The Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
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These Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies deliver nutty, caramelized flavor with soft, chewy centers and crisp edges. A small but critical tweak gives them the perfect texture, instead of drying out like many brown butter cookie recipes.
As a former personal chef and trained pastry chef, I’ve made more chocolate chip cookies than I can count. Brown butter versions are always the most tempting—and the trickiest. Browning the butter adds incredible flavor, but it also cooks off moisture.
After testing batch after batch, I figured out how to fix it with the addition of one surprising ingredient. The result is a cookie with a subtle, nutty flavor and a chewy center that actually stays that way.
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🥗 Ingredients
- Sugar: I like a combination of granulated sugar and brown sugar in this recipe. The brown sugar helps with the chewiness, while white sugar helps with the crisp edges.
- Butter: Go with unsalted, so you can control the salt content in your cookies. If you only have salted butter, add only ½ teaspoon of kosher salt.
- Milk: The secret ingredient! This is what you need to add moisture back into the dough. Use 2% or whole milk if you have it.
- Chocolate Chips: Ghirardelli chocolate chips are my favorite, but any good-quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips will work. Or chop up a dark chocolate bar and use that instead.
🥣 How to Make Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Melt 14 tablespoons unsalted butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook just until it starts to turn light brown and smell nutty (about 5 minutes). Stir frequently during this process!
2. Remove pan from the heat and transfer butter into a large bowl. Scraping in any light brown bits is fine, but avoid anything that is dark brown or burned.
3. Let butter cool for 30 minutes. (Put it in the fridge if you want to speed up the cooling process.)
4. Whisk in ⅔ cup granulated sugar and ¾ cup packed light brown sugar.
5. Whisk in 2 eggs, 1 tablespoon milk, and 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract.
6. In a separate bowl, whisk together 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and ¾ teaspoon kosher salt.
7. Stir dry ingredients into the wet ingredients with a sturdy wooden spoon.
8. Fold in 1 ¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips.
9. Use a generously filled 1 ½ tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop out cookie dough, then roll into balls and place on sheet pan.
10. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until just golden brown around the bottom edges.
11. Remove cookie sheet from oven, and bang it on the counter 2-3 times.
Let cookies sit for 2 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.
Storage Tips
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They will last for 2-3 days. If they get a little stale, you can always pop them in the microwave for a few seconds to soften them up.
🧐 Recipe FAQs for the Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
When butter is browned, some of its water content evaporates. Adding a small amount of milk replaces that lost moisture, helping the cookies stay soft and chewy.
Yes, it is. The just-browned butter can scramble the eggs if it’s too hot. And, it makes the dough itself too warm as well. The cookies will spread when you bake them.
Yes! This dough is great for make-ahead. Feel free to make a day in advance and keep the dough in the refrigerator until you’re ready to bake. You can also scoop the dough into cookie balls and freeze on a baking sheet. Then, put the frozen balls of dough into a freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake directly from frozen (you may need to add a minute or two to the bake time). Now you can have the best chocolate chip cookies any time you want!
Browning butter cooks off some of its water content, which means your dough ends up with less moisture than a standard cookie recipe. Many recipes don’t account for this, which can lead to cookies that taste great but turn out dry or firm instead of soft and chewy.
Yes! In addition to freezing the cookie dough balls, you can also freeze the baked cookies. Store in a freezer-safe ziptop bag for up to 3 months. Just take out and bring to room temperature before eating.
👩🍳 Expert Tips
Take the cookies out just as the edges start to brown. These cookies overbake quickly, so err on the side of a little underbaked. The cookies will continue to set as they cool.
Careful not to overcook the butter. You’re looking for a light golden color and a nutty aroma, with some little brown flecks at the bottom of the pan. Use a pan with a light bottom or light colored skillet if you have one, so the color is easier to see. Contrary to what you might expect, browning the butter more will not improve the flavor!
As with all of my baking recipes, I highly, highly recommend weighing your ingredients and using a kitchen scale. Just switch the recipe card below to “metric” to see them.
Try adding some sprinkles of flaky sea salt on top of the cookies before baking.
Using a cookie scoop makes scooping cookies so easy! You don’t have to use the trick of rolling the scooped dough into circles, but it does help make cookies that are perfect circles.
The bang-on-the-counter trick for cookies is one of my favorites. It flattens the cookies a bit as they cool, making them a little more dense and chewy.
Other Delicious Cookie Recipes
If you love cookies as much as I do, you’ll want to try some of my other favorite cookie recipes:
If you try this Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, I would love to hear from you! Please rate this recipe and leave a comment below—your feedback is invaluable to me.
And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter. I’d love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!
📖 Recipe
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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 14 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup light brown sugar packed
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook until it just starts to turn light brown (about 5-10 minutes). Stir frequently during this process!
- Remove pan from the heat and pour butter into a large bowl. Let cool for 30 minutes.
- Whisk in granulated and brown sugars.
- Whisk in eggs, milk, and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Stir dry ingredients into the wet mixture with a sturdy wooden spoon.
- Stir in chocolate chips.
- Use a generously filled 1 ½ tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop out cookie dough, then roll into balls with your hands.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes, until just starting to brown around the bottom edges. Aim for slightly more towards underbaked because these firm up when you take them out of the oven.
- Remove baking sheet from oven, and bang it on the counter 2-3 times.
- Let cookies sit for 2 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.
Notes
- Careful not to overcook the butter. You’re looking for a light golden color and a nutty aroma, with some little brown flecks at the bottom of the pan. Use a pan with a light bottom or light colored skillet if you have one, so the color is easier to see. Contrary to what you might expect, browning the butter more will not improve the flavor!
- As with all of my baking recipes, I highly, highly recommend weighing your ingredients and using a kitchen scale. Just switch the recipe card above to “metric” to see them.
- Using a cookie scoop makes scooping cookies so easy! You don’t have to use the trick of rolling the scooped dough into circles, but it does help make cookies that are perfect circles.
Nutrition
Instagram Users: Now that you've made these chewy brown butter chocolate chip cookies, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I’d love to see your results!
More About Molly
Cooking healthy(ish) meals with seasonal ingredients is my passion. Trained as a French pastry chef, I spent over 10 years as a personal chef. Here you'll find well-tested recipes that you and your family will love!
