon salt I use)
Recommended Equipment
- Kitchen Scale (not required, but recommended for best results)
Instructions
Brown the butter
- Place butter in a medium-sized saucepan (preferably a light colored one–this will make it easier to tell once your butter has browned) and melt the butter over low/medium-low heat.1 cup (225 g) unsalted butter
- Once melted, increase stovetop heat to just above medium heat.
- Swirl and scrape the sides of the pan constantly with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula – butter will foam and pop. Once the this noise slows, you should notice brown bits beginning to form on the bottom.
- Once you notice browning (and you smell that beautiful nutty aroma of browned butter), remove from heat quickly and pour into a large, heatproof bowl.
- Allow butter to cool at room temperature until no longer warm to the touch before proceeding with the recipe.
Cookie Dough
- Once your butter has cooled, add sugars and stir well.1 cup (200 g) light or dark brown sugar¹, ⅔ cup (135 g) white sugar
- Add eggs and vanilla extract and stir until dough is uniform.2 large eggs, 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt.2 ¾ cups (340 g) all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ¾ teaspoon salt
- Gradually add the flour mixture to butter mixture, stirring until ingredients are completely combined.
- Add chocolate and stir well so that chocolate is well distributed through the batter.10 oz (285 g) semisweet chocolate²
- Cover cookie dough bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
- About 15 minutes before dough has finished chilling/before you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Once dough has finished chilling scoop by about 2 Tablespoon-sized portions. Gently roll the dough between your palms so that you have a round ball, then place cookie dough at least 2″ apart on prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake on 350F (175C) for 10-12 minutes or until edges are just beginning to turn golden brown (cookies should still be quite soft when you remove them from the oven, and may even appear slightly underbaked in center).
- Let cookies cool for about a minute then sprinkle lightly with flaky sea salt. Allow cookies to cool completely on baking sheet before removing, then enjoy!flaky sea salt for sprinkling
Notes
¹Brown sugar
I like to use half light and half dark brown sugar, just because I usually have both on hand and like the blend. Either variety will work fine in this recipe, though. Cookies made with light brown sugar will be lighter in color, cookies made with dark brown sugar will be darker in color and slightly richer in flavor.²Chocolate
You can substitute chocolate chips instead, you’d need about 1 ¾ cups chocolate chips.³Brown Butter Note
If you’ve never browned butter before and are nervous about the process, make sure to watch my video at the top of the recipe card so you can see exactly how I do it. Very important: make sure it cools until no longer warm to the touch before using.Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
I originally published this recipe May 2017. Post updated to be more helpful and a new video added January 2026, recipe remains the same.
Chris Zito
I’ve follow the recipe exactly. The dough is now in the refrigerator chilling.. my arms are so tired from incorporating the flour that I thought I’d take a shortcut. I split the dough in half. Half is in the bowl ready to be scooped, the other half I put in a roll to slice and bake. I hope the slice and bake turn out OK, I’ll probably regret it.
My only problem was incorporating the flower into the dough. I don’t have upper arm strength, I did it, but I’m not in the mood now to scoop . 🤣
I’ll let you know how the slice and bake turns out
Barbara
can you use salted butter and just not add the salt in recipe?
Sam
Hi Barbara! You will just want to reduce the salt by 1/4 teaspoon. 🙂
Me
This recipe was really good. The first time I’ve made chcc I did semi sweet which wasn’t great tasting. But the nuttiness from the butter was very good and also I think making your own brown sugar has a different taste too. Thank you!
Bianca
So good! I thought I had a pretty good chocolate chip cookie recipe before, but this one is really exceptional!
Kate
I tried these cookies and they were wonderful! Just the right combination of soft and chewy. I added red and green m&m’s for the holidays and they were a hit! I’m definitely going to add these to my cookie rotation!
Quart
can these be double chocolate brown butter cookies
Sam
Without having tried it I can’t say for sure how to do it, but it’s worth an experiment. 🙂
Quart
hi, so I put 1 cup brown butter – 2 cup all purpose flour – 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder – 1 tsp baking soda – 1 tsp baking powder – 1 tsp corn starch – 3/4 tsp salt -2 eggs – 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract – 1/2 cup brown sugar – 1/2 cup dark brown sugar – 3/4 cup granulated sugar – 1/2 tsp cappuccino powder – 1 bag peppermint bark mix-in Ghirardelli (recommend 1/2 tsp Instant espresso powder instead also maybe 1 or 2 tbsp of heavy cream for moisture as cocoa powder can be more absorbing then flour)
Zack
Love making these cookies. It’s almost therapeutic. I double the recipe and store half the dough in the fridge for a week. They’re great reheated! This last time I did run into something odd though. The balls of dough on the cooking sheet after cooking didn’t go down. They just cooked into those little balls. Any advice? Every other time they have flattened and evened out nicely. Thanks in advance!
Sam
I’m so sorry to hear this happened, Zack! Was the dough crumbly? If so the brown butter may have had a little too much moisture cooked out of it. Sometimes if they chill for too long they won’t spread quite as much. 🙁
Ella
I made these because my friends begged me to make them and my family LOVED them! My dad said that they tasted burnt and that I should not give them to my friends! LOL!
Dawn
Used This recipe and added 1 tsp cornstarch, it is my new FAVORITE Chocolate chip cookie recipe! Perfect in Flavor, texture, and shape!
THANK YOU 😋
Penny
Flavor was exceptional but mine came out more of a cake texture and not chewy at all. What did I do wrong???
Sam
Hi Penny! That shouldn’t really happen or shouldn’t really be possible with brown butter. I have seen people add extra butter or add ice cubes to the butter to make up for the lost butter. I just want to confirm that didn’t happen here.
Leo
Best chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve ever tried!!!
kris
straight forward and delicious recipe! made for some friends and i think they’ll enjoy it but it’s personally just a bit too sweet for my taste but that’s expected w chocolate chip cookies. would this recipe be the same if i reduced some of the sugar?
Sam
Hi Kris! I’m not sure how they would turn out if you reduce the sugar.
Mark
I just tried this recipe and the dough came out very dry for me. I let it sit in the fridge overnight and it was even more form the next day. I thought maybe that’s just how its supposed to be but when I baked them they stayed closer to a ball form than a true cookie form. I am wondering if I did something wrong or if it calls for too much flour. I measured everything out exactly.
Sam
I’m so sorry to hear this happened, Mark! Did you make any substitutions? If not, did you weigh your flour? It sounds like there was too much flour in your dough. 🙁
Shacara
I experienced the same thing. Nothing like the pictured cookies. Almost dry.
Sam
Hi Shacara! Did you weigh your flour?
Kassandra Silva
Very very dry for me too and I did everything exact
Pearl
Mine turned out too dry as well and I measured everything exactly. I spooned and leveled the flour too to make sure there’s not too much flour because i don’t have a scale 🙁
Sam
I’m so sorry to hear this happened, Pearl! Did you make any substitutions?
TAVANA K BAIN
This is an awesome recipe! the instructions were precise and easy to follow. The cookies were moist and delicious! Although the “Worst” Chocolate Chip Cookies are yummy as well, everyone preferred the Brown Butter Cookies. 🥰😍🤩🤗
Kaiden
Best ones I’ve ever had, if you do longer than 1 hour in the fridge make sure they sit out until they are room temp because they tend to take double the time otherwise to cook.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies, Kaiden! Thank you so much for trying my recipe! 🙂
Chris Zito
👍🏻good advice
Linda Viggiano
The only problem I had was the ball of cookie did not come out looking like the picture in rhe recipe. So I flattened the ball before putting them in the oven. Anyone else have this problem?
Sam
I’m so sorry to hear this happened, Linda! Did you make any substitutions? Is is possible that there was accidentally too much flour added. 🙁
Barb
The consistency of the dough was just fine, but oven temp is too low. I should have increased to 375 and the results may have been better. Ended up baking for around 18 minutes at 350. I used a 2T scoop. Perfect cookie shape.
SHERYL GRANADE
Sam,
I have to say these are the best chocolate chip cookies ever what a difference the brown butter makes and then I add my homemade vanilla bean paste and everybody can’t get enough. I make them a little bit smaller, but this recipe is right up there with the best, thank you so much. I love your recipes. I use them all the time
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy you like them, Sheryl! Thanks for the sweet review 🩷
Jessica
I’ve made this recipe several times now and they cookies always turn out perfect! So many compliments on them and they’re even better warm! 10/10
Taylor
These cookies were AMAZING. I measured using a scale and they came out perfectly. I also weighed the cookies and did about 70g each for very well sized cookies. At that size 15 mins gave the perfect crispy outside and soft center. I also used chips vs chopped chocolate, which worked out great. Pecans or walnuts would be an excellent addition. I was able to fit 6 on a cookie sheet, so I refrigerated the rest of the pre shaped cookies overnight and they were still great the next day.
Bri
Cookie recipe and browning of the butter worked so well. Great consistency if you love a chewy cookie with a nice gentle crunch on the outside.
Next time I might using dark chocolate or bittersweet as it was a little too sweet for my taste (or use less chips)