These Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are pretty much the best chocolate chip cookie recipe!
We love chocolate chip cookies in our house, and this recipe is one that my family asks me to bake again and again. We’ve been on a comfort food baking frenzy these days, so I re-surfaced this recipe from 2007 and I’m sharing it with you as new… so many years later. It’s the best chocolate chip cookie recipe, and it’s definitely one worth print out and saving.
How to make Browned Butter:
Brown butter adds a rich and nutty flavor to dishes and baked goods that is amazing, so don’t skip this part! Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. If you have a pan with a light-colored bottom, use that since it will be easier to see the browning process. Swirl the pan occasionally to make sure the butter is cooking evenly. As the butter melts, it will begin to foam. Eventually, the color of the butter will turn a darker shade of brown. Once you smell a somewhat nutty aroma, take the pan off the heat and transfer the browned butter into a bowl to cool.
How to make Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies:
Sifting the dry ingredients is the first thing you do. If you don’t have a traditional sifter, you can simply scrape the dry ingredients through a fine strainer with a spoon. This recipe calls for using bread flour, which helps create a chewy texture for the cookies. You can also use all-purpose flour for this recipe, but the use of bread flour is better… and it’s also a good option when all-purpose flour is more difficult to find on the store shelves.
Then you’ll brown the butter (instructions above). Then you combine the browned butter with brown and white sugars, then add the rest of the ingredients (cream, lemon juice, vanilla, eggs). The dry ingredients are mixed in next. And finally, the chocolate chips are mixed in. The resulting cookie dough will be very soft because you’re using melted butter. Make sure you let it chill for a couple of hours before proceeding with baking.
The Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies dough is then rolled into balls and placed on a baking sheet.
And here’s what they look like when baked for 11 or 12 minutes. They’re perfect!
The secret to making the best chocolate chip cookies:
Using bread flour results in a chewier cookie. You can use all-purpose flour in this recipe if you’d like, but it won’t have the same texture. It will be more crisp. The addition of lemon juice also aids in adding to the chewy texture. Using more brown sugar than white sugar also helps with great cookie flavor. Of course the browned butter is a brilliant choice for adding that rich and slightly nutty taste without adding actual nuts. And bittersweet chocolate chips are very good in chocolate chip cookies, so I recommend you use those!
The result is a soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie that is all-around delicious! Enjoy!
Here are a few more chocolate chip cookie recipes you might like to try:
- Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Jumbo Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Malted Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Secret Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Doubletree Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Egg Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Skillet Chocolate Chip Cookies
Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2¼ cups bread flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 1¼ cups packed dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 tablespoon half and half cream (can sub milk)
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 cups chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a medium bowl sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Continue to cook on low heat, stirring often, until the butter is bubbly and browned. Don't overdo it or it will burn. Turn off the heat and stir in the brown and white sugars.
- Scrape the butter/sugar mixture into a medium mixing bowl and use an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugars together. Add the half and half, lemon juice, vanilla extract and eggs. Mix in until well combined. Add half of the flour mixture and incorporate into the batter with the electric mixer. Add the rest and mix until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. The cookie dough will be very soft and buttery. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill until firm (an hour or two).
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat mats. Scoop up heaping tablespoonfuls of cookie dough and use your hands to roll into balls. Place 12 balls on a sheet, keeping about an inch and a half between each ball.
- Bake 10 to 12 minutes, depending on how large you've rolled your balls (mine take 11 minutes).
Notes
- *Milk may be used in place of the half and half cream, if needed.
- *I prefer to use bittersweet chocolate chips in this cookie recipe.
- *Cool completely and store in an airtight container.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
this is an old post…..do you taste the fresh lemon juice?
no, just an added secret ingredient!
Very good cookie! Used 1 cup 70% Valhrona chips & 1 cup 60% bittersweet. Got greasy fingers eating them. Thank you for sharing. Glad I chose to make these as part of hubby’s birthday treat fest over the NY Times version.
Do you have to use half and half? We never buy it, and it would be silly to buy it for a tablespoon…
I suppose you could sub milk, or use cream or heavy whipping cream.
So I have been meaning to try these for a long while, since of course, I too am always trying new chocolate chip cookies. My husband is a super picky CC cookie eater and we bothed really loved these! I think I over cooked a couple of the batches. They were good right out of the oven, but a little hard later. But still the best flavor!! I’m making them again soon!
these were AWESOME! they got the little bro approval too 🙂
since this cookie is too sweet for me i try to cut down the brown sugar to 250g and skip adding white sugar, does it affect the chewiness of the cookie? please advise!
I wouldn’t mess w/ the sugar… you might have drastically different results. Let me know if you find something that works.
Theres always something about dealing with hot oils that scares the crap out of me, I think it’s a throwback from getting burned in home ec as a kid… really want to try these though (pray for me!)
These looks wonderful. I love chocolate chip cookies.
These are amazing, thanks!
I’m not sure what happened – but when I made these, the first pan turned out like BRICKS. The dough was so hard and so stiff I could hardly mix in the chocolate chips. I cooked the first pan, figuring they would still spread – but to no avail. I had to add a whole stick of butter (totaling THREE! yikes!!!) to get them soft enough to cook correctly. I checked my recipe quantities again, and I put in the correct amount of everything (minus Lemon juice). Any thoughts on what happened??