These brown butter chocolate chip cookies are easy to make and taste like a Michelin star dessert. The cookie is crunchy on the outside and gooey and caramel like in the middle with puddles of chocolate chips. Topped with sea salt flakes for good measure, one bite of these brown butter chocolate chip cookies will send you straight to heaven.
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Why you will love this cookie recipe
- A classic chocolate chip cookie but elevated in flavor
- The dough is chilled for 24hrs
- No fancy kitchen equipment required
- Bakery cookies at home
- Made with simple and quality ingredients
Recipe notes
Browning the butter: Browning the butter gives these cookies a slightly nutty and caramel like flavor. It’s decadent and rich and pairs so well with the dark chocolate and sea salt. It turns this cookie into an adult like chocolate chip cookie. A cookie that you will want to hide from the kids because it is too good to share. Here’s a fun article by King Arthur on brown butter in cookies.
Two Flours: I use all purpose flour and kamut flour in this cookie recipe. The reason for this is because I wanted the best of both worlds. The all purpose flour yields a more chewy cookie with crispy edges. While the kamut flour is higher in protein (allowing it to absorb liquid easily) making a more elastic cookie dough. The both together create a very chewy and bendable cookie with crispy edges. If you don’t know much about kamut you can swap it out with one cup of bread flour instead. It’s very similar to bread flour. Here’s an article by King Arthur on bread flour, “Bread Flour for Cookies: Here’s why it works well.”
Salt: The main purpose of salt is to enhance the other ingredients. It brings out the nutty flavor of the brown butter, the sweetness of the sugars, the bitterness of the dark chocolate and the richness of the flour. Salt balances everything. Without salt the cookie would bland. So the next time you think of omitting the salt, don’t. Also make sure and reach for a good quality salt. My favorite is Redmond Real Salt. It is unrefined, containing 60+ trace minerals and comes from an ancient seabed in Utah. I’ve been using it in my baking and cooking ever since I was little. It is what my mom has always bought and what I will continue to buy. For finishing salt I use Maldon Sea Salt Flakes!
Egg Yolks: another tip for yielding extremely chewy and flavor packed cookies is the addition of an egg yolk. Egg yolks are high in protein like Kamut flour acting as a binder and provide richness from the added fat in the yolk. So if your cookies turn out dry try adding an extra egg yolk to the dough the next time.
Chilling the Dough: When you chill the dough it slightly ferments, marinating all the ingredients together for a more intense tasting cookie. It is sweeter and saltier all at the same time. Taking your tastebuds on a journey. You will also notice less spreading because the fat (aka butter) is cold, taking it longer to melt when heated leaving you with a thicker and fuller cookie.
Recipe variations
- Add a large scoop of vanilla bean ice cream between two cooled cookies for the best ice cream cookie sandwich of your life!
- If you don’t like chocolate use white chocolate chips instead.
- Make my easy homemade toffee from my Pecan Pie Cookie Recipe and add 1/2 cup to the dough for yummy caramel, chocolate cookies. Or use Heath toffee bits from the store.
- For a more fruity cookie add 1/2 cup of freezer dried raspberries.
How to make the cookies
- Start by browning the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once it foams and brown, amber bits form on the bottom it is done.
- Pour the brown butter into a large mixing bowl along with the organic brown sugar and cane sugar. Mixing together until combined.
- Next crack in the eggs along with one egg yolk and vanilla extract. Incorporate with a rubber spatula.
- Now in another bowl combine the all purpose flour, kamut flour (or bread flour), baking soda, baking powder and sea salt.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, combine with a rubber spatula until a dough forms and the last bit of flour disappears.
- Fold in the chocolate chips and with a 2.8 oz cookie scoop, scoop out 13 cookie dough balls to place onto a quarter sheet pan and cover with a lid. Place into the refrigerator to chill overnight.
- The next day remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 350 F. Then line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Place 5 cookie dough balls evenly onto a pan and bake 350 F for 12 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the centers are slightly underdone.
- Continue until all the cookies have been baked or refer to the recipe note card for instructions on how to freeze the dough.
- Once the cookies are cooled enjoy with a tall glass of milk.
The Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- 2-3 Cookie Sheets
- 1 Quarter Sheet Pan with Lid or container with lid
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter browned
- 1 ¼ cup organic dark brown sugar
- ½ cup organic cane sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 egg yolk room temperature
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose unbleached flour
- ¾ cup organic kamut flour or 1 cup of bread flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon Redmonds sea salt
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips or one 4.4 oz dark chocolate bar chopped
- ½ cup toffee bits optional
- Flakey Sea Salt for topping optional
Instructions
- Place three eggs in a small bowl of warm water. This will help the eggs to come to room temperature quickly. It is important the eggs are room temperature for the consistency of the cookies.
- In a medium pot, melt and brown the butter. Make sure to brown over medium heat. Consistently stir the butter until it foams, and you see amber bits on the bottom of the pan. Immediately remove the saucepan from the heat and pour into a large mixing bowl.
- To the large mixing bowl add organic cane sugar and brown sugar and mix into the browned butter until combine.
- Add 2 eggs and one egg yolk to the butter and sugar mixture along with the vanilla extract and mix until smooth.
- Grab a small mixing bowl and add the all purpose flour, kamut flour, baking soda, baking powder and sea salt. Using a fork, mix until all the ingredients are incorporated.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and fold them into each other with a rubber spatula until the flour disappears and the dough comes together.
- Fold in 1 cup of chocolate chips.
- With a large (2.8 oz) cookies scoop, scoop about 13 cookie dough balls onto a quarter sheet pan. Top each with extra chocolate chips. Then cover with the lid and place into the refrigerator to chill over night or at least 3 hours.
- Once the dough has rested, remove from the fridge and place onto the counter while the oven preheats to 350 F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- To a pan, evenly space 5 cookie dough balls and bake for 12 minutes until the edges are golden brown and centers are slightly underdone.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and immediately shape with a cookie cutter (slightly bigger than the cookies) and top with flaked sea salt.
- Continue until all the cookies are baked.
- If you would like you can bake a few cookies and save the rest of the dough for another day. Simply place the leftover cookie dough in a freezer friendly bag and suck all the air out. Place in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Once the cookies have cooled enjoy right away and store any extras in an airtight bag or container on the counter (out of the sun) for up to 3 days. Or freeze the cookies for up to 3 months in a freezer friendly ziplock bag.
I waited for this recipe for a while! They turned out absolutely perfect. Thank you for posting!