# Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chewy, crisp-edged cookies with deep toffee flavor from browned butter and puddles of melted dark chocolate.

- Total time: 1 hr 21 min (one cook, steps overlapped; 1 hr 42 min if done strictly in order)
- Hands-on time: 25 min
- Serves: 20 (about 20 cookies)
- Difficulty: medium
- Source: https://dagwood.blrbdigital.com/r/brown-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies

## Ingredients

### Cookies

- 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed. Substitutes: light brown sugar (Milder caramel flavor, slightly less chewy)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp flaky sea salt

### Brown butter

- 2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces. Substitutes: salted butter (Works fine. Cut the kosher salt to 1/2 tsp)

### Dry mix

- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled. Substitutes: bread flour (Chewier and a little taller)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp kosher salt, Diamond Crystal. Substitutes: table salt (Saltier by volume, so use half)

### Chocolate

- 10 oz dark chocolate, 60 to 70% cacao. Substitutes: semisweet chocolate chips (Hold their shape instead of melting into pools. Skip the chopping)

## Steps (in the fastest order for one cook)

1. [0:00] **Brown** (Brown butter): Melt 2 sticks unsalted butter in a light-colored saucepan over medium heat, then keep swirling until it foams and the solids on the bottom turn deep golden and smell nutty. _(7 min, hands-on, medium, critical path)_
   - Why: A light pan lets you see the solids brown, so you catch them before they burn.
2. [0:07] **Cool** (Brown butter): Scrape the butter and every browned bit into a large bowl and let it cool until warm, not hot. _(15 min, hands-off, critical path)_
   - Why: Hot butter scrambles the eggs and makes greasy, flat cookies.
3. [0:07] **Chop** (Chocolate): Roughly chop 10 oz dark chocolate into chunks and shards. _(4 min, hands-on)_
4. [0:11] **Whisk** (Dry mix): Whisk 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp kosher salt together in a bowl. _(2 min, hands-on)_
5. [0:22] **Whisk** (Cookies): Whisk 1 cup dark brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar into the cooled butter until smooth, then whisk in 2 large eggs and 2 tsp vanilla extract until glossy and slightly thickened. _(3 min, hands-on, critical path)_
6. [0:25] **Fold** (Cookies): Fold in the flour mixture with a spatula until just a few streaks remain, then fold in the chocolate. _(2 min, hands-on, critical path)_
7. [0:27] **Chill** (Cookies): Cover the bowl and refrigerate the dough. _(30 min, hands-off, optional, critical path)_
   - Why: Rested dough spreads less and bakes up chewier, with deeper toffee flavor.
8. [0:47] **Preheat** (Cookies): Heat the oven with racks in the upper and lower thirds. _(15 min, hands-off, 350°F, critical path)_
9. [0:57] **Scoop** (Cookies): Line 2 sheet pans with parchment. Scoop the dough into balls of about 3 tablespoons (55 g) and set them 2 inches apart. _(5 min, hands-on, critical path)_
10. [1:02] **Bake** (Cookies): Bake until the edges are golden and the centers still look a little underdone. _(12 min, hands-off, 350°F, critical path)_
   - At 6 min in: Swap the sheets between racks and turn them around
11. [1:14] **Sprinkle** (Cookies): Sprinkle the hot cookies with flaky sea salt. _(1 min, hands-on, optional, critical path)_
12. [1:14:30] **Cool** (Cookies): Let the cookies set on the sheets, then move them to a rack. _(5 min, hands-off, critical path)_
   - Why: They finish cooking on the hot sheet and are too soft to move right away.
13. [1:19:30] **Serve** (Cookies): Serve warm, or cool completely and store airtight for up to 3 days. _(1 min, hands-on, critical path)_

## Graph

Each step lists the steps that must finish before it starts.

- brown-butter (can start immediately)
- cool-butter after brown-butter
- preheat (can start immediately)
- whisk-dry (can start immediately)
- chop (can start immediately)
- mix-wet after cool-butter
- fold after mix-wet, whisk-dry, chop
- chill after fold
- scoop after fold, chill
- bake after scoop, preheat
- sprinkle after bake
- cool after bake, sprinkle
- serve after cool

## Notes

- For even deeper flavor, chill the dough up to 72 hours.
- Scooped dough balls freeze well. Bake straight from frozen, adding 1 to 2 minutes.
- If your oven runs uneven, bake one sheet at a time on the middle rack for about 11 minutes.

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Recipe graph by Dagwood (https://dagwood.blrbdigital.com). Licensed CC BY 4.0. JSON graph: https://dagwood.blrbdigital.com/r/brown-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies.json