These salted brown butter chocolate chip cookies are truly jaw dropping — they have crispy edges, a chewy and gooey middle with a nutty flavor from the brown butter. I know I’m bias but it’s the best chocolate chip cookies recipe. It also went viral in its skillet version on TikTok and Instagram with rave reviews, so I have a feeling you’re going to agree!
These salted brown butter chocolate chip cookies are the best chocolate chip cookies. After two decades of searching existing recipes for the one I could find, I had a lot of knowledge on what really makes a good chocolate chip cookie. More than ten test batches of chocolate chip cookies later, and we have this best salted brown butter chocolate chip cookies recipe.
Here’s what I knew we needed in a best chocolate chip cookie: incredible flavor (we’re not here for a boring, flat-flavored chocolate chip cookie), crispy edges that give way into a chewy and gooey center, a cookie that’s thick but not puffy, and melty chocolate balanced with flaky sea salt. The ingredients and their ratios in this recipe gives us just. that.
Another huge plus of this recipe is that we don’t need a mixer — just a whisk works well. I’ve had people DM me that they’re making these for the fifth time, I’ve had friends request them again and again, and I’ve made them for holidays and birthdays and everything in between to rave reviews.
These are the BEST salted brown butter chocolate chip cookies.
Salted Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
What makes these the best salted brown butter chocolate chip cookies?
- Brown butter. Brown butter helps give chocolate chip cookies a nutty, toffee-esque flavor. I took a tip out of Cook’s Illustrated and added one ice cube at the end to stop the cooking process and restore some of the water that evaporates in the browning process. See How to make brown butter below for a full walkthrough on achieving this nutty goodness.
- Keeping the brown butter melted, instead of firming it up in the fridge. When you’re making cookies, there are two ways you can treat the butter. You can cream together room temperature or cold butter with sugar, which beats air into the batter and gives you a more light and airy cookie. Or you can mix together melted butter and sugar, which gives you a more dense and chewy cookie with crispy edges. I’ve used both methods for years, and prefer keeping the butter melted for most cookies, including these perfect chocolate chip cookies.
- All light brown sugar. A lot of recipes call for both brown sugar and granulated sugar for fear that you can’t get crisp edges on the cookies without granulated sugar. But the results from using all light brown sugar was one of the biggest surprises in my recipe testing. All light brown sugar still still gives the cookies perfectly crispy edges while also making them a little thicker in the middle and more flavorful, since the molasses in the brown sugar adds a caramel flavor. Justice for all brown sugar!
- Chill time, baby. After we make the batter, we portion it out into cookie dough balls and let them chill for at least two hours and up to 48 hours (I usually chill for 24 hours). Chilling cookies enhances the caramel/toffee and vanilla flavors as it gives the flour time to break down into and hydrate the other ingredients. Chilling also helps the cookies spread less when they bake, so they come out perfectly thick.
- Kind of large cookies: The dough for each of these cookies is 70 grams, or three tablespoons. I call this size medium, but my mom (who thinks everything is big) says it is large. A 70 grams cookie gives you a more varied texture throughout — the edges crisp up while the middle stays gooey. It is simply delightful and makes the best cookies in my opinion. If this sounds too big to you, you can go as low as 50 grams (2 TBS) and still get some great varied texture, just shave a few minutes off the listed baking time.
- Two types of chocolate. We use chocolate chips AND a chopped up chocolate bar in this recipe. Chocolate bars melt more easily than chocolate chips, so they give you chocoalte chunks and awesome melty pools of chocolate in the cookie, while the chocolate chips give you the joy-filled nostalgia of a chocolate chip cookie.
- Flaky sea salt on top. Flaky sea salt is a game changer for baking. Adding a little on top of brown butter chocolate chip cookies balances the sweetness of the cookies and chocolate and is so delightful. You can get flaky sea salt at most grocery stores or on Amazon.
Ingredients
- Unsalted butter. Go with the best quality American-style (not Kerrygold or Plugra, as those have different fat ratios than American-style) butter you can get. Cabot is a great quality butter that’s affordable where I live.
- Brown sugar. We use all brown sugar in this recipe to get a thicker cookie with wonderful caramel flavor.
- Eggs. Eggs help bind together the cookies, give them a little lift, and make them wonderfully chewy and moist.
- Vanilla extract. We use a full tablespoon of vanilla extract to really bring out that wonderful vanilla flavor. Opt for real extract, not imitation.
- All purpose flour. Flour binds together the cookies. We use the perfect amount of flour for cookies that stay together, but are still gooey and chewy instead of puffy.
- Kosher salt or another coarse salt. If you are using a fine table salt, try using just 3/4 tsp. so that the cookies aren’t too salty.
- Baking soda AND baking powder. Baking soda helps the cookies spread just a little and get crispy edges and a chewy inside. Baking powder gives the cookies lift so they’re nice and thick. Together, they’re powerhouse leaveners!
- Chocolate chips and a chocolate bar. Go for a quality chocolate (I love Ghiradelli). Feel free to use any percent chocolate you like — I’m a fan of a dark chocolate ranging from 60% to 80%, but you can use milk chocolate or any kind of chocolate you like.
- Finely chopped walnuts (optional). Walnuts are optional in this recipe, but I love walnuts in chocolate chip cookies — they really add to the nuttiness of the brown butter and caramel notes of the chilled dough. I never wants walnuts to be so big that they distract from the gooeyness of the cookie, so we chop them finely (but not to powder) so you get the boost of flavor but not the big crunch of a walnut.
- Flaky sea salt. We add flaky sea salt on top to give the cookies a great salty-sweet balance. You can get flaky sea salt at most grocery stores or on Amazon.
How to brown butter
Brown butter is butter that has been cooked long enough to toast the milk solids in the butter. It’s delicious and nutty, and truly makes an impact on the flavor of the whole baked good. It’s not challenging to make, it just requires patience and paying attention with your eyes and nose.
To make brown butter, you’ll put your butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. The butter will melt most evenly if it’s at room temp, but you can use butter straight from the fridge, too.
The butter will melt and then simmer and foam. After some time, the butter will turn golden brown and start to give off a nutty aroma – this means you’re almost there. Swirl the pan often so the butter cooks evenly. You’re going to start to see some light colored, solid specks at the bottom of the pan. These are the milk solids! Once you see them turn brown, remove the pan from the heat so the brown bits don’t burn. Now you have brown butter.
You’ll want to let the brown butter cool slightly before adding it to the recipe so it doesn’t melt other ingredients.
Tips for the best salted brown butter chocolate chip cookies
- Properly measure your flour. Too much flour in cookies can make them puffy and soft instead of chewy. And too little flour won’t give them enough structure to hold their little selves up!
- Meaure by weight: I always use a kitchen scale to measure my ingredients and include the measurements in grams in the recipe so you can, too. You can get a pretty cheap scale on Amazon (I used a $12 scale for years and now use a $28 KitchenAid scale).
- Measure by volume: If you’re using a cup measure instead of a scale, first fluff the flour in its bag, then use a spoon to place it into your measuring cup. Level the flour off by scraping the flat edge of a knife across the top of the cup measure.
- Use a cookie scoop to get evenly sized, easy to scoop cookies. I have this trio of scoops from Amazon, and love the size ranges (you can also use them as ice cream scoops)! For this recipe, you can use a 3 TBS. scoop (70 grams). If you want to be really accurate, you can also weigh each of the cookie dough balls to get exactly 70 grams.
- Chill your cookie dough. I said it above and I can’t say it enough. Letting the dough chill in the fridge for a minimum of two hours (and max of 48) adds more flavor and yields a thicker cookie. Keep the cookie dough balls in the fridge right up until you pop them in the oven — if the dough gets too warm before it goes in, the butter will get too soft and the cookie will turn out flat.
- Save some pieces of chopped chocolate and press two to three (one large, two small) into each cookie right before they go into the oven. This lets you get an oozy pool of chocolate in each cookie and makes them frankly stunning.
- Make sure your oven is well preheated before putting the cookies in. If your oven is too low or you keep the door open for a long time when you put the cookies in, the cookies are going to spread too much before setting and turn out thin.
- Underbake your cookies just a little. When you take them out of the oven, they should be brown on the edges and ever so slightly brown on top, but you’ll think they’re underdone. As cookies keep baking from residual heat when you pull them from the oven, slightly underbaking ensures your cookie won’t dry out.
- Use the circle method to get perfectly round cookies. Have y’all seen this one on TikTok? It’s genius. First grab a large cup, a deli container, or a mason jar ring — really anything circular that has a larger diameter than your cookie. Right when you take your cookies out of the oven, put the circle on top of them so you’re covering the cookie, and make fast circles. Since the cookies are still hot and un-set, the centrifugal force (fancy term that means your spinning motion) will mold the cookies right into a circle. This is a video is you’re a visual learner!
- Top your cookies with flaky sea salt when they’re warm from the oven. The sea salt will stick to a warm cookie better than a room temperature one!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Browned butter adds a deep nutty, caramel/toffee flavor to desserts. The difference in flavor between regular and brown butter cookies is wild — it’s a total game changer.
Yes! I always have cookie dough in my freezer — it’s a great way to enjoy a few cookies at a time. After letting the dough chill in the fridge according to the recipe, portion out some balls and put them in a freezer bag. They’ll keep for two months. You can bake them straight from the freezer, just add 1-2 minutes to the bake time.
It’s best to use unsalted butter because you can completely control the amount of salt in the recipe. Different brands of salted butter have different amounts of salt in them, but on average one stick of butter has 1/4 tsp. of salt, so you can reduce the salt in the recipe to 3/4 tsp.
If your cookies spread and turned out flat and thin, there could be a few things going on. First, make sure that you chill your dough and that you keep it in the fridge right up until it goes in the oven. When the dough warms, the butter can get too soft and spread quickly in the oven.
Second, your baking soda or baking powder may be expired. To tell if your baking soda is expired, mix 1 tsp. baking soda with 3 TBS. vinegar. If it immediately fizzes, the baking soda is still active. To tell if your baking powder is expired, mix 1/2 tsp. baking powder with 1/4 cup hot water. If it bubbles, it’s still active.
Typically cookies turn out puffy if they have more flour than the recipe calls for. It’s best to measure flour with a kitchen scale, as you can get wildly different amounts of flour by using a cup measure, depending on how you fill the cup.
If you are using a cup measure instead of a scale, first fluff the flour in its bag, then use a spoon to place it into your measuring cup. Level the flour off by scraping the flat edge of a knife across the top of the cup measure
How to store brown butter chocolate chip cookies
Store these chocolate chip cookies in an airtight container for 3 days. You can stick them in the freezer as well!
More delicious cookie recipes
- If you want a bakery style (think: Levain, Chip) chocolate chip cookie, check out the best BIG chocolate chip cookies.
- If you’re a candy fiend, try Halloween candy cookies (it doesn’t need to be Halloween to make them!).
- If you want chocolate chip cookies but with a twist, try dipped strawberry chocolate chip cookies or deep-dish Nutella-stuffed cookie skillet.
- If you’re having a cozy night in, make the viral half-baked single serve chocolate chip cookie skillet.
Salted Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
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cookies30
minutes12
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hoursKeep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
2 sticks (227 grams) unsalted butter
2 1/2 cups (300 grams) all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/4 tsp. kosher or sea salt
1 1/2 cups (320 grams) light brown sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
1 TBS. vanilla
4 oz. chocolate bar, chopped (keep some pieces larger and some smaller, and save the chocolate shavings)
4 oz. (2/3 cup) chocolate chips
2/3 cup (75 grams) walnuts, chopped finely but not to a powder (optional)
Flaky sea salt to top
Directions
- First, brown the butter. Place the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. The butter is going to melt, then simmer and foam. Swirl regularly throughout the process so the butter cooks evenly.
After 6-10 minutes, the milk solids from the butter will drop to the bottom of the pan. They’ll start out looking like white specks and will then brown. Once they brown, pour the butter into a medium-sized bowl, making sure to scrape in the brown bits from the bottom of the saucepan (this is the brown butter flavor!). Stir in one ice cube to help cool the butter and restore some of the liquid lost when browning the butter. Set aside to cool slightly (so it won’t melt the sugar). - While the brown butter cools, add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt to a medium-sized bowl. Whisk thoroughly, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl so that the ingredients are evenly incorporated.
- Once the brown butter is slightly cooled, add the brown butter and brown sugar to a large bowl. Mix with a whisk until they’re fully combined and the butter isn’t separated from the sugar. Add the vanilla and eggs and whisk well.
- Pour the flour mixture into your wet ingredients. Using a spatula, fold in the dry ingredients until there are only a few streaks of flour left, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the chopped chocolate and walnuts, keeping your larger pieces of chocolate aside.
- Portion your dough into balls that weigh 70 grams, or approximately a 3-tablespoon scoop. Place on a parchment-lined rimmed tray, cover with plastic wrap, and let chill in the fridge for at least two hours and a maximum of 48 hours.
- When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°. Space out your dough on your cookie sheet and press one or two of the larger pieces of chocolate that you stashed away into the dough. If you’re freezing some dough, this is when you should put it in your freezer bag and stash it away.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges of the cookies are brown and the tops are slightly browned. They’ll be a little underbaked, but will keep cooking from residual heat when you take them out of the oven. Top with flaky sea salt (a must!) right away so the salt sticks to the cookie, let cool for five minutes, and enjoy.