These Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are sinfully delicious and a fun way to elevate a classic cookie!
So the world is.. kinda crazy right now? And speaking from experience, when I am stressed, I need comfort! Bring on the cozy clothes and comfort food please and thank you!
I figured I would focus on making some classic, comforting recipes to have in my arsenal that would be delicious for me and my neighbors to snack on, but also good for you guys too! And who doesn’t love an elevated chocolate chip cookie?!
About these cookies…
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
These cookies are just like your regular chocolate chip cookies but made with browned butter instead of regular softened butter. What is browned butter, you ask? It is unsalted butter that you cook slowly on the stove in a pot until it melts, and then you continue cooking it after it melts until it caramelizes and well, browns. These little browned bits of butter will form on the bottom of the pan and the butter will have a fragrant nutty smell to it and may turn amber in color.
But be careful, because browned butter goes from gorgeous amber and perfectly golden to burned in a flash, so don’t walk away from the stove when you’re browning it! If it burns, it is useless.
Other ingredients in these cookies are:
- Granulated sugar and brown sugar: for sweetness and that chewy, molasses-y texture chocolate chip cookies are known for
- Pure vanilla extract: for flavor!
- Egg and egg yolk: for structure and the yolk is for added chewiness
- Baking powder & baking soda: leavening agents to help the cookie maintain its structure and puff up and spread just enough
- All-purpose flour: for the structure of the cookie
- Salt: for flavor and balance
- Chocolate chips: I use two types of chocolate chips in this recipe – dark chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips. I love the combination of the traditional semi-sweet chocolate chip mixed with the deeper richness of a dark chocolate chip. You can, however, use all of one or the other.
The Dough
The dough can be baked straight away after being made, but I recommend chilling the dough for an hour or two to let the flavors merry together and get that browned butter flavor really incorporated into the dough. This really deepens the flavor so much and helps prevent a ton of spreading.
Buttery, nutty, soft and chewy Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies need to be put on your table, STAT!
*adapted from Sarah Kieffer’s 100 Cookies book
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 12 Tbsp (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, divided, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips such as Guittard
- 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips such as Guittard
- Fleur de sel for sprinkling on top, optional
Instructions
- First, brown your butter: Place 8 Tablespoons of the butter into a small skillet or saucepan and cook over medium-low heat until melted. Once melted, do not step away as it will brown very quickly! Butter will start to foam, bubble and spit as it cooks, so swirl the pan occasionally and you will soon notice small browned bits at the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat when it smells nutty and fragrant and is amber in color.
- In a large bowl, add the remaining 4 Tbsp softened butter and pour the hot browned butter (scraping all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan in there, too) into the bowl and combine the two until the softened butter has melted as well. Add in the brown and granulated white sugars and mix well, followed by the vanilla extract, egg, and egg yolk, mixing well after each addition.
- Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to the bowl and mix until the dough just barely comes together. Stir in the chocolate chips. Scoop into Tablespoon-size balls and place on parchment-lined baking sheets. Refrigerate, loosely covered with plastic wrap, for at least 2 hours to allow the flavors to meld and deepen. Or, you can bake straight away.
- Preheat oven to 350° degrees F. Place the dough balls 2" apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating pans halfway through baking time to ensure even baking, then remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheets. If desired, sprinkle the tops of the still-warm cookies with fleur de sel.
Notes
These cookies are seriously life-changing and just as easy to bake for every day. I hope you enjoy them!
Have a super sweet day!
xo, Hayley
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