The Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Brown the butter. Heat a small nonstick skillet over medium heat and add 1 stick of butter. Once the butter has melted completely, continue stirring every minute or so and watch it turn from a light yellow to golden to a deeper amber color. While the butter browns, chop the remaining half stick into small cubes. When the butter reaches the deep amber color, turn off the heat and add the cubed butter. Stir and let this melt completely. Finally, transfer the browned butter to a ceramic bowl to let it cool.

Mix the wet ingredients. In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs, cooled browned butter, turbinado sugar, and vanilla extract and beat on high until smooth. You’ll see it turn from a dark caramel color to a light maple-y color. Granules of turbinado sugar will remain, but they should be sparse. Set aside.

Stir together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl until well-incorporated. You shouldn’t see any lumps of flour or baking soda. In small batches, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just combined after each addition. Add the chocolate chips and stir again. Cover and refrigerate for 45–60 minutes. Do not skip this step! Without refrigeration, the cookies will flatten when they bake and you’ll miss out on a delicious textural element here.

Preheat oven to 350ºF and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Use a cookie scooper to transfer the dough to the baking sheets and top each portion with a sprinkle of sea salt and 4-5 additional chocolate wafers/chunks. If you’re making smaller cookies, bake for 8–9 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through. For larger cookies, bake for 10 minutes, no more than 11. I placed both my sheets on the same shelf by sliding them into the oven lengthwise. Halfway through, I rotated the baking sheets 180 degrees because the back of the oven is hotter than the front, so each cookie should experience the same amount of heat.

Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheets. This step is essential to allow the cookies to finish the baking process and firm up. Give them at least 10–12 minutes of cooling time on the baking sheets.

Finally, serve and enjoy! Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.