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The Best Ever Chocolate Chunk Cookies are made with brown butter, plenty of vanilla, and tons of gooey chocolate! You can chill the dough for up to 2 days, or freeze it! This is a great recipe!
Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
So last week I realized the craziest thing… I’ve never shared my favorite chocolate chunk cookie recipe with you. I seriously had to check the archives to make sure I wasn’t mistaken. But nope… no chocolate chunk cookies to be found. So I busted into the kitchen and baked them for you AT ONCE!
Is that love or what?
Ingredients for Chocolate Chunk Cookies:
- butter: unsalted or salted will work! but if you’re using salted, reduce the salt called for in the dry ingredients by 1/4 teaspoon.
- sugar: you’ll use a combination of brown sugar and granulated sugar (also known as white sugar). light brown sugar or dark brown sugar may be used.
- eggs: two large ones, at room temperature!
- vanilla extract: just a dash will enhance all the other flavors in this recipe.
- flour: all-purpose!
- salt: to balance out the flavors.
- baking soda: helps leaven the cookie dough, which in turn gives us soft and chewy cookies.
- and finally, chocolate chunks! you know i’m a lindt lover, so i their 70% chocolate bars. but use your favorite brand! and yes, you can even use chocolate chips, instead.
Tips and Tricks for Recipe Success:
- If you’ve never browned butter before, don’t sweat it! It’s so darn easy. You’ll need a saute pan, 2 sticks of butter, and a touch of patience – that’s it! You’ll start off melting the butter; once the butter has completely melted, you’ll continue to cook the butter, on medium heat (or medium-low if your stove top runs hot), until it’s turned a golden brown and smells slightly nutty. Just be sure you stay stove side once the butter has melted; brown butter can turn into burnt butter very fast.
- You will need to bring your browned butter back to room temperature before incorporating it into the recipe. To do this, simply pour the butter into a heatproof bowl and place it in the fridge for about 1 hour. You want it solid, but soft enough that when you gently press it with your finger it leaves an indentation. Be sure your butter is at the proper temperature before you begin baking. If it’s too warm, you’ll cookies will spread all over the pan 🙁
- I recommend using high-quality chocolate chunks for this recipe. If you can find them at your local grocery store (they’re usually right next to the chocolate chips), you can buy bars of chocolate and chop them into chunks. I prefer this method because it allows me to control the size of the chunks. I like to chop 80% of them small then leave 20% really big so they get all gooey and dramatic. I used Lindt 70% chocolate, but use any brand you know and trust. Of course, in a pinch, you could also use an equal amount of chocolate chips. As far as variety, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or semi-sweet chocolate all work well, but we love this recipe with dark chocolate!
- Don’t over bake! Your cookies should be set at the edges but still soft in the center.
- Be sure to allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a full 10 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. They need the 10 minutes to firm up so they don’t fall apart as your transfer them.
- If you’d like your cookies to look like the ones you see in my photos, press a few chocolate chunks on top of each cookie right after they come out of the oven. You can also sprinkle them with flaky sea salt! I love Maldon sea salt because it’s flaky and delish.
I speak truth when I tell you these are some of the best cookies I’ve ever made – or tasted! ← And I’ve done a lot of both in my life. Bake a batch for yourself and you’ll see taste exactly why.
If you try this recipe for Best Ever Chocolate Chunk Cookies, let me know what you think! Leave a comment below, and don’t forget to snap a pic and tag it #bakerbynature on instagram! Seeing your creations makes my day ♥
More Chocolate Chunk Cookie Recipes:
- Soft Batch Chocolate Chunk Peanut Butter Cookies
- Brown Butter Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Almond Amaretto Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Best Ever Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Thick and chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Sure to become your new favorite!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks or 16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted until browned and brought back to room temperature (see post for more on this)
- 2 and 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (plus more ONLY if the dough seems to need it; adding one tablespoon at a time)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, roughly chopped
Instructions
For the Brown Butter:
- Place the butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat and cook for 3 to 4 minutes – stirring almost constantly – until the butter has browned. Pour the brown butter into a heatproof bowl, being sure to scrape all of the "toasted" bits into the bowl as well. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for 1 hour, or until the butter is at room temperature. You’ll know the butter is at room temperature when you press a finger into the top and it makes a slight indentation. It should be solid but soft.
- Once the butter is at room temperature, you're ready to get baking!
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees (F).
For the Best Ever Chocolate Chunk Cookies:
- In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld electric mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine both sugars, vanilla, and browned butter; cream on medium-speed until light and fluffy; about 2 minutes. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating for 15 seconds after each addition. Turn mixer off. Using a wooden spoon or sturdy rubber spatula, gently fold in the flour, stirring only until the flour begins to disappear. Fold in the chocolate chunks.
- Roll 3 tablespoon sized scoops of dough between your palms to form a ball (they should be big; almost a 1/4 cup), then place on prepared sheet (make sure to leave enough room in between each cookie for inevitable spreading). Continue this process until all the dough has been rolled. Place baking sheets in preheated oven, one at a time, and bake for 9 to 10 minutes, or until golden at the edges but still soft in the middle. Repeat with all cookie dough. Let cookies cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire wrack to cool completely.
Notes
Total time includes bringing the butter back to room temperature.
Tried it and loved it?Snap a picture and share it with me on Instagram @Bakerbynature and by using the hashtag #BakerByNature
I absolutely loved this recipe! These cookies were amazing. 🙂 I just started up a blog, and included your recipe as a post to share with readers. Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
Your recipe is unique bcoz of the browned butter, love the nuttiness. I think I will never make a chocolate chip cookie without browning butter, thanks for the precise recipe!
Greetings, I made the cookies several times last year and they were amazing. I am looking at the recipe and it seems different with brown butter and less butter. Am I crazy? If not, why did you change the recipe? Just curious. Thanks for sharing your wonderful recipes.
Just made these and they came out really well!
Thankyou for sharing the recipe with us !
Love the chocolate goodness ❤️
So happy to hear it, Neha! Thank you for letting me know how much you enjoyed this recipe 🙂
These used to be browned butter cookies and I used the recipe all the time, why did it change?
The recipe has been corrected!
I wish the original recipe was still here! This is different 🙁
I have come back to this recipe several times to make it but now there is a different recipe in its place… There used to be a recipe where you brown the butter (then chill to bring to rom temp) and where you chill the batter for at least 2 hours… Where can I find that recipe again?
Hi Amanda. I have an intern converting some recipes into easy print versions and she may have switched something around by accident. Let me look into this and see what’s what.
Were you able to find the correct recipe? The one with browned butter and refrigerate the dough for at least 2hrs? I would really like to make them again…..
I feel the same way as Amanda and Becca what happen to the original recipe? I hope you can bring it back the cookies were delicious!
The recipe has been corrected!
I just made them… and my aunt and cousins fell in LOVE these cookies!! So easy to make! I didn’t have chocolate chunks, but instead I used big chocolate chips and then put mini ones as well, and the chocolat goodness is amazing and mouth watering! Can’t get enough of it!!!!
Hi Hailey! That is so awesome to hear!!! I love the idea of doubling the chocolate in mini and big chip form 🙂 Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know these were a hit!
Yeah it was odd. they were really good so I might jst have to try them again. I let them cool then put then in a container. I made 4 batches and only baked a couple so I’ll go for round 2.
I would say bake them for about 4 minutes less next time. Your oven may run a little high, so it’s possible the cookies just got over baked 😉 When in doubt, I always say under bake… no one ever complains about a soft gooey cookie 🙂
Hi,
How long can I keep them in the freezer for, I like to make a lot of dough in advance? Recipe says between (2-48 hours before baking). Also after baking how long do they remain soft and chewy.
thank you
Hi Veronica. The dough can be made and frozen (after it’s been shaped into balls) for up to two months. The cookies, once baked, will remain soft and chewy for 48 hours when stored in an airtight container.
thank you! I’m baking these next weekend
so, I made these 9n Thursday night let them cool and by Friday morning they were hard ; ( I dnt know what I did wrong? I did shape them and put them straight in the freezer, would that matter?
Hi Veronica. How strange. You may have over baked them by a few minutes. Also, how did you store them? If you leave them out overnight on a cooling wrack, they will go hard. They should be cooled for an hour, then placed in an airtight container.
Just made these the other night for my roommates and myself, and they were a hit! Thanks for sharing!
What lucky roomies you have 🙂 Happy to hear they were a hit!