About This Recipe
These brown butter bakery-style chocolate chip cookies are everything I want in a perfect cookie. Crispy, golden edges, a gooey center, and just the right amount of chew in every bite (very important criteria!). Browning the butter adds a deep, nutty richness, and we’re taking it a step further by blooming a touch of espresso powder into the warm butter to intensify the chocolate flavor without making the cookies taste like coffee. The result is a rich, complex cookie that’s deeply flavorful, perfectly textured, and seriously hard to stop eating.
Key Ingredients
Brown Butter – Adds deep nutty, toasty, caramel-like notes, giving these cookies a more “gourmet bakery” flavor. Brown butter gives a slightly denser, chewier cookie, but encourages crispier edges because of the concentrated milk solids.
Sugars – Brown sugar gives these cookies a caramel, toffee-like depth, while also providing moisture and chew. Granulated sugar offers a clean sweetness which helps balance the richness in these cookies. I like adding a bit of granulated sugar to chocolate chip cookies because it helps them spread just enough and creates those perfectly crisp, golden edges.
Espresso Powder – Here to provide FLAVOR! Espresso powder intensifies chocolate flavor, adds subtle roasty depth and complexity, which is just heavenly. It just gives these cookies a little something extra!
Cornstarch – Helps soften gluten formation in the dough, which results in a more tender, melt-in-your-mouth bite. It also helps keep the cookies thick and bakery-style while reducing too much spread, to more substantial centers. I love using cornstarch in my cookies, because it also preserves the cookie longer if they sit at room temperature.
Baking Soda – Quite possibly the unsung hero in chocolate cookies! Baking soda helps the cookies spread and encourages browning, which contributes to crisp, golden edges and a deeper flavor through caramelization. It also reacts with the acidic ingredients in the dough to help create a lighter texture.
All Purpose Flour – The strength in these cookies! AP Flour provides the structure of the cookie, giving it shape and stability as it bakes. It absorbs moisture from the wet ingredients, helping create a balanced dough that bakes up soft, chewy, and sturdy enough to hold its texture.
FAQ’s
Helpful tips
Here are some important Pro tips by Maude
- Baking Sheet “Bang” Tip: For extra bakery-style spread and texture, I like to gently tap the baking sheet on the counter during baking and again at the end of baking. Doing this halfway through helps the cookies settle and spread more evenly, while the final tap encourages those crinkly edges and a soft, gooey center. It also helps deflate any puffiness so you get that perfect chewy, slightly wrinkled cookie finish.
- Cool your brown butter: Let brown butter cool until it’s warm or room temperature before mixing—if it’s too hot, it can melt the sugar and lead to greasy or flat cookies.
- Measure your flour correctly: Scooping and packing flour can lead to over-measuring, which makes cookies dry or dense. A scale gives more consistent results. Or try the spoon and level method if you don’t have a scale.
- Don’t overmix the dough: Once the flour is added, mix just until combined to avoid tough cookies.
- Bake until slightly underdone: Pull cookies when edges are set but centers still look soft. They continue baking on the tray and stay gooey inside.
More Recipes!
Here are some more recipes you might enjoy!
Brown Butter Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you try this recipe, I would love your feedback! Please leave a star rating, a comment below or on the reel in Instagram! Also please share what you made and tag @eatmaudes
Brown Butter Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Equipment
Ingredients
Cookies
- 13 tbsp (184 g) unsalted butter, divided
- 1/4 tsp (.5 g) espresso powder
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (165g) brown sugar
- 1 whole egg, room temperature
- 1 egg yolk, room temperature
- 2 tsp (8g) vanilla extract
- 1 tsp (4g) cornstarch
- 1 + 1/4 cup (about 156g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled, not packed)
- 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp (110g) cake flour
- 1 1/4 tsp (6g) salt
- 1 tsp (4g) baking soda
- 1 3/4 cup (300g) semi sweet chocolate chips, plus more for topping
- Flaky sea salt for topping
Instructions
Enable Step-by-Step Mode- To brown the butter, start by melting 12 tbsp in a saucepan over medium heat (reserve the additional tbsp for after browning). Stir constantly as it foams, then watch for golden brown bits to form at the bottom and a nutty aroma to develop. Remove from heat immediately and pour the butter (and all the brown bits!) into a large heatproof bowl. Add the additional tbsp of butter and the espresso powder while the butter is still warm- stir well and let it cool completely.
- Then add both sugars to the cooled butter and mix with a rubber spatula. Mix in the whole egg, then the egg yolk, followed by the vanilla extract. Mix until fully combined.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda.
- Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture and mix until almost combined. Then add and fold in your chocolate chips.
- Scoop the dough into 16 balls, about 1.9–2 oz (55g) each. For larger cookies, divide into 9 balls, about 3 oz (85g) each.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375°F (175°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Allow cookies to sit at room temperature for about 20-30 minutes.
- Place only 3-4 cookies on a baking sheet at a time. Do not crowd your pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes if baking smaller cookies. If baking larger cookies bake for 12–14 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden and the centers still look slightly underbaked—they will continue to set as they cool.
- Top with more chocolate chips fresh out of the oven, if desired. Sprinkle with sea salt. Let cookies rest in the pan for about 10-15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Can I make the brown butter with espresso the night before?
Hi Janaki!
Yes! You can absolutely brown the butter the night before. I recommend stirring the espresso powder into the warm brown butter right after browning (just as the recipe instructs), then letting it cool before covering and refrigerating overnight.
The next day, microwave the brown butter in 5–10 second intervals, stirring between each, just until it’s melted and fluid again—but not hot. You want it to be in the same state as if you had just browned it and allowed it to cool. From there, simply continue with the recipe as written by mixing it with the sugars. I hope this helps! -maude
Hello! I wanted to try this recipe but add some Carmel pieces and pretzels. Do you think it would work? Thank you!
Hi! I think that would work great! 🙂 I would however, be careful about how you place the caramel because it can ooze and burn if on the bottom or sides of the cookies. If placed on the top of each cookie, it should work! I hope this helps! Enjoy! 🙂 maude
Hi, If I dont have espresso powder on hand , could I just brew the equivalent in coffee for the recipe?
Hi Jaclyn,
I wouldnt recommend this as instant espresso (or coffee) is much more concentrated, so you get a stronger coffee flavor without adding much additional liquid to the recipe. Adding the same ampunt of coffee would unfortunately dilute the flavor and add more liquid which can affect the finished product. If you don’t have the espresso or instant coffee the recipe will still turn out yummy (i like the espresso because it bumps up the flavor even more but the cookies still taste great without it). If you want to buy the espresso powder, I get mine off of amazon, you can find it here! I hope this helps! -maude