Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
June 5, 2017 | By Jeremy Scheck | 31 Comments
These are the ultimate chocolate-chip cookies. The browned butter lends a uniquely delicious toffee–caramel flavor. The flaky salt (I used Maldon) gives the cookies a delicious balance of flavor.
To match this without a scale, even though the correct way to measure flour by volume is to fluff it up with a spoon and spoon the flour into the measuring cup before leveling, for this recipe, just scoop the measuring cup directly into the bag of flour and level.
Video Tutorial
Original recipe from Ambitious Kitchen. **My version is a little more caramely and gooey while hers are more cakey. If you measure with measuring cups, yours will probably come out more like Ambitious Kitchen **
A few years ago, my friend Kaela had been keeping this gem of a recipe among her closest family and friends. If you were especially lucky, Kaela might have made them for your birthday. They are her family’s specialty. On one fateful day, she gave the recipe to my friend Maia. Kaela said that Maia could make them with me, but Maia was on on strict orders to “NOT GIVE THE RECIPE TO JEREMY”. Well after I made them with Maia, and realized that the perfect cookie was not even that hard to make, I had no choice but to find the recipe. Fortunately after a not–so–difficult search on the internet I found the cookies hailed from a food blog called Ambitious Kitchen. Since I found out that these cookies were in the public domain, I couldn’t not make them even if they were Kaela’s thing. This caused a lot of drama for freshmen Jeremy, Maia, and Kaela. It was Kaela’s specialty and Maia probably shouldn’t have made it so easy for me to find, but these are like the best cookies and I wanted to make them. Finally, Kaela agreed it would be fine if I made them, because after all, the recipe was online. Even after that ordeal, the three of us shared the coveted recipe with few. Fast forward to now, we are older and (a little) more mature. We aren’t fighting about cookie recipes. I’m excited to share a highly requested recipe that my friends and family love.
For a long time, I could not figure out how to make them as good as Kaela’s family. Mine were good but more recently, I started browning the butter more than I had been, and I increased the amount of flour in weight measurement (they don’t weigh their flour, but I do.) Theirs are still better but mine come close 🙂
Browned-Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups (315g) all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt + flaky salt for sprinkling
- 1 cup/2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups (300g) dark brown sugar, firmly packed. Regular brown sugar is fine too, but don’t use light.
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 whole egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsps vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon plain greek yogurt (full fat)
- 1 bag (12 oz) chocolate chips I like semi sweet or a mixture of bittersweet and milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° degrees F (For my oven, 325° F on convection works better)
- Set the butter to brown in a medium skillet set over low heat. While the butter begins to melt, measure out other ingredients to be efficient with time (instructions follow). If the butter completely melts before you're done measuring, stop measuring and resume later. After the butter melts, continue cooking on medium heat and tend to it by mixing gently with a wooden spoon or silicon whisk. The butter will foam, then the foam may subside as you continue to cook. After a few minutes, the butter will give off a nutty, toffee–like aroma. At this point, the butter is almost ready, cook on medium-low until the milk solids of the butter turn golden-brown. Transfer the browned-butter to a separate bowl until needed so that it doesn't burn in the pan.
- Measure the brown sugar and granulated sugar into a large mixing bowl.
- Pour the hot butter over the sugar mixture, and whisk to combine. Set aside to let cool for 5 minutes.
- In the meantime, in a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and kosher salt. Also, whisk together the eggs, vanilla, and greek yogurt in another small bowl.
- After the butter and sugar have cooled, pour in the egg mixture in small additions, whisking to combine. Add all the egg mixture, and whisk until most of the sugar granules dissolve.
- Gently mix in the flour mixture.
- Fold in the chocolate chips. Reserve some chocolate chips to add on top of the individual cookie balls. This will make them more "picture perfect".
- Refrigerate the dough for 2 hours then scoop the dough into small balls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silat. For quicker turn around, freeze the dough for 5 minutes, then scoop it into balls and freeze for 30 minutes once scooped.
- Before baking, sprinkle each ball of dough with flaky salt and reserved chocolate chips.
- Bake for 10 minutes until puffed and lightly browned around the edges. The cookies will not be set in the center. For best results, bake one tray at a time.
- Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
A note on storage: The cookies can be stored for a few days in an airtight container. To help them retain their chewy-ness, store the cookies with a slice of bread. You can also keep the balls of dough frozen for a few months.
Jeremy Scheck spent high school perfecting his signature cupcakes, making quiches and coffee cake by the dozen at a local bakery, and teaching cooking demonstrations at Williams-Sonoma. As a 10th grader in 2016, he began documenting his favorite recipes on a blog called The After School Bakery. In college, Jeremy learned to make 50 gallons of ice cream in the food science lab, how to prune grape vines in the teaching vineyard, the best way to milk a cow in Northern Italy, and why film photography is an art worth saving. As a sophomore in 2020, he traded blog photos for video and became a TikTok culinary sensation. Jeremy has been featured on the Today show, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, BBC Radio, People, and Access Hollywood, among others. Jeremy is a graduate of Cornell University with a double major in Spanish and Italian, and significant coursework in food science. He lives in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more about Jeremy.
So good, love them ????????
This recipe gave birth to the best cookies I’ve ever made! It is crunchy on the outside but chewy on the inside and has lots of flavor. I’ll be honest and say that the dough is as delicious as the baked cookie. I definitely recommend doing it!
These cookies are the absolute best! I originally made the recipe thinking I could tinker with it a little to put my own spin on it but after tasting them I determined that they are perfect exactly as they are. Favorite cookies of all time!
Beautiful. Decadent. A chewy cookie with a little dash of that great Scheck sass. 10/10 recommend.
wow! these are definitely my new favorite cookies. love them so much and so does everyone i’ve shared them with! thanks for the recipe.
I made these cookies for my family, and they’re a new favorite!! They are delicious warm or cooled and are the tastiest and most quintessential chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever had! I made them with gluten free flour, but they turned out perfectly. I would highly recommend them!
Hands down the BEST choc chip cookies I’ve ever tasted! 5/5 for sure
made these for a friend for her birthday and she LOVED them!! one of my faves 🙂
I’d be lying if I said I had never tasted something as delicious as these cookies, but I regularly recreate Jeremy’s recipes. Still, these cookies are an 11/10 and I recommend to anyone who wants to enjoy life to give them a try!!!
Best cookies ever! I make them with chopped pecans instead of chocolate chips and they turn out amazing. The browned butter gives it a delicious, toffee-like flavor. Definitely recommend!
These browned butter cookies are SO good!! First of all.. the taste and smell!!! Every time I bake them my whole house smells like toffee and yummy choc chips! The taste of these cookies is like an elevated fancy chocolate chip that you’d get at a top notch bakery! I can sincerely say this is my favorite recipe so far 🙂 Definitely a keeper and worth the extra steps
these are soooo good, everybody loves them and they’re so addicting. best cookie recipe out there.
hey king! you have done it again. Constantly raising the bar for us all and doing it flawlessly. i’d say i’m surprised but i know who you are. i’ve seen it up close and personal. you make me so proud.
EVERYTHING IS SO GOOD JSKEJSJE THIS MAN DOES IT ALL 10/10 BEST FOOD BLOG
I look forward to baking these but is it really necessary to freeze them again after scooping, what would it change if I skipped that part?
Amazing cookies! The dough is to die for too????
I’m excited to try this recipe. Never tried it with the yogurt, what does this ingredient add to the taste of the cookie? Or what impar does it have overall?
Hi Fatima, the acidity of the yogurt has a chemical reaction with the baking soda and affects the texture.
I bought Maldon salt just for these cookies. I made them initially while in lockdown, & I’ve made them so many times since. My whole family loves them & my neighbors as well. These are now one of my favorite cookies
Hi! I make these all the time and they are a hit with friends and family. Most recently, I had somewhat of a happy accident as I didn’t let the brown butter/sugar mixture cool before mixing it with everything else and the chocolate chips. The butter melted the chocolate chips and made the cookies taste like toffee!
the brown butter makes them taste like toffee chocolate chip cookies, they are soooo good and easy to make
the best cookies! everyone I make them for loves them and the recipe is very easy to follow.
heyy! question: i’ve freezed the dought for some days to keep it fresh, should i now change the time or the temperature of the oven, let them defrost or just bake them frozen?
Bake from frozen! may need 1-2 more mins in the oven
My favorite choc chip cookie recipe. Not too sweet, and the brown butter gives the BEST toffee-nutty flavor!
Love this recipe. I make them with chopped toasted pecans instead of chocolate chips and they taste great! Adds a bit of crunch and compliments the toffee taste beautifully!
so so so good! seasalt on top makes a difference. 100/10
brown butter rly makes a difference i love these cookies omfg jeremy never misses
love this recipe so much, whenever i make them i always get compliments. It’s a bit time consuming but super worth it
The cookies made from this recipe are the most amazing chocolate chip cookies I have ever baked or tasted. I baked them for the first time around the holidays for the doormen of my building and they absolutely loved them and I baked more for my family. What a hit! Also, first-time brown butter-makers: Don’t be scared of browning the butter! It may be scary at first, but the butter takes awhile to brown properly. It shouldn’t smell like normal butter — it should really smell sweet and toffee-like, just as the recipe says :).
I look forward to baking these but is it really necessary to freeze them again after scooping, what would it change if I skipped that part?