These Salted Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies are the perfect sweet and salty cookie. They are made with a brown butter dough, have crisp edges, a chewy middle and decadent pools of dark chocolate.
Take this cookie recipe up another notch and add even more rich brown butter flavor by making chocolate chip cookie sandwiches with a layer of brown butter cream cheese frosting in the middle of two cookies.
Sweet and Salty
Classic Flavor
Quick Look: Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- ⏱️ Prep Time: 15 minutes
- 👩🍳 Cook Time: 14 minutes
- 🕖 Total Time: 29 minutes
- 🍪 Servings: 18 cookies
- ⚡️ Calories: 165 calories per serving (based on nutrition panel)
- 🔥 Cooking Method: Bake in oven at 325F
- 🛒 Main Ingredients: salted butter, brown sugar, white sugar, all purpose flour, semi sweet chocolate chunks
- ⭐️ Difficulty: Medium. It can be tricky to properly brown the butter, but once you get it down you’ll never look back!
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Polly left this 5 star review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
“I’ve made these cookies several times. Always a big hit. Thanks for this great recipe.”
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Rich brown butter flavor – Adding brown butter to cookies gives that a toasty, nutty flavor that almost reminds me of toffee. It deepens and elevates the flavor of a standard chocolate chip cookie
- Melty pools of chocolate – Using chopped chocolate bars instead of chocolate chips leaves the finished cookie with thin swirls of chocolate throughout and decadent pools of chocolate on top. The melted dark chocolate is the perfect compliment to the salty, nutty brown butter.
- Crispy edges and a soft middle – These cookies have that perfect mix of crisp buttery edges with a soft, chewy middle. With the dark chocolate puddles and flakey sea salt on top, they are truly the best chocolate chip cookie.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Salted butter – use a stick of salted butter to prepare the brown butter that gives these cookies their signature, nutty dough. Do not skip the browned butter! It really adds depth of flavor.
- Light brown sugar – brown sugar adds rich flavor and a bit of moisture to these cookies.
- White granulated sugar – the mix of both white and brown sugar gives these chocolate chunk cookies that signature chewy bite that you crave in a cookie.
- Large egg – mix one large egg into the batter to bind all of the ingredients together and give the cookies a bit of lift.
- Vanilla extract – a teaspoon of vanilla extract adds rich depth of flavor to these chewy chocolate chip cookies.
- All purposed flour – I use a standard all purpose flour to make these cookies. To make them gluten free you can use a 1:1 ratio gluten free flour blend instead.
- Baking soda – Baking soda helps the cookies rise, expand and spread while baking.
- Semi sweet chocolate bar or dark chocolate bar – I prefer to use a semi sweet chocolate bar chopped into small pieces to get those incredible pools of chocolate throughout the cookies. To make brown butter chocolate chip cookies, you can use 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips in place of the chocolate bar
- Flaky sea salt – to really up the sweet and salty flavor combo I like to sprinkle a thick sea salt like maldon salt over the top of the cookies either before or after baking
I LOVE how brown butter elevates baked goods. If you are looking for another recipe filled with nutty and delicious brown butter try these brown butter sugar cookies or brown butter rice krispie treats.
Add extra sweetness and a deeper caramelized flavor to this cookie by mixing 1/2 cup of toffee pieces into the batter. If you like nuts in your chocolate chip cookies, add 1/2 cup of chopped roasted walnuts or pecans to the batter before baking. You could even add chopped roasted peanuts for that classic chocolate peanut taste!
How to make Chewy Salted Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Step 1: Prepare browned butter from a stick of salted butter. Melt butter in a sauce pan, until the top of the melted butter looks foamy. Whisk constantly until you see small brown flecks at the bottom of the pan then remove from heat.
Step 2: Allow the brown butter to cool in the fridge for 15 minutes. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, mix brown butter with brown and white sugar until fluffy. Pour egg and vanilla extract into the bowl and mix again.
Step 3: Stir all purpose flour and baking soda into wet ingredients. Continue mixing until a smooth dough remains. Mix chopped semi sweet chocolate chunks into the dough.
Step 4: Cover mixing bowl and place in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes. While that chills I like to preheat my oven to 325F and prepare baking sheets with parchment,
Step 5: Scoop dough balls onto prepared baking sheets. You can sprinkle flakey sea salt on these before or after baking. Bake the cookies at 325F until golden brown.
Step 6: Allow the cookies to cool for a couple of minutes on the baking sheet. Then, place them on a wire rack to finish cooling.
Mad’s Expert Tips for the Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies 🍪
- Be careful not to burn the brown butter – browned butter can taste amazing when properly made, but it can quickly burn. As soon as you see small brown flecks at the bottom of the pan and smell a nutty aroma, remove the pan from heat so you stop the milk solids from cooking.
- Chop a chocolate bar instead of buying chocolate chunks – to get those irresistible pools of melty dark chocolate in very bite of of these cookies, it is essential to chop a chocolate bar by hand instead of using the premade chocolate chunks. Chocolate bars will melt and spread faster than chocolate chunks.
- Bake cookies from frozen -These brown butter cookies bake beautifully from frozen. I like to make a batch, place the cookie dough balls in the freezer and then bake them 2 at a time whenever the cookie craving hits. Bake the cookies directly from frozen at 325F for 15-16 minutes.
Once you master making browned butter, you need to try this brown butter banana bread. It is hands down my favorite way to make a loaf of banana bread.
Storage and Freezing
Store these in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. Store in the fridge for up to one week.
Freeze cookie dough balls or fully baked cookies in an air tight container for up to 3 months. If freezing baked cookies, allow to thaw in the refrigerator. Reheat in a toaster oven or oven at 275F until just warmed through.
Check out These other delicious Cookie Recipes
You can find the full recipe below. If you make this recipe, please rate and review it in the comments, or share it with me on Instagram!
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Recipe
Salted Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 stick salted butter 1/2 cup
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar – packed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg – room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 3.5oz semi sweet or dark chocolate bar chopped into small chunks
- Optional: flakey sea salt
Instructions
- Prepare the brown butter – place a stick of salted butter in a small sauce pan over medium low heat. Allow the butter to melt completely. Whisk occasionally until the top of the melted butter looks foamy. Once it looks foamy, whisk constantly until you start to see small brown flecks at the bottom of the pan and immediately remove from heat.
- Allow the browned butter to cool completely. I like to place it in the fridge for 15 minutes.
- Pour the cooled brown butter into a large bowl – be sure to scrape in all of those browned bits with a spatula. Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar to the bowl.
- Mix them together with an electric hand mixer or paddle attachment of a stand mixer until evenly combined. Add the egg and vanilla to the bowl and mix until light and fluffy.
- Pour the all purpose flour into the mixing bowl along with the baking soda and mix again with the electric mixer until a smooth dough forms. Fold the chocolate chunks in with a flat spatula.
- Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 325F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop out 2 tbsp of dough for each cookie and roll into a ball. Place 9 dough balls at a time on the baking sheet and press down lightly. Top with flakey sea salt.
- Bake at 325F for 12-14 minutes. Allow to cool for at least 5 minutes on the cookie sheet and then transfer to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling.
- ** To bake from frozen: Roll into balls and freeze. Bake directly from frozen at 325F for 16 minutes.
Recipe Notes
- If you only have unsalted butter, add 1/2 tsp kosher salt to the batter when you add the flour and baking soda
- You can use 3/4 cup chocolate chips in place of the chocolate bar
- Be careful not to burn the brown butter – browned butter can taste amazing when properly made, but it can quickly burn. As soon as you see small brown flecks at the bottom of the pan and smell a nutty aroma, remove the pan from heat so you stop the milk solids from cooking.
- Bake cookies from frozen -These brown butter cookies bake beautifully from frozen. I like to make a batch, place the cookie dough balls in the freezer and then bake them 2 at a time whenever the cookie craving hits. Bake the cookies directly from frozen at 325F for 15-16 minutes.
- Chop a chocolate bar instead of buying chocolate chunks – to get those irresistible pools of melty dark chocolate in very bite of of these cookies, it is essential to chop a chocolate bar by hand instead of using the premade chocolate chunks. Chocolate bars will melt and spread faster than chocolate chunks.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
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