Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here’s a no BS recipe for my very favorite chocolate chip cookies. And a cute free printable!

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, browned

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 tsps vanilla extract

1 tsp sea salt

2 tsps baking soda

3 cup flour

1/2 cup toffee bits (sub butterscotch chips)

2 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions

1. Use a light colored saucepan to melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook butter until it gets bubbly and nutty smelling. A good indicator that it’s done are the dark flakes that will appear at the bottom of the pan, hence the light colored pan. Let the butter cool to room temp.
2. Cream together butter and sugars.
3. Add your eggs and vanilla extract and mix.
4. Add all your dry ingredients, except for the flour, to the mixture. I don’t find any difference if I mix the dry ingredients separately beforehand, so I skip that step and extra dishes.
5. Start to add your flour 1/2 cup at a time. Make sure to scrape sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, or the bottom if using a standing mixer.
6. Add the chocolate chips and toffee bits.
7. Use a “scoopy” or one of those clamping scooper things to create generous sized balls on a lined baking sheet. I like my balls generously sized 😉
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies are just lightly golden.

Tips

You can use really any kind of “chip” you want in this recipe. Sometimes I’ll mix up the milk chocolate chips with mini semi-sweet chips, M&M’s or reese’s pieces.

I don’t like to use Nestle brand. Nothing against them, but there’s something in their recipe that doesn’t allow the chocolate to melt. And I like a nice, melty chocolate chip cookie. I reach for Guittard most of the time. Generic is usually good too.

I always bake my cookies on a sheet lined with parchment paper. Oven temps aren’t always reliable and this will prevent burnt bottoms.

Try sprinkling a tiny bit of freshly ground sea salt onto each cookie straight out of the oven.

After browning your butter, you really need to let it cool. If you use it while hot it will just quick start the cooking process on your ingredients and melt your chips while they’re mixing, creating an off textured, chocolate colored cookie.

If you hate the process of browning butter, you can opt for softened or even melted butter. I’ve tried both with great results. A softened butter cookie will be a little more rounded and fluffy. A melted butter or browned butter cookie has a darker shade and more of a flattened look.