4.94 from 225 votes

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Name: Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 12 min
Ingredients: 1 cup unsalted butter (cut into Tablespoon-sized pieces); 1 cup light or dark brown sugar¹ (see note ); ⅔ cup white sugar; 2 large eggs (room temperature); 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract; 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon cornstarch; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon baking soda; ¾ teaspoon salt; 10 oz semisweet chocolate² (see note); flaky sea salt for sprinkling (<- (click the link for the Maldon salt I use))

By Sam MerrittUpdated Jan 21, 2026

Jump to Recipe ▼

494 Comments

Servings: 20 cookies

This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read my disclosure policy.

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)!

Brown butter chocolate chip cookies on a metal cooling rack.

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.

overhead view of a spoon resting in a stainless steel pan of brown butter

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

Bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough with a blue silicone spatula resting in it.

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

Overhead view of chocolate chip cookies made with brown butter on a metal cooling rack.

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.

Chocolate chip cookie missing a bite on a metal cooling rack.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I make the dough in advance?

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.

Why are my cookies flat?

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!

Do I need to add water to make up for the loss from browning the butter?

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.