Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies come together in the time it takes to preheat the oven. Chewy on the inside and crispy on the edges, brown butter chocolate chip cookies have massive chocolate puddles, and these no mixer, no chill time cookies will become your new favorite!

Hi hi! Just popping in to share the recipe for these brown butter chocolate chip cookies! These are a thin and chewy version of my favourite small batch chocolate chip cookies. They spread out a little more, and require no chill time. These brown butter cookies are crisp around the edges and still chewy in the middle - I love them so, so much.

I developed this chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe we left NYC last year and have made them a few times over the last few weeks just for scientific purposes, and they are a current favourite in the house. You really can't beat a homemade chocolate chip cookie. If you wanted to turn these into a cookie bar, my chocolate chip cookie bars are exactly that!

What is Brown Butter?

Brown butter is butter that has been heated to a point where the moisture evaporates and the milk solids brown. It has a delicious toasty flavour, which adds an amazing depth to brown butter chocolate chip cookies. Browning butter for recipes is a super simple trick to adding flavour to recipes - I love it in cookies, a streusel topping, cinnamon rolls, or a brown butter salted caramel.

The most important thing to remember when browning butter is to go slowly - it can catch quickly and you don't want to burn the milk solids, just toast them until nicely brown.

How to make brown butter

Browning butter can look intimidating but provided you take your time and watch it carefully, you will be fine. If you are concerned, keep your heat super low, and stir well to help release the milk solids from the butter as they start to separate.

• Place the butter into a saucepan and place over medium to low heat. It will begin to melt.
• Cook until the butter melts - this is the first phase, then continue to cook, stirring occasionally. The butter will continue to boil and then you will see the milk solids start to separate out from the butter and collect at the bottom of the pan.
• Continue cooking the butter. I like to whisk frequently to make sure it doesn't catch. Cook until the milk solids are lightly brown - turn down the heat if you are worried it is going too fast. The butter will foam up and you will hear the cooking noises quiet down - this is a good sign that you are getting close to being done.
• Remove the brown butter from the heat and pour into a heatproof bowl to stop the cooking process. Do not leave the brown bits behind - that is the brown butter and that is where all the flavour is!
• Leave to sit for a little bit to cool down so you do not scramble your eggs. Whisk occasionally to help the brown butter to cool evenly.

Moisture Loss when browning butter

Different butters will have different moisture levels, which affects the yield of brown butter. American style butter have a higher water content, so will produce less brown butter when the water is cooked off. European or New Zealand style butter, which is higher in fat than American butter, will have less water that needs cooking off, so you will end up with a higher yield of brown butter.

The quantity of the butter in these browned butter cookies is important here, so the best way to measure it is by using a scale. You start with an initial quantity of butter - in this case 150g, and then cook it down. You then re-measure the weight of the brown butter, and use 110g of that in your cookie recipe. I have accounted for the moisture loss from the initial quantity of brown butter in the recipe.

Ingredients in Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Now we have learnt all about brown butter - here's what goes into browned butter chocolate chip cookies!

• Brown Butter. The base of the cookie and where that delicious toasty flavour comes from.
• Two types of sugar. Both brown and white sugar are in play here - the ratio of them determines spread and texture.
• Dry ingredients. The usual suspects here - flour, baking powder and baking soda, and salt.
• Egg. I just use one in this cookie to hold everything together.
• Chocolate. You can use whatever you like here, either all dark chocolate or a mix of dark, semi-sweet or milk chocolate. I usually do at least half chopped dark chocolate then make up the rest with what I have on hand.
• Flaky Sea Salt. Not compulsary, but gives the most delicious crunchy finish to chocolate chip cookies!

How to make Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

These brown butter chocolate chip cookies are more on the 'thin and crispy' side than other chocolate chip cookie recipes on my site. They aren't super thin, but they have that perfect chewy chocolate chip cookie soft centre, and get that crispy edge. If you would like them more on the crispy side, you can increase the bake time to give you crispy chocolate chip cookies.

Here's what I usually change when I am looking to make a cookie recipe thinner:

• Increase the quantity of butter in the recipe. This means the cookies will spread more in the oven.
• Reduce or remove the chill time. While some cookies call for a long chill time, I wanted a recipe that was super easy to make and did not need a chill time. This meant finding a delicate balance between dough that spread in the oven but not too much.
• Bump up the chocolate quantity. This doesn't have a huge impact on how much a cookie spreads, but more chocolate chunks in the cookie certainly help it to spread a little more.
• Play around with the ratio of brown to white sugar. Cookies which have a higher ratio of brown sugar to white tend to be a little thicker, while those with more white sugar spread and are a little more chewy. Sugar and butter ratios are what I will usually play around with first when trying to change the texture or spread of a chocolate chip cookie.

The best chocolate to use for chocolate chip cookies

I almost always use chopped chocolate in my chocolate chip cookies. There are a few reasons for this:

• Sizing - Cutting up chocolate into chunks gives you a great range of size in your chocolate. This means you get a good distribution throughout
• Melty Pockets of chocolate - Chocolate chips often have a stabiliser in them which means they don't melt. This makes them great for things like muffins, but I much prefer using chopped chocolate for cookies because the chocolate melts, and you get pockets of chocolate throughout.
• Quality - if you use chopped chocolate, you can use whatever quality you like. It's also a great way to mix up the types of chocolate you use too - I like doing a mix of dark and then sometimes a fun flavour
• Chocolate Dust - This is a name I made up, but the dust is what's left from chopping chocolate. It all goes into the bowl and you get tiny chocolate specks all throughout the cookies.
• Melty Chocolate Puddles - Chopped chocolate means you can press extra chocolate onto the top of the cookies to get big chocolate puddles!

Can this cookie dough be frozen?

Yes- because it is a no chill chocolate chip cookie recipe, if you freeze the dough it will bake up a little thicker, but this is fine as long as you are aware of this. You can also freeze the baked cookies if you like - however this recipe only yields 12 cookies, so even in our household of two they don't last that long!

For all my tips and tricks on freezing chocolate chip cookie dough and baking from frozen, check out my post: How to freeze cookie dough

How to get chocolate puddles on cookies

Adding chocolate puddles to the top of these brown butter chocolate chip cookies works particularly well - because they spread out so nicely, if you add additional chocolate before putting them in the oven, you get a nice even coating of chocolate puddles on the cookie.

If you don't want to add additional chocolate then there is no need - but if you're going to give it a try, this is the recipe to do it on! Here is how to add chocolate puddles to cookies:

1. Scoop your cookie dough into balls.
2. Chop additional chocolate and have nearby on a chopping board.
3. Working with one ball of dough at a time, flatten it slightly then either press chocolate onto the top, or press the ball of dough onto the cutting board so that it picks up the chocolate.
4. Shape the ball of dough back into a ball so that it encases the extra chocolate you just added. Place chocolate side up on the prepared sheet pan.

Usually I just press the chocolate on top of the dough, but because this recipe is a little softer, by pressing the dough onto the cutting board you get all the little pieces of chopped chocolate stuck to the cookie, giving you amazing chocolate coverage.

For all my best tips and tricks on perfect chocolate chip cookies, check out my post: How to make perfect chocolate chip cookies

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you store chocolate chip cookies?
Store chocolate chip cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.

What size cookie scoop did you use?
I use a 2 Tbsp cookie scoop - you can also weigh your cookie dough balls to 55g.

Can Cookie Dough be frozen?
Yes - baking this dough from frozen will result in cookies that are not quite as flat, but the dough freezes well. Either increase the bake time by a few minutes, or drop the temperature by about 20°f / 15°c.

Can I make this cookie using a stand mixer?
Yes you can, but it goes just as quickly with a whisk or a handheld electric mixer!

For more homemade chocolate chip cookie recipes, check out:

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