Salty Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
These Salty Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are your classic chocolate chip cookie with a nutty browned butter flavor and little specs of sea salt throughout. These will quickly become a tried and true recipe for you.
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Salty Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Now I know I have several chocolate chip recipes on my site but these have browned butter and sea salt!
These Salty Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are from Shelly from Cookies and Cups. Her new Cookies & Cups Cookbook is filled with over 125+ innovative desserts and dinners that your family will actually eat. I can testify that she poured her heart and soul into this book and it is done so well!
When flipping through her book I bookmarked so many recipes and I finally decided if you’re gonna pick a recipe from a girl who has the name Cookies and Cups you should probably make her cookies. So I did. And let me tell you – I had a hard time not eating all the dough.
Browned butter – stop it. Chocolate chips – yes ma’am.
Sea salt – have you guys had cookies with sea salt in them? The little crystals hide throughout the cookie and give you an unexpected hint of saltiness which compliments the sweetness so much.
OTHER COOKIE RECIPES
- My Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie
- Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
- S’mores Cookies
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookie
- Chewy Coconut Lime Cookies
- Monster Cookies
- No-Bake Cookies
Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, whisked
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
- flaked sea salt, for sprinkling
Equipment
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, then bring to a boil. Once it starts boiling, swirl the pan constantly until the butter passes the foamy phase and becomes a deep amber color. Remove from the heat, pour into a separate bowl (this allows the butter to stop cooking) and allow the butter to cool for 20 minutes.
- While the butter is cooling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and sea salt. Set aside.
- Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla to the cooled butter and stir to combine. Pour this mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture. Stir using a wooden spoon until the dough comes together and the ingredients are evenly incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Using a medium (2-tablespoon) cookie scoop, drop the dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. I always add extra chocolate chips on top for that bakery look. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until edges are lightly golden (or 8-9 minutes for extra gooey).
- Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. If desired, sprinkle a small amount of flaked sea salt on top of the cookies as they are cooling.
- Store airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Notes
These were so good I couldn’t stop eating them!! Recipe is definitely one of my top favorite desserts now 😍
Woo-hoo!
These are perfect. There is nothing that should change about them – the brown butter adds additional depth and the salt measurements are perfect. My new go to!
Thank you!
AMAZING. Thank you for sharing this!! These will most definitely be on heavy rotation in my household 🙂
Thank yoU!
One of the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made. Perfection!!
You’re welcome!
These cookies are so wonderful! The sea salt and brown butter kick these up to a whole other level of deliciousness.
Thank you!
I made these last week and they are, without a doubt, THE best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. The dough was so good, I wasn’t sure we would actually get to try it as a baked cookie! Could the dough be spread in a pan and made into bars? Or would it need to be altered?
Aww so happy to hear that.
Could I use baking powder in place of baking soda?
Nope. They have different purposes.
These are hands down the best chocolate chip recipe ever. Family, neighbors, friends… everyone begs me to make these time and time again. I follow the recipe except I half the chocolate chips and add pecans in place of the 2nd cup of chocolate chips. Do yourself a favor a make these! Also, I live at altitude and these turn out perfect without any substitutions for the elevation.
Thank you SaraH!
I’m another Sarah and just did the same (without seeing this first)! So freaking delicious! I also accidentally used salted butter so I did not add salt at the end. Maybe a little too salty for some, but perfect for me!
I use half chocolate chips and half heath chips. These cookies don’t last an entire day in my house. Best recipe I have ever tried.
Wow. Sounds amazing.
I’ve made these cookies twice in the past month. So incredibly delicious.
Thank you!
Amazing recipe!! I have a question, if I freeze the dough, how much cooking time should I add when baking? Also, how do you store your cookies? Mine are perfect day 1, but days 2 and 3, they get too soft in my cookie jar. Thank you!
Two soft? Are you in a humid environment? You can always store in the fridge to prevent that. I would add just a few minutes to the bake time.
Amazing cookies!! I subbed all purpose flour for gluten free flour and my family dubbed them the best gluten free cookies they’ve ever had.
Good to know they can be made gluten-free.
I will be making a gluten free batch this afternoon.
Best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you!
These were divine!!! And came out to exactly 30! Thank you so much!
You’re welcome!
How many cookies does this make?
30 cookies.
i typically don’t post reviews for recipes i make, but oh my word. i made a half batch but followed to recipe exactly, except i used half chocolate chips and half dark chocolate chunks. these are the best cookies i have ever made. seriously to die for.
I agree! These are definitely worth every calorie.
This is my go to recipe if I want chocolate chip cookies. So good always work out. I use an ice pack to cool my butter cause I’m impatient. But it always works out and taste so good
Glad you liked it!
Thought I browned the butter too much because of the brown butter on the bottom of the pan smells burnt but they came out yummy!
Browned butter is magical!
Great recipe. Would recommend baking at 375F rather than 350F as 375 is the caramelization point of butter and sugar which will give your more of a rich, chewy cookie and really bring out that brown butter flavor
Thanks for the tips!
how do you get the cookies to get crinkled and wrinkled like that? mine tasted great but they just looked like flat discs.
Chilling the dough helps get those wrinkles although this recipe doesn’t require it. Use parchment paper too!
These are great! I have made a ton of different recipes and the brown butter and the addition of greek yogurt is amazing.
Awesome. Thank you Frankie!
I made these cookies exactly to the directions. The flavor was fantastic, but the dough was moist but wouldn’t stick together and looked like sand rather than cookie dough. Just to clarify in the directions should brown butter chilled from a temperature stand point or should it be solid again to cream with sugar?
I tried adding a little water to it to make a more gooey dough but I am not sure if it worked. We enjoyed taste testing the dough. Not sure what I did wrong would love to know the way to fix it.
I’m so sorry! That doesn’t sound right. It should be just room temperature. Doesn’t have to be chilled.
I’ve made so many good chocolate chip cookies, but these are FANTASTIC! It is now my official go-to cookie, I keep a batch in the freezer for whenever I get a craving. Thank you for such a good recipe!
You are welcome! The dough is amazing!
my real question is how do we turn these cookies into fluffy waffles? could i just take the dough right to the iron? or would i need to alter it to make it right
Hmm. I don’t know. I would take the dough right to the iron if it were me.
This cookies were amazing! Followed the advice to whisk the browned butter in one of the comments but that waste only change I made. So good and the brown butter is definitely worth the little extra time it takes.
These are out of control good!
The only change I made was I used a wire whisk to continually stir the butter. The first time some of the butter was burnt with the swirl method and had better success with the whisk on the second go.
Thank you! I agree!
These cookies are amazing!! My favorite flavor is browned butter. I used milk chocolate chips and heath toffee bits. Soooooo good!
So glad you liked them.
I do that too! They go from amazing to irresistible.
I made these for a bbq a few months ago and people went nuts. They said they’ve never had such a good chocolate chip cookie!
I was asked recently to bring cookies to a dinner, and I thought I would try Bon Apetit’s version. Two big thumbs down! They were flat and oily.
I should have known not to fix something that isn’t broken. Next time I will go straight back to your recipe.
Awesome to hear that!
Best chocolate chip cookie that I’ve ever baked!
Awesome thanks!
Is there a trick to no gooey melty chocolate on the bottoms of cookies? – delicious – but sooo messy to package, give away.
Um I’ve never had that problem?
You can make them into bars by baking the dough in a Pyrex baking dish and pressing the chocolate chips on top of the batter rather than mixing them in. You’ll have to adjust the baking time, but you won’t have messy chocolate on the bottom!
Thank you so much for posting and sharing. It was definitely a cakier like cookie than I expected but still delicious nonetheless. The brown butter definitely brought these cookies to the next level. Now I need to buy this book.
Thanks!
Would this recipe work in the Wilton giant cookie pan to make a cookie cake? I understand that I may need to use less than the full recipe, but just wondering if the texture would work for a pan cookie.
I haven’t tried it so I can’t be sure.
favorite cookies! i recommend adding the tiniest dash of nutmeg. really brings out the butter
Thanks for the tip!
Made these last night for my wife’s office. Third batch was perfect, and we both agreed that they are incredible. A couple notes from my perspective:
1) My first batch was ruined because I did the steps exactly as written and did not flatten my cookies after scooping them (maybe my scoop is different). Once I pressed the cookies on the parchment paper and shaped them to my liking, everything was great. But…
2) This is just personal preference, but I may drop baking soda down to 3/4 tsp and flour down to 2 cups and/or increase butter to 1.5 cups next time so that the dough is less stiff. Any tips on what might be best for thinning these out just a touch would be very welcome! I’m no pro at baking.
Final Analysis: Scrumdiddilyumptious
I thought I had a decent chocolate chip cookie recipe but the brown butter! This recipe! My cookies did not last long in this house!
These are dangerous!
This was the best cookie I ever made! I will only use this recipe for chocolate chip cookies from now on!
I love hearing that!
great recipe! i modified it slightly by using dark brown sugar instead of light brown, adding in about a teaspoon of espresso powder, and using chopped chocolate chunks rather than chocolate chips.
i found that the amount of flour is sometimes too much, so i find it helpful to add in the flour a half cup at a time to the wet mixture to make sure that the cookies aren’t too stiff (the first time i made them, i used the entirety of the flour mixture and the cookies didn’t spread!). the sea salt on top is really what makes these cookies beyond incredible, so do NOT skip out on that step!
browning the butter is an amazing step that should be added to every cookie recipe out there!!! don’t be afraid to burn it a little bit, it all is just adding in that amazing, complex flavor!
by far the best cookie recipe out there, this one is a staple in my recipe book now!!
Glad you liked it!
Awesome recipe…I honestly think these are the best cookies I’ve ever made. I will say tho-too many chocolate chips. I got to 1.5 cups, stopped, and it was still a bit too much. Just heads up
Oh my gosh. Glad you liked them.
These are amazing!!! I made them last week and again today, just so good and the salt, yum!
Thanks for the great recipe!
Yes, I love the salty sweet combo.
Followed the recipe almost exactly, the only difference being that I didn’t have coarse sea salt on hand, so I crushed some flaked sea salt and worked it into the recipe. Turned out great! Pleasantly chewy with a bit of crispiness at 10 minutes in the oven.
So glad you liked it!
These were absolutely dreadful. Very dry and didn’t flatten due to the lack of butter in this recipe. Never again.
You just have messed up because I just made them exactly as written and they were delicious
There are 2 sticks of butter in the recipe to 2.5 cups of flour? Not lack of butter, lacks of skills perhaps. I have messed up so many recipes as well so don’t give up
Sea salt AND browned butter? Can’t wait to try them. I’ve also got some flaked sea salt just lying around that I need some good uses for. It’s probably my favorite salt. Also, the cookbook looks interesting. May have to look into that!
I followed the recipe with the exception of using just 1 1// cups of chocolate chips. I pulled them out when they looked undercooked but they cooled and firmed to a chewy consistency. They came out perfect! I’ll be using this recipe as my go to recipe from now on. So easy and so delicious.
So glad you liked it!
Trying this recipe out tonight. Are you supposed to cream the butter and sugars, or just whisk them together?
What a hit! Quite possibly the best cookies ever, and certainly the best chocolate chip cookies. Made them for the office and was getting thank yous and smiles all day long.
Yayyyy Miriam!
I accidentally browned butter that I was melting for another recipe. I couldn’t bear to toss out that much butter; so I looked online for a browned butter cookie recipe. This one popped up. These cookies are fabulous! That you so much for helping me turn a mishap into a marvelous moment!
Oh what a marvelous moment! Wish I had some!!
Made a batch and shared with neighbors and co-workers. Guess I will be making again. Fantastic feedback.
I’m sure they were fantastic!
These cookies are “the bomb”. Love brown butter chocolate chip cookies. Browning the butter makes all the difference. Followed directions and given, this is a keeper.
They are one of my favorites too!
I’ve made this recipe twice now and these cookies are phenomenal. Once I brought them
to work and more recently I made them
For Christmas- both my colleagues and family raved about them and they were gone so fast! Reliably good recipe, highly recommend!
So glad you liked them too!
Can this dough be made a day ahead of time, refrigerated then baked maybe 24 hours later?
YEs!!
It’s probably the temperature of your butter. Or you didn’t use enough flour?
These are my go to Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, the browned butter gives a more intense butter flavor, people rave about them!
Thank you!
This is by far my favorite cookie recipe. I only added half a tsp of baking powder. The last browned butter recipe came out so flat, so i was more cautious this time. Idk if it helped, but they came out perfect. Thank you for an easy browned butter recipe!
Glad you loved them!
This recipe has to be one of my favorites. The Office Staff loved them not to mention my family and friends whom I often bake for. They baked up perfect on my new Curtis Stone cookie sheets, no pan prep with these. Cookies slide right off.
Brittany, thank you!! The dough is so good right?
I have made your recipe many times and it’s always a great cookie…my wife is a mail carrier and her fellow carriers are constantly requesting I make them. Makes me look like a real baker with the added nutty flavor the browned butter brings to it. THANKS!
Yes!! Browned butter is everything!
Yummy cookie but as always I cut the sugar. I used less than one cup of brown sugar and a couple of teaspoons of white sugar. It’s enough. I also use extra dark chocolate chips. Yummy cookie
Thank you!
We’ve loved every recipe of yours we’ve tried! This was my first time making browned butter cookies and it is so worth it! For sure my new go to cookie recipe!
Love hearing that. Thanks!
This is the best cookie recipe I have ever had . Make this if you want to be the best cookie baker in the universe.
That’s a great compliment!
Oh.my.god!!! I’m a massive fan of your chewy chocolate chip recipe. I have it memorized and it’s highly requested (like all the time). Just made this one and OMG! So freaking good! You’re brilliant!
Glad you liked it!
These look amazing! Are they supposed to be chewy or crispy?
They have a slightly crisp edge and a soft center.
Absolutely LOVE the browned butter and salt in these cookies. I did everything you said (at least I think I did) but yours look thicker than mine turned out- like mine spread too much. when they first came out of the oven, they were slightly puffier, but as they cooled the 5 min on the pan, they got really flat (still pretty)… suggestions? Thank you for sharing!! Colleen
Thickness of cookies depends on the temp of your fat – if you chill them they will be thicker because the butter will be colder. It also depends on the amount of flour. If you don’t have enough they will be too flat as well.
These cookies are absolutely delicious. What an excellent recipe. Big hit with the kiddos. Thank you so much for sharing. 🍪🍪😋😋😋 Can’t wait to make them again. Next time I’m going to try to add either pecans or walnuts. Yum-O.
Just made these, they turned out great! Great flavor and texture! I will definitely use this recipe again!
These are my absolute favorite cookies.
Is it safe to chill the dough before baking?
Yes!!
These turned out amazing! Thank you so much for the recipe, I will never go back to non-browned butter cookies. And by the way, I had some stale marshmallows lying around (how dare I?) and tossed a handful in the last batch and they turned out great too. Going to try your S’mores cookie bars next. I’m hooked! ❤
Ooh! Sounds delicious!
Just made these over the weekend – they are ridiculous! Definitely a recipe to keep and make for years!
Haha. I agree.
These really were one of most beautiful looking cookies, I have ever made! They were also delicious and eaten up quickly by my family of 6. Your instructions on browning the butter were clear and simple. I had never done it before, but it did take like 10 min. I used salted butter because I always do and I didn’t see the unsalted comment until afterwards. No one complained, but I didn’t add any salt to the top. I always appreciate the simplicity of your recipes
Thank you Anne! So glad you loved them like I did.
Do you use salted or unsalted butter? Thanks!
Unsalted -so you can add salt yourself.
These turned out so well!!! I am in love!! I have tried a good few of your recipes one here ( fantastic site by the way), and you definitely have great taste in cookies!! This was my first attempt at browned butter (though I have heard many people gush about it’s deliciousness), and it did not go horribly, but I did have to brown a second batch of butter because I burned the first! After that though, it was smooth sailing (and eating!!!). Thanks so much for the endless amount of sweets to try!!!
It quickly goes from browned to burnt. You have to keep a close eye on it!
I’ve made these 3 times now and every time they turn out amazing. This is my newest baking addition and everyone loves them!
So glad. THey’re pretty fantastic!
I’ve never made cookies with browned butter before but I’m definitely going to give this recipe a try. They sound incredible. And, your pictures are gorgeous!! I want to reach into the screen and grab a cookie! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks MJ!
They look delicious. A special type of a classic dessert, thanks for sharing
This looks so delicious. Thanks for sharing! Continue the great work!
Best, MODENOVA I http://www.modenova.com
Thank you!
These cookies are reminding me that I need a snack. They look delicious!!
These cookies look amazing! I’m bookmarking this just so I can remember to buy the book. I love finding new cookie recipes.
these look delish! its crazy how much browned butter really brings out the best in a recipe! do you like to bake your cookies on parchment paper or silpat mats at all?
Always parchment. I won’t even bake unless I have it.
Yum!! What a great idea to use browned butter!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
Browned butter is everything!
They look so gorgeous!!! Thank you so much my sweet friend!! xoxo
Oh yummy! These look amazing!
It’s SUCH a gorgeous cookbook! I am dying to try this cookie recipe — it’s next on my list 🙂
Yes it is!!