Brown Butter Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies
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These brown butter sea salt chocolate chip cookies are worth hiding from the kids! Ok, or at least make a double batch so there’s more than enough to go around. The crisp edges and buttery soft centers are what dreams cravings are made of.
Dramatic? Maybe. But here’s why your old standby chocolate chip cookie recipes won’t cut it after you try these:
- Flavor: The combo of nutty brown butter, big chocolate chunks, and sea salt creates the perfect salty-sweet pairing. When it all comes together, it creates a caramel-y taste in your mouth. Not sure it gets any better than that!
- Texture: Arguably, the best texture for a cookie is one that’s just a little crisp around the edge and melt-in-your-mouth in the middle. These cookies are just that.
How to brown butter for chocolate chip cookies
All you need to do is:
- Get out a frying pan and heat it to medium.
- Add your butter.
- As it’s cooking, swirl it around a couple of times. Cooking should take 5 minutes.
- It will foam at first, but once the butter settles, you’re left with a roasty-toasty, golden-brown butter sauce.
Ingredients needed
You might just have all of these ingredients in your baking cupboard already! And if not, here’s a quick list of what you’ll need to make these delightful brown butter sea salt chocolate chip cookies:
- Salted butter: Yes, you’ll need 1 whole cup of salted butter for these beauties, but it’s totally worth it! That buttery, rich flavor won’t let you down.
- All-purpose flour, sea salt, and baking soda: These are all standard ingredients in any cookie recipe; they’ll make up the base of your dry ingredients.
- Granulated sugar + brown sugar: Use both kinds of sugar for sweetness, but also to enhance the caramel, toffee flavor.
- Eggs, cold water, and vanilla extract: These will make up your wet ingredients, which you’ll add to your brown butter mix.
- Dark chocolate: Go for the dark variety, cut or chopped into pieces, to add a needed deep, bitter taste to the otherwise sweet cookie.
- Flaky sea salt: Sprinkle flaky sea salt on top of the cookies once they’re baked. It will bring out and complement the chocolate chunks!
Variations and substitutions:
Although this recipe could be referred to as the best chocolate chip cookie recipe out there, you can absolutely play around with it to find your happy place. Here are some ideas:
- Nuts: This recipe is naturally nut-free, so perhaps a good option for school-aged kids. That said, if adding some nuts sounds like perfection to you, go for it! Chopped walnuts or pecans would be great additions.
- Dried fruit: If you want to add some natural sweetness dried cranberries, raisins, or crasins would be a nice touch.
- Coconut: You can add some shredded coconut to this recipe, just know that you will have to adjust for it in your dry ingredients.
- Ice cream: These cookies are fairly thin, however, no one would be opposed to sliding some ice cream between them. All you’ll need is a napkin! Try this toasted coconut ice cream or go wild with this beer ice cream!
Recipe FAQs
Do I need to chill the batter for a full 4 hours?
Yes, this is not a step you want to rush. We’ve tested this recipe with a shorter rest in the fridge, and the cookies spread too much. Don’t worry, they’re well worth the wait!
Why do you bake the cookies at 325 degrees Fahrenheit?
In recipe testing, we found this to be the optimal temperature for these cookies. Raising the temperature to the usual 350 degrees Fahrenheit produced overly dark cookies. Lowering the temperature and keeping the cookies in the oven a few minutes longer than normal made the best cookies.
Can I use unsalted butter?
You can use either unsalted or salted butter to make the brown butter.
Brown Butter Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar (packed)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon cold water
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 8 ounces dark chocolate (chunks or chopped from a bar of chocolate)
- Flaky sea salt (for garnish (Maldon works great))
Instructions
- Place the butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Let it cook, swirling the pan a few times, for about 5 minutes, or until it smells roasted and is brown. It will foam up a lot at first and once the foam settles down, it is browned.1 cup salted butter
- Transfer the brown butter to a large, heatproof bowl, making sure to scrape out all the tasty brown specks. Place the butter in your fridge for at least one hour, or until it's solidified but still soft.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, sea salt, and baking soda.2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon sea salt, 1 teaspoon baking soda
- Add both of the sugars to the brown butter and beat using electric beaters for 1 minute. Add the eggs, water, and vanilla and beat until combined.¾ cup granulated sugar, ½ cup brown sugar, 2 large eggs, 1 tablespoon vanilla, 1 tablespoon cold water
- Add the flour all at once and beat until it just barely comes together, about 15 seconds. Stir in the chopped chocolate.8 ounces dark chocolate
- Place a piece of parchment paper in the bowl directly on top of the cookie dough. Place the bowl into your fridge for at least 4 hours – or up to 4 days.
- When you're ready to bake the cookies, preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Scoop the dough into balls using a large cookie scoop. Place 6 balls of dough on each 13 x 11-inch baking sheet. Don't crowd the sheets … these cookies will spread a lot!
- Bake the cookies for 13-16 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway. When they come out of the oven immediately sprinkle them with a little Maldon sea salt.Flaky sea salt
Notes
Nutrition
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
So excited to try these! Can you freeze this dough? Any advice on doing that?
I’ve froze these after baking and they freeze excellent – like most cookies. You can also freeze the dough to bake later. Scoop the dough into balls and freeze them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Once they’re frozen, you can transfer them to a freezer bag. To bake them, I recommend thawing them in the fridge first. I’ve baked them from frozen, and while they’re good, they’re better if you have the patience to thaw them in the fridge.
Love these cookies,making them now..
I tried making these cookies but my cookies come up dome-like and not flat and delicious looking as yours. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Jane. The most common reason for cookies not to flatten out is too much flour. Did you use the scoop and level method when measuring the flour? That is the most accurate way – other than weighing the flour. Before you put the next batch into the oven, use your fingers to flatten them out a little. That should help.
I am usually a fan of weighing my ingredients but I think my mistake for this recipe might be not using the scoop and level method! I was packing my flour and then levelling! The cookies come more a bit more… almost cake like and I feel like I’ve wasted my brown butter! I will def try this recipe again! Thank you for the tip!
No problem at all, Jane! I hope the next batch turns out great for you!
It worked! The recipe worked and your flour measuring worked! Thank you!
Oh that’s wonderful news!!
Sounds like a great recipe – I started to make it and then noticed the 4 hours in the fridge wasn’t noted in the amount of time in the recipe ingredients list – adding that would be helpful,
Thank you for the suggestion! I’ll add that in now. 🙂
Thank you so much! I’ll be sure to share a pic or two of the little one once he or she decides it’s time to come into this world. 🙂
These cookies look amazing. Sea salt and chocolate…perfect. I’ve never made brown butter, so this is the perfect recipe to try!
Thank you!
You should definitely try your hand at making brown butter. It’s so good!!
Thank you! I’ll make sure to sneak in a few photos. I know I do love seeing them, too. 🙂
Oh I will for sure. I know I said no baby pics … but I know I’ll want to introduce the little one once he or she arrives. 🙂
Ha ha might want to take a test! My sweet tooth has gone through the roof since being pregnant. 😉
🙂 Enjoy, and have a wonderful weekend. 🙂
It’s a cruel joke that nature played making us mature and grown up enough to want kids just when we can’t have them anymore. It’s the reason we decided to go for it now before it’s too late. Thank you so much for the well wishes. We’re both really looking forward to the adventure!
Congratulations to you, too!! I hear ya about it being exciting and terrifying. I’m lucky to have spent quite a bit of time with little ones before, but having to be responsible for one 24/7 for YEARS will be all new to me. 🙂
Thank you!! 🙂
I can only imagine that Google and Amazon will become my new best friends … that and delivery Thai food. 🙂
It’s amazing how fast they grow. I remember being on your blog what seemed like yesterday and you said you just had your little guy!
Congratulations! The best thing about being pregnant is that you can eat more cookies! lol.
Ha ha that’s what I keep telling myself, too!
Thank you!! 🙂
What a beautiful photo! Love this recipe too!
Thank you so much!!
This recipe sounds divine! I’m excited to try it!
It really is divine!