Published July 25, 2023 · ⭐ 4.5 (10 reviews)

Prep	Cook	Total	Yield
20 min	14 min	1 hr 30 min	18 cookies

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

225 g unsalted butter
200 g light brown sugar
100 g caster sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
280 g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp fine sea salt
300 g dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate (70%)
Flaky sea salt for finishing

Steps Overview

Brown the butter and cool slightly
Beat with sugars, add eggs and vanilla
Fold in flour, bicarb, salt, then chocolate
Rest dough 30–60 minutes
Scoop, bake, finish with flaky salt

Step-by-Step

1. Brown the butter

Melt butter in a light-coloured saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once it foams, continue cooking until the foam subsides and the milk solids turn golden brown and smell nutty, about 6–8 minutes. Pour into a large bowl and cool for 15 minutes.

2. Mix wet ingredients

Add both sugars to the brown butter and beat vigorously for 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add vanilla. The mixture should be thick and glossy.

3. Add dry ingredients

Sift in flour and bicarbonate of soda. Add salt. Fold until just combined — no dry streaks. Fold in the chocolate.

4. Rest

Cover and rest at room temperature for 30–60 minutes (or refrigerate up to 72 hours for deeper flavour).

5. Bake

Preheat oven to 190 °C. Scoop 50 g balls onto lined baking sheets, spacing 6 cm apart. Bake for 11–13 minutes until the edges are set and golden but the centres still look underdone. Immediately sprinkle with flaky salt. Cool on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring.

Notes

Don't skip the butter browning — it adds a deep, toffee-like flavour that elevates these far above standard cookies.
Chilling the dough overnight produces thicker, more flavourful cookies.
Pull them out when they look underdone — they continue cooking on the tray.
For bakery-style thick cookies, refrigerate the scooped balls for 24 hours before baking.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies