Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe: Chewy Brown Butter Cookies with Make-Ahead Dough
Updated: 15 hours ago
Make-ahead dough, 30 minute chill, gooey centres
Browning the butter is ten extra minutes and it is the entire difference between a good cookie and one people ask you about. The milk solids toast into something nutty and caramel-like, and because brown butter has lost its water you have to add a splash back — skip that and the dough goes dry and crumbly. Chill for thirty minutes and the cookies stay thick.
Why this one works
Brown butter loses about 15% of its weight as water. Adding two tablespoons back is what keeps the texture chewy.
More brown sugar than white gives you chew; the reverse gives you crisp. This leans heavily brown on purpose.
Thirty minutes in the fridge stops the cookies spreading into thin discs. An hour is better if you have it.
At a glance
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 11 min
Total time: 1 hr 1 min
Yield: 20 cookies
Protein: 4g per serving
Calories: 312 per serving
Ingredients
Brown butter
1 cup (226g) unsalted butter
2 tbsp cold water, to add back after browning
Dough
1 1/4 cups (250g) light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups (345g) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
Chocolate
8 oz (225g) dark chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks and shards
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Flaky sea salt, for the tops
Instructions
Brown the butter. Melt the butter in a light-coloured saucepan over medium heat. It will foam, then quiet down, then the milk solids at the bottom will turn golden and smell nutty — about 6 to 8 minutes. Watch it constantly from minute five; it goes from brown to burnt in seconds.
Cool it and add water back. Pour the butter, including every brown fleck from the bottom, into a large bowl. Stir in the 2 tbsp cold water and let it cool for 15 minutes until just warm. Pouring it hot onto the sugar will cook the eggs later.
Beat in the sugars. Whisk both sugars into the butter for a full minute until the mixture looks glossy and slightly lightened.
Add the eggs. Whisk in the eggs one at a time, then the extra yolk and the vanilla. Keep whisking for another 30 seconds — the batter should look smooth and ribbony.
Fold in the dry. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt and fold with a spatula just until no dry streaks remain. Stop there. Overmixing develops gluten and gives you tough cookies.
Add the chocolate. Fold in the chopped chocolate and chips. Using chopped chocolate alongside chips is what gives you those melted pools rather than uniform dots.
Chill the dough. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes, or up to 3 days. The dough firms up and the flour hydrates, which deepens the flavour noticeably.
Bake. Heat the oven to 350F / 175C. Scoop 3-tablespoon balls onto parchment-lined sheets, 6 per sheet with plenty of space. Bake 10 to 12 minutes — pull them when the edges are set and golden but the centres still look underdone and puffy.
Finish and cool. Sprinkle with flaky salt the second they come out. Leave them on the hot sheet for 5 minutes to finish setting, then move to a rack.
Notes and swaps
The dough keeps 3 days in the fridge, and scooped balls freeze for 3 months. Bake from frozen, adding 2 minutes.
For bakery-style ragged edges, bang the sheet on the counter once at 8 minutes and again when they come out.
They look underbaked when you pull them. Trust it — they set on the sheet and that is where the gooey centre comes from.
Nutrition per serving
Calories: 312
Protein: 4g
Carbohydrates: 40g
Fat: 16g
Fiber: 2g
Sugar: 27g
Sodium: 180mg
Nutrition is an estimate calculated from the ingredients listed and will vary with brands and portion sizes.
Want the rest of them?
More tested bakes with the doneness cues, pan sizes and make-ahead timings spelled out, so they work the first time.
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