Eating brown butter chocolate chip cookies is a chewy, rewarding intense cookie experience! These are no ordinary chocolate chip cookies. These babies are fully loaded and beyond delicious. I’ve had a lot of cookies in my day and these brown butter chocolate chip cookies are something truly extraordinary.
They’re thick perfectly chewy cookies loaded with chocolate chips, butterscotch morsels and little pretzel pieces for a sweet and salty attitude of excellence. ~And that brown butter gives them a deep nutty complexity that other cookies just don’t have. You’ve gotta’ check these out!
Let’s get baking!
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What I Love About Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
What’s not to love about this brown butter chocolate chip cookies recipe? If it weren’t for the extended fridge time, I’d be hard-pressed to find anything at all. These babies are chewy cookie delight chalked full of sweet and salty goodness. How much better can it get?
Here are even more reasons to love them!
- Thick, chewy and beyond delicious
- A truly rewarding cookie experience
- Great for holiday parties
- Simple wholesome recipe
- No weird ingredients or crazy gadgets
How To Make Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Following this brown butter chocolate chip cookies recipe is totally easy and just a few simple steps. All you have to do is brown the butter and then combine the ingredients in the right order. After that, they go into the fridge for several hours and its time to bake! Easy peasy!
Recipe Notes
Even though this brown butter chocolate chip cookies recipe produces totally amazing cookies with rich complex flavor, the recipe isn’t complicated. Plus, I’m gonna’ give you a few pointers to ensure complete success. Here we go!
Browning the butter for these cookies is gonna’ give you a deeper richer flavor than using ghee or clarified butter. You’ll want to use a saucepan with a heavier gauge metal on the bottom because it distributes heat more evenly.
When browning the butter, do it in a saucepan you can easily see the bottom. Remember, after you pull the saucepan from the heat, it will continue to brown a bit, just from the heat of the pan. If you burn the butter, throw it out and start over.
After making the dough, it must be refrigerated for 8 hours. So, obviously, this isn’t the cookie to make at 5 pm for the kids to take to school for the class party they forgot to tell you about!
Refrigerating your cookie dough for an extended period is vital to this particular recipe. I promise it’s worth the wait! This is about more than just controlling the spread. The long refrigeration time actually concentrates that rich sweet flavor and produces a chewier cookie.
After the dough is finished in the fridge, it becomes kinda hard and brittle. I literally, chipped off the amount I wanted, then rolled it into a ball. The heat from your hands softens it instantly.
Ingredient Notes
Okay my friends, moving on to the ingredients. Brown butter chocolate chip cookies recipe success depends more on technique than ingredients but those are important too. Here’s what ya’ need to know.
Butter – It’s important to use unsalted butter since you’ll add salt later. Besides, it browns better. Remove it from the heat when you start to smell it because it’ll keep cooking in the hot pan.
Flour – Bread flour has more protein and more gluten, so it produces a chewier cookie. It makes a huge difference!
Sugar – You’ll use a 4:1 ratio of brown sugar to white sugar in your cookies. Just be sure to firmly pack your brown sugar when measuring.
Salt – Adding just a little bit of salt will enhance the sweetness and the awesome flavor of your cookies. Science proves it!
Binders – A combination of whole egg, egg yolk and heavy cream will help hold these cookies together and add to that deep rich unforgettable flavor.
Goodies – Making these cookies calls for a lively blend of semi-sweet chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and salty pretzel pieces for a balanced flavor of intense yum!
Storing Tips
I’m gonna’ tell you right now, if you don’t hide these babies there’ll be nothing to store – and I mean that with all my heart. If by some miracle you do have some left, they’ll keep just fine in an airtight container. I like to add a piece of fresh bread to absorb the moisture, so they stay exactly the same as when I put them in there.
Can You Freeze This?
Sure, can! What’s a great cookie recipe if you can’t freeze it? You can bake these babies up and then freeze them or just freeze the cookie dough. Either way, it saves a ton of time and you still get those awesome cookies to enjoy.
Make Ahead Tips
This brown butter chocolate chip cookies recipe is one that I always make a double batch and I especially love time-saving tips. When I mix up the dough for these amazing cookies, I like to roll the little cookie balls and throw them in the freezer. That way I can pull them out and bake as many as I need for the occasion.
How Long Can You Keep This?
Your brown butter chocolate chip cookies will stay good in the fridge for 2-3 weeks and cookie dough will stay fresh for 1-2 days. Of course, you can keep baked cookies up to 6-12 months in the freezer and 3 months for the cookie dough.
Recipe Variations
You can make some subtle changes to this brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe, but you do have to be careful not to change it too much. Here are just a few simple suggestions you may want to try.
Can I Add Almonds?
There’s nothing wrong with adding almonds instead of pretzels to your brown butter chocolate chip cookies but they lose a little something without that salty play. It may be easier to just make almond joy cookies instead. You could even try making almond joy bars if you love that nutty chocolate covered coconut!
Can I Add Some Fruits?
You have to be careful adding fruits to your brown butter chocolate chip cookies recipe with the extended fridge time. It’s best to use a dedicated recipe in these instances, like strawberry chocolate chip cookies. You could also make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies or coconut chocolate chip cookies which are both decadent holiday favorites.
Would These Make For Good Christmas Treats?
As far as I’m concerned, all cookies make good Christmas treats. These cookies are ideal for holiday get-togethers and cookie exchanges. If you need a sweet treat that’ll be ready a little quicker, you can always make chocolate chip shortbread cookies instead.
When I’m serving these cookies, I like to throw together some crockpot candy and Christmas crack so there’s a myriad of amazing choices and there’s something for everyone.
Can I Add M&M Candies In This Recipe?
Yes! You can always substitute M&M’s for the chocolate chips in your brown butter cookies or keep it simple and make chocolate chip M&M cookies. Monster cookies have M&M’s in them too and it’s a really simple recipe.
What Other Popular Chocolate Chip Cookies Can I Bake?
There are so many awesome chocolate chip cookies recipes and I’m a big fan of them all! New York Times chocolate chip cookies are denser in texture with a ton of chocolate chips and Alton Brown chocolate chip cookies are super chewy. It really depends on your personal preference and time allowance.
Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies are like little chocolate legends. When time allows, I always drift toward these brown butter chocolate chip cookies. They are just Ah-ma-zing and I’m totally addicted.
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 2 1/4 cups bread flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/4 cups brown sugar firmly packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup pretzels broken into pieces
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup butterscotch chips
Instructions
- Place the butter in a heavy bottom, medium saucepan and melt over low heat. When the butter has melted, increase the heat to medium and cook until the solids in the butter turn golden brown and it develops a nutty fragrance (watch the butter closely as it can burn and be ruined very quickly). Remove from heat, set aside and cool for 20 minutes.
- In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
- Fit stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Pour cooled butter into the stand mixer bowl and add both sugars. Beat on medium for 3 minutes. Add the egg, egg yolk and beat just to combine. Add the cream and vanilla and beat on medium for another 3 minutes. Slowly add the flour mixture beating on low speed after each addition. When all the flour mixture is added, beat on medium until well incorporated. Using a sturdy spoon add the pretzels and both chips and stir until they are evenly distributed.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours (It will be worth it, I promise).
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with Silpats or parchment.
- Remove chilled dough from the fridge. Scoop out the dough with a tablespoon and roll into a ball. (a little smaller than the size of a golf ball). The dough will be almost brittle-just kinda chip at it and gather the pieces together forming a ball. The heat from your hands will make the brittle dough nicely pliable. Place balls on the prepared baking sheets and flatten slightly.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until they're baked through the center. Mine cooked 11 minutes and were slightly underbaked, which is how I like em! Allow the cookie to rest on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack.
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More Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipes…
Chocolate chip cookies are awesome year-round, and you can never have too many great recipes. They’re just the quintessential cookie recipe for spreading sweet little smiles. Here are some other chocolate chip cookies recipes you may enjoy.
- Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies – Double chocolate decadence at your fingertips.
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies – Up your oatmeal cookie game with sweet and salty WOW!
- Toll House Cookies – The proverbial chocolate chip cookie sure to please the pickiest cookie connoisseur.
- Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies – Like chocolate chip banana bread on steroids!
- Hershey Chocolate Chip Cookies – Golden edges, soft center, plenty of chocolate chips
Conclusion
These brown butter chocolate chip cookies are the fully-loaded chocolate chip cookie experience. They’re loaded with lots of goodies and deep intense flavor that’s just hard to beat. These thick chewy cookies are sure to be your new FAV and now that you’ve got the recipe you can have them anytime!
Source: adapted from Alton Brown
These were the hit of the cookie exchange – thanks for the great recipe 🙂 I rolled mine in balls before sticking in the fridge – worked perfectly!
I’m so glad they were a hit. I can’t wait to make them again!
Sounds yummy! Why do you have to leave it in the fridge? What happens if you don’t?
I think that the time in the fridge helps to keep the cookies thick and chewy. If they are baked without this step the cookies will thin out and become crunchy. The refrigeration solidifies the butter so the cookies don’t spread out as much.
this sounds so good. fyi…did you know that kids aren’t allowed to bring homemade treats to school anymore. they have to be store bought with the ingredients listed…how sad is that!
My sister told me. I seriously can’t believe it!
Oh my! Now that’s a cookie stuffed with goodness!