Thick Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Chocolate chip cookies come in so many shapes and forms, and these Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies are extra chunky and extra thick. They are buttery, flavorful and have so much texture. It's a very easy recipe to make, and it produces cookies that are golden brown all over and they bake up tall similar to those of Levain Bakery. Since my original Chewy Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are the most popular on this site, I think you will also appreciate this heftier version. If you love baking chocolate chip cookies, be sure to try my all-time favorite Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe too!
WHAT IS BROWN BUTTER?
Butter is made up of several components, namely milk fat, milk proteins and water with trace amounts of milk sugars (lactose). When heated to a certain degree, the milk solids (including milk proteins and milk sugars) react in a process called "Maillard Browning" to create nutty and caramel-like flavor compounds as well as generate brown color compounds. This process occurs when there is no moisture present, which is why you need to cook butter until the water content is evaporated off in order to make brown butter. Butter is in fact a water-in-oil emulsion that is about 80-84% fat and up to 18% water. It's Science!
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS?
- Easy method - the recipe is simple and I actually find the best results come from when you mix the dough by hand with a wide spatula.
- Rich brown butter flavor - these cookies have a deep rich nutty brown butter flavor that isn't overpowered by the taste of egg, sugar or flour. Salted butter adds another element of dairy richness that you just can't get from unsalted butter.
- Crisp edges and soft middles - if you like texture, then you will love the contrast of soft insides with that crunchy outside.
- Extra thick - this recipe is designed to make extra thick cookies that hold big tall chunks of chocolate.
- Not too sweet - brown butter helps temper the sweetness, so you'll find that these cookies aren't too sweet despite being a cookie after all. There is a little less sugar in general for the amount of dough, since sugar increases spread and I want these cookies to be thick.
- Dark chocolate chunks - puddles of melted dark chocolate chunks instead of chips takes these to a whole other level. In this cookie I recommend using some semi-sweet chocolate in addition to my usual bittersweet so that the bitterness doesn't overpower the brown butter.
INGREDIENTS FOR THICK BROWN BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
- Salted butter - we obviously can't make brown butter cookies without butter. In this recipe, I prefer salted butter so that the rich nutty taste after browning is directly enhanced. However, you can use unsalted butter. If you choose unsalted then I recommend doubling the added salt to ½ teaspoon.
- Granulated sugar - this recipe uses a combination of simple white granulated sugar and brown sugar. White sugar helps create the crunchy caramelized edges. I wouldn't recommend reducing the sugar because it will compromise the chewy texture.
- Brown sugar - I prefer light brown sugar for this recipe since it has less molasses and will let the taste of the brown butter stand out instead of over-powering it.
- Eggs - you'll need two whole eggs for this recipe. That's more than what I normally use in a standard batch of cookie dough, but it is necessary to create the tall thick cookies and also adds back some moisture lost when browning the butter.
- Pure vanilla extract - good vanilla is absolutely essential to making delicious chocolate chip cookies. I like this Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla extract.
- Salt - don't leave out the salt! It really elevates the rich buttery, caramel flavors! It also enhances the chocolate taste and balances the sweetness.
- All purpose flour - regular unbleached all-purpose flour makes the best chewy chocolate chip cookies in my opinion. For best results, use a kitchen scale to weigh the flour.
- Dark chocolate chunks - I highly recommend using a mix of chopped chocolate (from bar chocolate) and chocolate chips. Why? That's because chocolate that is made into bars, also known as "tablets", has a higher cocoa butter content so that it can be poured into molds at the factory and it typically melts smoother than chocolate chips to give you puddles of chocolate in the cookies. I love this effect!
- Chocolate chips - using a fraction of chocolate chips will give a good mix of flavor an texture here. Chocolate chips will hold their shape and spread less to control spreading a bit more in this recipe since using brown butter typically results in greater spread overall. I recommend these semisweet chocolate chips. Semisweet works well for this recipe instead of bittersweet so that the cocoa bitterness doesn't overpower the brown butter flavor.
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BAKING POWDER AND BAKING SODA?
Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate, which is an alkaline (basic - high pH) compound that will react with acids when when dissolved in liquid to react rapidly and create carbon dioxide gas bubbles. In generally creates a more coarse, open texture.
Baking powder is a mixture of baking soda and powdered acids so it does not need additional acid ingredients to react. Once it comes into contact with a liquid, the powdered acid and base dissolve and react with each other to create carbon dioxide bubbles. Most retail baking powder products are double acting, which means that they contain two different powdered acids that react at different speeds and with different stimulants. One reacts immediately upon mixing with water while another only reacts after exposure to heat during baking. Baking powder generally creates a finer, more crumbly texture. This recipe uses a combination of both to create "puff" so that the cookies are thicker instead of spreading out too quickly.
HOW TO MAKE BROWN BUTTER
If you've never made brown butter, you MUST try it. It is easy and adds amazing complexity and richness in the form of nutty, caramel-like flavors that enhances many recipes. For my full tutorial on how to make brown butter, read this post here.
- First melt your butter over medium heat in a small sauce pan.
- Once melted, let the butter come to a simmer. It will crackly as it boils. Stir the butter constantly as it melts to ensure it cooks evenly.
- As the moisture evaporates, the butter will start to foam. This is the point when the browning starts to happen. Keep stirring the butter. Keep a close eye on the butter and DO NOT WALK AWAY.
- Eventually the crackling will settle down and the foam on the surface will become very dense to the point that you cannot see the clear butterfat beneath it. The foam will turn golden and as you stir you should see little brown flecks coming up into the pan. This is the sign that you are done! The butter will turn a golden color and you'll know it's done by the smell... it will have a toasted and nutty aroma.
- Immediately pour it out into a clean bowl and let it cool before using it in the recipe.
STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS: HOW TO MAKE BROWN BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
- STEP 1). First brown the butter. Follow the instructions in this post here to learn how to brown butter in a 1-quart stainless steel saucepan. It's easy! Brown specks and a dense golden foam will form at the surface when it is nearly ready. This whole process takes around 8-10 minutes. Immediately pour it into a large mixing bowl, then let it cool for 20-30 minutes until it reaches a temperature just warmer than room temperature. If you care to measure, the butter should read between 32 and 34°C or between 90 and 93°F on a digital thermometer. It should be liquid still, but not hot. If it is too cool, it may stiffen up when you mix in the other ingredients.
- STEP 2). Combine dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- STEP 3). Combine wet ingredients. Add both sugars and vanilla to the bowl with the cooled brown butter and whisk until creamy, lightened and a bit fluffy. Whisk in eggs one at a time until well incorporated and creamy.
- STEP 4). Add dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients and fold them in until mostly combined, but a few streaks still remain. Add 1 ½ cups of chocolate chunks and fold them in until evenly combined.
- STEP 5). Chill the dough. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- STEP 6). Bake. Use a 1.35-oz cookie scoop to portion dough into and roll into smooth balls. Place them onto prepared baking sheets, spacing them 3 inches apart. Press a few extra chocolate chunks on top of each dough ball. Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden on top, browned around the edges and soft in the middle. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for a minute before carefully transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
EXPERT TIPS FOR CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
- Measure the ingredients precisely. To get the right texture, it is important to measure your flour, butter and sugar accurately. Too much flour will lead to dry cookies that don't spread while not enough will make greasy cookies that spread too much.
- Be patient making brown butter. It can very quickly go from this light brown to burnt, so make sure you take it off the heat as soon as it turns golden.
- Let the brown butter cool. Brown butter is very hot just after you've made it since it is pure oil that has been heated to a boil. It needs to cool sufficiently otherwise the cookie dough and the cookies will be very greasy.
- Don't skip the salt. The right amount of salt is so important. I use salted butter because there's something about salted butter that provides an underlying richness that can't be quite copied by adding salt separately. You can use unsalted butter if that is all you have on hand, and in that case increase the total salt in the recipe to ½ teaspoon. BUT, if you have salted butter then you will not regret it!
- Use regular large size eggs. Large eggs weigh 57g. Using an extra large egg will add up to 2 teaspoons more liquid to the cookie dough which can throw off the moisture balance and make the cookies either too cakey or spread too much.
- Use couverture chocolate. Couverture chocolate is chocolate that is designed for enrobing, coating and dipping. It is the chocolate used by professional chocolatiers because it has a high cocoa butter content to make it more fluid. This extra cocoa butter gives chocolate excellent meltability so it will melt into the cookie dough during baking which helps it to spread and creates these glistening puddles of chocolate at the surface. It also creates a laminated effect of layers of chocolate between cookie dough as opposed to chocolate chips which have less cocoa butter and remain unchanged, holding their "drop" shape in the cookie dough. These couverture chocolate discs are incredible, or you can also chop chocolate from a couverture block.
- Refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 1 hour. Refrigerating cookie dough serves several purposes: 1) Flour hydration - time in the fridge allows the flour to fully hydrate from the moisture of the egg and the water in the butter. If the flour is evenly hydrated, the cookies will be thicker and they will bake more evenly; 2) Flavor development -as the baking soda becomes more evenly incorporated with the flour hydration, the cookies will brown more evenly which will help them develop flavor more quickly; 3) Firms the butter - butter in the cookie dough will also firm up in the fridge so that the cookies wont be so greasy after they've baked. Chilled fat will also spread less readily during the initial stages of baking so the cookies won't spread uncontrollably; and 4) Increases shelf life - chilled cookie dough makes cookies that stay chewy longer and slows staling.
- Use a kitchen scale. For best results, weigh your ingredients according to the measurements in the recipe card below using a kitchen scale. It is especially important to weigh the flour since too little will cause these cookies to spread too much.
WHAT TYPE OF CHOCOLATE IS BEST FOR BROWN BUTTER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES?
The best thing is to actually NOT use chocolate chips at all - for these Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, use chunks chopped from a block of chocolate. Chocolate chips are designed to hold there shape and don't melt as easily as bar chocolate (also called tablets). That is unless they are couverture chocolate chips that melt nicely. Sometimes I find chips are so uniform in size that they can give a rather boring look to cookies.
I always prefer to use my favorite eating chocolate which is Lindt 70% 100g bars and chop them up. This creates shards of chocolate of all different sizes to give the cookies more interest. It will also melt nicely so that you get some layers of chocolate in the cookie and it creates little puddles. In this recipe you can use a mix of milk and dark chocolate since the creamy sweetness of milk chocolate pairs well with the brown butter, but you can use whatever you like!
RECIPE FAQ
Brown butter adds a more complex flavor in the form of nutty, caramel, toasted bread undertones. These are similar flavors that happen during caramelization and Maillard browning reactions during baking so it can often get lost. I developed this recipe to ensure the brown butter flavor stands out as much as possible.
No actual fat is lost in the browning process. Only water is evaporated during browning, and since butter is up to 18% water (depending on the brand), you can expect to lose up to 18% of its weight.
For this recipe, after you brown 175g of butter, you will end up with 140-142g of browned butter depending on the brand and quality of butter you are using.
Chilling this cookie dough is so important for the best results. Of course you can bake them right away, but they will not be as golden, as thick or as chewy and flavorful as they could be if you chill the dough and they will spread more. Ideally you would chill the dough for a minimum of 1 hour for this dough if baking at the higher temperature. If you bake at the lower temperature, I recommend refrigerating for at least 2 hours. It will lend the richest flavor and chewiest texture. Chilled cookie dough also makes cookies with a longer shelf life so they will stay chewy for longer and be slower to stale.
If your cookies spread a lot, then it could be that the brown butter was too hot, the dough wasn't chilled long enough, there was too much baking soda, or you did not add the right amount of flour. Too little flour will mean the cookies will not have enough structure to hold their shape and the dough will be too wet. The best way to measure the flour is using a scale to ensure you use the right amount. Too much will make the cookies thick and less chewy, but too little will mean they will be crispy and thin.
If your cookies didn't spread much then it could be that you've added too much flour or you've made the cookies too small. This recipe makes 15-16 cookies for the perfect texture and shape. If you want your cookies to spread more, bake them at the lower temperature (350 degrees F) and you can also flatten the dough balls slightly on the trays before baking.
All cookies feel greasy when hot and warm when the fat is hot, but brown butter cookies tend to feel more greasy because the water-in-oil emulsion breaks during the browning process. Brown butter is pure butter oil and it will feel greasy like liquid oil when hot since it is not emulsified.
For the best results, use dark chocolate with over 60% cocoa solids, and use a high quality block of chocolate that you chop into chunks.
To get melted puddles with irregular shapes like in these photos, use chopped chocolate from a bar with over 70% cocoa solids. The darker the better when it comes to meltiness because the higher the total cocoa content, the more cocoa butter it will have and that high fat content is what makes chocolate melt and spread easier. Also, block chocolate is tempered as a block that you will break up and expose all sorts of jagged edges whereas chips are tempered in a specific shape that will stay in place.
When you chop chocolate from a block you make a variety of different shapes and shards that will get in all the crevices of the cookie dough. So, use your favorite dark chocolate - the kind that you snack on. Using block chocolate instead of chips will also give you better texture in the cookies. Block chocolate has a higher cocoa butter content so it will melt more evenly and readily to create pools of chocolate that will melt into the crevices. It also helps the dough spread. You can also use dark chocolate feves, callets or discs which are often made from couverture chocolate (high cocoa butter chocolate).
STORAGE AND FREEZING
Yes, you can freeze the cookie dough. I recommend wrapping the cookie dough in plastic wrap and then placing it in a ziptop freezer bag for storage. If you would like to freeze individual dough balls then let the dough chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours, portion and roll into balls, then place dough balls in a ziptop freezer bag for storage for up to 3 months.
If you are baking cookies from a block of frozen cookie dough, let the dough thaw completely and then portion, roll and bake as directed. If baking frozen balls of dough, you can bake them directly and add 1-2 minutes to the baking time.
These cookies keep well for up to 3 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
If you love chocolate chip cookies, check out my BEST EVER Chocolate Chip Cookies:
Craving more cookies?
If you love cookies as much as I do, check out the latest recipes:
Baking with chocolate
Here are some of my latest chocolate recipes:
Video
Extra Thick Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (170g) unsalted butter
- 2 cups (284g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup (165g) packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoon (7ml) pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 cups (284g/10oz) chopped bittersweet chocolate*, divided
*I often chop up Lindt 70% bars. and I also love these single origin couverture chocolate discs
Instructions
- Follow the instructions in this post here to learn how to brown butter in a 1-quart stainless steel saucepan. It's easy! Brown specks and a dense golden foam will form at the surface when it is nearly ready. This whole process takes around 8-10 minutes. Immediately pour it into a large mixing bowl, then let it cool for 20-30 minutes until it reaches a temperature just warmer than room temperature. If you care to measure, the butter should read between 32 and 34°C or between 90 and 93°F on a digital thermometer. It should be liquid still, but not hot. If it is too cool, it may stiffen up when you mix in the other ingredients.
- Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to blend evenly.
- Add both sugars and vanilla to the bowl with the cooled brown butter and whisk until creamy, lightened and a bit fluffy. Whisk in eggs one at a time until well incorporated and creamy. Add the dry ingredients and fold them in until mostly combined, but a few streaks still remain. Add 1 ½ cups of chocolate chunks and fold them in until evenly combined.
- Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F and two large cookie sheets with parchment paper. Use a 1.35-oz cookie scoop to portion dough into and roll into smooth balls. Place them onto prepared baking sheets, spacing them 3 inches apart. Press a few extra chocolate chunks on top of each dough ball. Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden on top, browned around the edges and soft in the middle. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for a minute before carefully transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
