Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

By Adrianna Adarme

4.88

54

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!

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with flakey sea salt on top.

Table of Contents

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.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with flakey sea salt on top.

Ingredients For Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients for brown butter chocolate chip cookies.
  1. 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.
  2. Sugars – This recipe uses white sugar and brown sugar. The ratio is definitely more brown sugar to white, resulting in a chewy cookie.
  3. Eggs – Whole eggs and an egg yolk. The egg yolk adds a nice richness to the dough that feels luxurious.
  4. 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.
  5. Baking soda – This gives a nice color to the cookies as well as helps with spreading.
  6. 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.

Brown butter in a pan.

How to Make Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chilled brown butter.
  1. Whisk together the dry ingredients. Brown the butter, allow the butter to cool for five minutes.
Brown sugar and brown butter in bowl with whisk.
  1. Then whisk in the sugars.
Whisking brown butter chocolate chip cookie wet ingredients.
  1. Add in the eggs and egg yolk and whisk until very smooth.
Pouring wet ingredients into dry ingredients.
  1. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry.
Brown butter chocolate chip cookie dough.
  1. Mix until just combined.
  1. Add the chocolate and the walnuts.
Brown butter chocolate chip cookie dough.
  1. Chill the dough for 1 hour or overnight.
Brown butter chocolate chip cookie dough balls.
  1. Next, scoop out balls with a 2-ounce cookie scoop.
Baked brown butter chocolate chip cookies.
  1. 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.
Brown butter chocolate chip cookies.
  1. 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!

Brown butter chocolate chip cookies on a platter.

To Freeze this Cookie Dough

I have a whole post on How to Freeze Cookie Dough. But quickly, here’s how:

  1. I like to scoop out the doughs of cookie dough and place them on a plate or baking sheet (whatever fits in your freezer).
  2. Place them in the freezer for 30 minutes. This is known as flash freezing them.
  3. Then add the to a freezer-safe bag. Bake them straight from the freezer; you’ll most likely need a few minutes longer.
Brown butter chocolate chip cookie dough balls in storage bag.

More Cookies to Make and Eat

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!

4.88 from 33 votes

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

By Adrianna Adarme
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 30 minutes
Chilling Time for Dough: 1 hour
Total: 1 hour 45 minutes
Servings: 2 dozen
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Brown butter chocolate chip cookies are so gooey and nutty in flavor. They're made better with walnuts; if you disslike walnuts in your chocolate chip cookies, leave them out!

Video

Ingredients 

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

Calories: 124kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 32mg | Sodium: 21mg | Potassium: 23mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 21g | Vitamin A: 5IU | Calcium: 32mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Like this Recipe? Please Rate & comment below!

*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!

4.88 from 33 votes (12 ratings without comment)

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54 Comments

  1. Hi! My cookies won’t spread and I’d love to know what I’m doing wrong. I skipped the walnuts, and instead of chopped chocolate, I used all chips. I also don’t have a scale, so I used a measuring cup for the flour and eyeballed the scoops. But for some reason, the cookies won’t spread. Would using just chips have any impact on this? Or perhaps the dough ball size? I don’t believe I used more flour than called for, but I know that have have an impact. I still have some dough in the fridge — could it be a temperature? Dough ball size? Would love any troubleshooting tips at this stage. Thanks!

    Reply

    1. Hi Alexandra, I would definitely weigh the flour in the future. Even 5 grams (about 2 teaspoons of flour) can make a huge difference with cookies. At this point, I would just press the dough down a bit before baking. This will help make them not so thick. Let me know how it goes!

      Reply