Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Updated Dec 04, 2025, Published Dec 18, 2023
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Welcome to my favorite Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. These cookies have a deep, nutty flavor to them; they’re made with two types of chocolate, chopped walnuts (optional!) and flakey sea salt on top. Their texture is perfection: crispy edges with soft and chewy centers–yum!
It is no secret that I love brown butter. It makes everything better. Maybe you’ve seen my Brown Butter Scallops with Butternut Squash Risotto or my Brown Butter Apple Crumble. Savory or sweet, it truly makes EVERYTHING better.
Ingredients For Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate – I like using a bar of bittersweet chocolate (we will chop this) AND semi-sweet chocolate chips. This gives great chocolate dimension to these cookies.
- Sugars – This recipe uses white sugar and brown sugar. The ratio is definitely more brown sugar to white, resulting in a chewy cookie.
- Eggs – Whole eggs and an egg yolk. The egg yolk adds a nice richness to the dough that feels luxurious.
- Butter – I like using unsalted butter so we can control the salt amount in the cookies. And of course, using good-quality butter helps. I used KerryGold for this recipe.
- Baking soda – This gives a nice color to the cookies as well as helps with spreading.
- Vanilla extract – I love making Homemade Vanilla Extract. Of course, store-bought is fine!
For the full list of the ingredients, please see the recipe index card below!
How to Brown Butter
I like to start with the butter cubed. And place it in a shallow pan over medium heat. You will slowly see it foam up (this is all the water evaporating out of the butter). Give it a stir regularly. Slowly you will start to see the milk solids caramelize, resulting in brown butter! I like to take my brown butter pretty far. You want it to be golden, dark brown. Immediately pour it into a bowl so it stops cooking.
How to Make Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Whisk together the dry ingredients. Brown the butter, allow the butter to cool for five minutes.
- Then whisk in the sugars.
- Add in the eggs and egg yolk and whisk until very smooth.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry.
- Mix until just combined.
- Add the chocolate and the walnuts.
- Chill the dough for 1 hour or overnight.
- Next, scoop out balls with a 2-ounce cookie scoop.
- Bake cookies at 350°F for 8 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and use a large cookie cutter to help shape them. Then bake for an additional 4 minutes.
- Let them cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then move them to a cooling rack. Serve them warm!
Tips and Tricks
Weigh your flour – For quick breads (like my Easy Banana Nut Bread), weighing flour isn’t that necessary but I find with cookies it’s critical to get the perfect consistency.
Use light colored baking sheets – My favorite are from NordicWare. I own a few of them and they’re amazing. Dark colored baking sheets will result in darker bottomed cookies that are burnt or overbaked.
Place chocolate chips on top. I like to place a few chocolate chips on top of the balls of dough so they look the best.
Use a large cookie cutter to ‘scoot’ the cookies. I like to do this to shape my cookies into perfect circles. It’s totally optional.
Make these ahead! The cookie dough can be made, scooped out into dough balls and kept in the fridge, covered tightly, for up to 3 days. Bake them straight from the fridge.
Christmas Cookies
For festive Christmas cookies, swap out the chocolate chips for red and green candy-coated chocolate. I like to add the chocolate candies to the batter and also pack them around the entire dough ball. They look extra festive and stand out beautifully in a Christmas cookie box!
To Freeze this Cookie Dough
I have a whole post on How to Freeze Cookie Dough. But quickly, here’s how:
- I like to scoop out the doughs of cookie dough and place them on a plate or baking sheet (whatever fits in your freezer).
- Place them in the freezer for 30 minutes. This is known as flash freezing them.
- Then add the to a freezer-safe bag. Bake them straight from the freezer; you’ll most likely need a few minutes longer.
More Cookies to Make and Eat
Desserts
Homemade Mint Milano Cookies
Desserts
Iced Oatmeal Cookies
Desserts
Chewy Pistachio Lace Cookies
Cookies
S’mores Cookies
If you tried this Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Video
Ingredients
- 3 (360g) cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, (we're going to melt it so it can be straight from the fridge)
- 2 teaspoons water
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 large whole eggs
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or vanilla paste
- 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (from a bar)
- 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt.
- In medium saucepan, set over medium-low heat, melt the butter. Take out a silicon whisk and give the butter a stir. It will begin to foam up and bubble. Stirring frequently, allow it to keep going until it goes from a pale yellow color to a light brown color. Once it hits a light brown color, I like to give it a few more stirs just so I can monitor the color. This process happens quickly so don’t walk away! Keep stirring it until it goes from a light brown color to deep golden brown. Remove it from the heat and give it a few more stirs.
- I like to let it continue to cook until it’s dark brown. Immediately pour it into a large bowl. Whisk in the two teaspoons of water. Allow the brown butter to cool for about 10 minutes. (If you don’t do this, when you add the chocolate, it’ll melt.)
- Next, whisk in the sugars. And then, add the eggs and vanilla. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Lastly, fold in chocolate chips and walnuts (if using). Stick in fridge for 1 hour to chill.
- Preheat oven to 350F. Scoop out 2-ounce balls of dough and roll them between your palms; place them onto a parchment-lined baking sheet spacing them 4 inches apart.
- Bake for 8 minutes. At the 8-minute mark, remove them from the oven to shape them (this is optional). Rotate the pan and bake for an additional 3 to 4 minutes, until the edges are lightly golden brown.
Notes
Tips and Tricks:
- Weigh your flour – For quick breads (like my Easy Banana Nut Bread), weighing flour isn’t that necessary but I find with cookies it’s critical to get the perfect consistency.
- Use light colored baking sheets – My favorite are from NordicWare. I own a few of them and they’re amazing. Dark colored baking sheets will result in darker bottomed cookies that are burnt or overbaked.
- Place chocolate chips on top. I like to place a few chocolate chips on top of the balls of dough so they look the best.
- Use a large cookie cutter to ‘scoot’ the cookies. I like to do this to shape my cookies into perfect circles. It’s totally optional.
- Make these ahead! The cookie dough can be made, scooped out into dough balls and kept in the fridge, covered tightly, for up to 3 days. Bake them straight from the fridge.
To Freeze Cookie Dough:
I have this post right here that explains how to do so! Equipment and Tools: OXO Medium Cookie Scoop | Baking Sheets | KitchenAid Stand-Up Mixer | Silicon Spatulas |Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
*The original post is from 2019; this recipe has been updated and new photos have been taken. I can guarantee this recipe is SO much better. For clarity, the leavening has been adjusted, new chocolates are being used. But that’s it!
These Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies look absolutely divine! The detailed instructions and tips, like weighing flour and chilling the dough, are super helpful for ensuring perfect results. Can’t wait to try this recipe—brown butter truly takes everything to the next level
I’m a cookie connoisseur and these are truly the best brown butter chocolate chip cookies! We make a batch every couple of months, scoop them into balls and freeze. That way we can have a couple fresh cookies out of the oven whenever we want them. Please make this recipe if you’re on the fence! It’s 10/10, no notes, not a single edit. They come out perfect every time.
Hi Adrianna! Do you put the chocolate chips and chunks in at the same time or do you put the chunks on the top to finish the cookies? Thank you!
Putting the water into the super hot butter made it foam up and overflow. The hot butter spilled all over my hands and my countertop! It burned my hands and made a huge mess.
They turned out sooo good! Thankyou for sharing this recipe . It was my first time trying out cookies and safe to say they were ahhh-mazing! My family devoured them in a day.
thanks so much for sharing! so glad they turned out great. 🙂
Perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. It is so easy!! The recipe didn’t mention this, but I pack my brown sugar (300g total for the recipe) and they turn out perfect. I also use a 3oz scoop because I like a bigger cookie, flatten the top a little so it is shaped like a puck, then chill. I feel like some people are not into nuts, but you chop them finely so they just add to the texture. I love this recipe so much.
I absolutely love these cookies but I have noticed they get hard after a few days even if in an airtight container.
Hands down my favorite cookie recipe. Couldn’t find chocolate chunks anywhere so I just got milk and dark chocolate bars and cut them up but man oh man did it still worked. Topped them with a bit of flaky salt right out of the oven and they are out of this world good. As my fiancé described it, this recipe is “generational” and should be passed on from generation to generation. So glad your page showed up on my Instagram discover page!
wonderful to hear!!
this is truly the best compliment ever!
Made these today! They came out flat as a pancake ☹️.
Tasted great, but not the prettiest cookie I’ve made.
Any tips??
they sounded like they needed to chill a bit more in the fridge. I would just chill the dough a bit longer. The other thing could be that there wasn’t enough flour. Are you sure you measured that correctly? To ensure the most accurate results, I would weigh the flour next time.
My hubby, who doesn’t like chocolate chip cookies, loves these. Great recipe