Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
This is my GO-TO recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Your generic chocolate chip cookies pale in comparison to the brown butter, dark chocolate chunks, and sea salt flakes in these . These cookies are the my most made recipe at home. My husband even makes them all the time (sometimes better than I make them). If you're looking for a chocolate chip cookie recipe, do yourself a favor and save this recipe! You won't regret it.
There are a few extra steps to take with these cookies, and they are important.
The first is the brown butter. Instead of the usual room temperature butter, my recipe uses all brown butter. See my tutorial on How To Brown Butter if you aren't familiar with the process. It takes just a few minutes, but you'll need to allow the brown butter to cool to room temperature after browning.
Why brown the butter? Browning the butter is a process that melts the butter, evaporates some of the water, and then browns the milk solids. It's essentially caramelizing the milk solids, which gives it a nutty caramelized flavor. Since using this method, I never make chocolate chip cookies without browning the butter.
After browning the butter it's important to let it cool to room temperature. If you're in a hurry you can stick the bowl in an ice-water bath, or in the fridge or freezer. After cooling, you can start the cookies by beating the butter and the sugars.
Since the butter is in liquid form, it needs to beat for longer than you might be used to. 5 MINUTES. I turn the mixer on low until the sugars have mixed in a bit, and then switch it to med/high (on my stand mixer a 6 or 8). I set a timer for 5 minutes. You can see in the photos the difference it makes. It started as a dark brown sludgy texture, and whips up to a pale, light fluffy butter sugar mixture. You need to do this to get the perfect delicate crispy outsides and the fluffy chewy insides of the cookies.
Once you've beat it enough, you add the room temperature egg. I set my egg out on the counter when I start browning the butter so it has enough time to come to room temperature.
After the egg, comes the vanilla. I love using my Homemade Vanilla Extract!
For the dry ingredients, I mix the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl first, then I dump it all in at once. I turn the mixer on low, and stop it before the flour is all incorporated. Then I add the chocolate chips and mix on low for just a few more seconds. You don't want to over-mix after the flour has been added, because that will alter the tender texture of the cookies.
A note about the chocolate... I prefer dark chocolate, and I prefer to chop a bar of it into chunks rather than use chips. Using chunks like this gives you the melty chocolate inside the cookies. Chocolate chips are more waxy, and hold their shape too much for my liking. You can use whatever you want!
No need to chill this dough! Just go for it. Roll into balls, and sprinkle with some sea salt flakes if you're feeling fancy.
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (1 cup) brown butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1 t. vanilla
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups (240 grams) all purpose flour
- 1 tea. salt
- 1 tea. baking soda
- 4 oz. chocolate chunks (or chips)
Cooking Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Brown both sticks of butter, and allow to cool to room temperature.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars for 5 full minutes, until light and fluffy.
- Add vanilla and egg, and beat to combine.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, salt, and baking soda.
- Dump the flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix on low until almost fully incorporated.
- Gently stir in the chocolate chunks.
- On a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, scoop dough by the tablespoonful, or roll into balls, or use a cookie scoop.
- Bake for 10 minutes, removing them while they still look slightly under baked.
- Remove from oven and let them cool completely on the cookie sheet to finish baking the centers. Store in an airtight container. Enjoy!
