Browned butter chocolate chip cookies may change your life. The addition of browned butter plus a pinch of cinnamon adds so much flavor to a perfectly chewy cookie. Refrigerate the dough and you’ll have the BEST chocolate chip cookies around.
Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are the BEST
Are you looking for a thick and chewy chocolate chip cookie that will be THE cookie recipe that everyone will be asking for? Then you have to give browned butter chocolate chip cookies a try.
I know, who needs another chocolate chip cookie recipe, there are so many other good cookies to try, but trust me these are different. They’re the cookie recipe that everyone asks me for. Browned butter combined with brown sugar makes the best cookies but add some chocolate and salt and you have the most delicious cookie.
When Natalie was home for Easter break during her college days. She found a video on youtube that she said I just had to watch, Basics with Babish. Natalie loves this guy so we watched it together and after making many batches of cookies, came up with what are now our favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Why these are the Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Browning the butter completely changes the taste of these cookies from good to amazing!
- Just a hint of cinnamon helps bring out the flavors
- You get a chewy cookie, not a flat crispy one
- There’s just nothing like the rich flavor when chocolate brown sugar and browned butter are combined.
What makes this Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe different
- Brown Butter
- Cinnamon
- 24 hour refrigeration of the dough
These homemade chocolate chip cookies require a little more planning than a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe. You’ll need to brown the butter and then refrigerate it until it’s solid which will take about an hour. Once the dough has been made it’s best if you can refrigerate it for 24 hours if possible. Of course if you just can’t wait they will still be delicious but even more so if you wait 24 hours.
What you’ll need for Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Butter – butter gives great flavor to all baked goods and when it’s been browned, it has a nutty unique taste
- Sugars – both white and brown sugar for taste and texture with most of the sugar being brown sugar.
- Cinnamon – just a little of this boosts the flavors of the other ingredients
- Chocolate chips – semi-sweet or milk chocolate, or be crazy and add both
- Pantry staples – salt, baking soda, flour, eggs
What type of chocolate is best in a chocolate chip cookie?
Traditional chocolate chip cookies are made with semi-sweet chocolate. Once baked, the chips will harden. If you want softer chocolate, try using milk chocolate chips instead.
How to make Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Step 1
You’ll start by browning the butter, that just means you’ll cook it on the stove until it starts to brown. Then you pour it into a bowl and refrigerate until it’s solid again.
So instead of using room temperature butter that you beat until it’s light and fluffy, you mix cold browned butter with the sugars just until combined.
Browning butter for chocolate chip cookies
Browning butter can be tricky but not if you follow these tips.
- Start by putting the butter in a light colored pan so that you can see when it begins to change color.
- Cook over medium heat so that it doesn’t get hot too quickly and burn.
- Stir continuously so that the butter cooks evenly.
- Once it melts it will begin to foam and then you will see some dark specks appear. Once you smell the nutty aroma and it has started to turn golden, remove from the heat and transfer it to a heat proof bowl. If you leave it in the pan it will continue to cook and burn. It only takes a few seconds to go from magical browned butter to burnt butter.
Step 2
Next you add all the other normal ingredients with the addition of cinnamon. You don’t really taste the cinnamon but it adds a depth to the flavors that you don’t get in a traditional chocolate chip cookie. You will need a tablespoon of salt, that is not a typo.
Step 3
Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour but preferably for 24 hours. If you can’t wait, your cookies will spread out into a flatter cookie.
Step 4
Let the dough warm slightly at room temperature, enough so that you can form it into balls.
Step 5
Once you can get an ice cream scoop into the dough, scoop out into balls, you can press them down a little to get a flat bakery style cookie, otherwise it will spread out just enough so that you get a slightly domed cookie. My recipe makes 22 pretty large cookies.
Pro tip: Let the dough warm up before trying to form into balls. This can take an hour depending on how hot your kitchen is.
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe notes
You can definitely make these smaller but whatever the size, you’ll have a hard time keeping them around. So while they take a couple of extra steps, it’s well worth.
If you prefer a flatter cookie, or don’t want to refrigerate the dough at all, you can bake these right away. Since the butter is not cold, you will have a flatter cookie.
If you’re looking for a cookie recipe to mail to someone, these chocolate chip cookies are a great choice, they freeze well and are sturdy enough to handle some bouncing around.
How to store Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for about two weeks.. You can extend their freshness by keeping them in the refrigerator but they start to lose their flavor after a couple of weeks. The best way to keep them fresh is to freeze them.
How do you freeze cookies?
The best way to freeze cookies is to place in a freezer ziplock bag. If you are going to freeze for long periods of time double bag the cookies.
Looking for a different type of chocolate chip cookie, try Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies or Chocolate Chip Cookies with Grated Chocolate. If you really love chocolate, then Chocolate Dulce De Leche Cookies should be on your short list of cookies to try.
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie FAQs
By gently cooking butter over heat until it slightly changes to a golden brown, the flavor and aroma is changed when you add it to whatever you’re cooking.
Ultimately it caramelizes your cookie dough.
The short answer – you can use both. If you want to better control the salt in your dish, you can go with unsalted. Some prefer to always bake with salted butter.
Refrigerating cookie dough solidifies the butter. But by refrigerating for a longer period, the flavors deepen to make a better tasting cookie. If you bake these cookies without refrigerating the dough, they’ll be flatter vs a domed cookie.
You can substitute brown butter for butter by letting it cool and then refrigerate it until it solidifies. Then use it as you would regular butter.
If your cookies turned out greasy, it is probably because the butter was not cooled enough before using. Let it solidify and then be just slightly softened before adding it to cookies.
When you cream butter with sugar in chocolate chip cookies it provides air that contributes to the structure of the cookie. It provides fat and moisture which affects the gluten development which can affect the shape and texture of the cookie. Most importantly it adds flavor!
To keep brown butter cookies from spreading you need to let the butter cool before making the cookie dough. Then refrigerate the dough for at least an hour.
Change up your cookies with these delicious flavors
Adapted from Basics with Babish
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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 ¼ cups flour
- 1 tablespoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
- 12 ounces chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a saucepan, cook butter over medium heat until it begins to turn brown. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl. Refrigerate until solid.
- Add butter and both sugars together in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix until combined, not light and fluffy. Add eggs and mix to combine.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. Add to butter mixture in 2 batches and mix until just combined. Add chocolate chips and mix to combine.
- Refrigerate for at least an hour but preferably 24 hours. Remove and let warm up enough so that you can scoop it out with an ice cream scoop.
- Preheat oven to 350º and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Scoop out dough with an ice cream scoop and form into balls. Don’t press down.
- Bake for 12 minutes until starting to turn brown.
Video
Barbara’s Tips + Notes
- To brown the butter, place it in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until it just starts to turn brown.
- Make sure you pour the browned butter into a glass dish as soon as it turns brown. It will continue to cook in the pan and burn very quickly.
- Leave yourself enough time for the butter to solidify about 30 to 60 minutes
- These cookies are even better if the dough refrigerates overnight.
- Let the dough warm up slightly before trying to form into balls. This can take an hour depending on how cold the dough is.
Nutrition
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These are the absolute best chocolate chip cookies ever! Perfect combination of sweet and salty, and the cinnamon really give them an extra lift. These are the only chocolate chip cookies I will ever make, and they will be a hit at any bake sale or event!
I agree these are the BEST!
Dear god. This may be the best chocolate chip cookie recipe on the internet. 24 hours people. Wait the entire 24 hours. Stop what you are doing and make this recipe. No revisions or modifications. It’s perfect as is.
I agree, the 24 hours makes a difference. So glad you like it, it’s what everyone always asks me to make when they’re in the mood for chocolate chip cookies.
Hi, I’m wondering if the salt is fine grain or if it’s coarse since 1 tbsp seems like a lot? Thanks.
I use Coarse Kosher salt, it sounds like a lot but it makes them great.