Bars + Brownies Cookies

Brown Butter Brownie Cookies

I love Brownie Cookies (and brownies!), and was excited to try this brown butter version from Jesse Szewczyk’s new book, Cookies: The New Classics. “Bittersweet chocolate, nutty brown butter, and molasses-y dark brown sugar meld together to create the ultimate brownie cookies that is fudgy, dense, chewy, and pleasantly bitter.”

Brownie cookies emulate a regular brownie with rich chocolate flavor and a fudge-like center. Jesse writes that “[t]he key to getting the dramatic cracks on top is to be patient and whip the eggs until they are pale and ribbony, and then work quickly so the melted chocolate doesn’t cool before the cookies go into the oven.”

My kids proclaimed them absolutely delicious and I had to hide them from myself.

I am a firm believer that there is room for all the cookbooks and all the cookie recipes in the world, so I was excited to see Jesse’s new book on Cookies! It is a beautiful collection, and I am excited to bake more from it: the Malted Mudpie Whoopie Pies and Minty Shortbread Sandwich Cookies are top on my list.

More Cookie Recipes:

chewy brownie cookies

Brown Butter Brownie Cookies

Servings: 16 cookies
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Extra chewy, fudgy brownie cookies that are infused with brown butter for the most incredible flavor! An easy to cookie to make, no chilling.
Sarah Kieffer
4.97 from 26 votes
Print Pin Rate

Ingredients

  • 1 cup [170 g] bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips
  • 2 tablespoons warm water
  • 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 8 tablespoons [1 stick or 113 g] unsalted butter
  • 2 large eggs at room temperature
  • ¾ cup [150 g] granulated sugar
  • ½ cup [100 g] packed light brown sugar
  • 1 cup [128 g] all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons [14 g] natural unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder, optional
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • Flaky sea salt for sprinkling (optional)

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350F [180C] and set two racks at the upper-middle and lower-middle positions. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a medium heatproof bowl, add the chocolate chips, warm water, and vanilla. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Continue cooking, stirring often, until the butter foams and then darkens in color slightly and is fragrant, 3 to 4 minutes.
  • Slowly pour the hot butter over the chocolate chips. (Be careful – the mixture will sizzle.) Whisk until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is completely smooth. Set aside.
  • Add the eggs, granulated sugar, and brown sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. (Alternatively, use a hand mixer and large bowl.) Whip on high speed until the eggs are pale yellow, ribbony, and almost tripled in volume, about 6 minutes. As the eggs are whipping, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, espresso powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly pour the melted chocolate mixture into the eggs.
  • Mix until just combined, about 1 minute, then turn the mixer off and add the sifted flour mixture. Stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Using a large 2 in [#16] cookie scoop or ¼ cup measure, quickly portion out the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing at least 2 in apart.
  • Sprinkle the tops with flaky sea salt (if using). Bake both sheets at the same time, swapping them midway, until the tops of the cookies are cracked and shiny but they still appear slightly underdone, 9 to 11 minutes. Let cool slightly on the baking sheets, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Cookies will keep in an airtight container in a single layer for up to 1 week.
  • Reply
    Kiki D.
    Friday, July 28, 2023 at 7:48 am

    4 stars
    Gorgeous cookie! Turned out absolutely perfect except, if you’re a little sensitive to sweetness (like american buttercream being too sweet), these are definitely too sweet. I’m going to be cutting back on the white sugar maybe by half next time around. I don’t think the texture will suffer too much.

    • Reply
      Sarah Kieffer
      Sunday, August 6, 2023 at 1:14 pm

      Hello! I would not recommend cutting the sugar by 1/2; the cookie will be dry and crumbly.

  • Reply
    Megan W.
    Thursday, June 9, 2022 at 2:02 pm

    5 stars
    Delicious! So good with the flavor from the browned butter and really addictive 🙂

  • Reply
    Emily
    Wednesday, March 9, 2022 at 12:02 pm

    5 stars
    These turned out great! Sadly, I wasn’t able to achieve the beautiful crinkly cracks. I wasn’t quite sure what “ribbony” meant regarding the eggs and sugar, so I just went with the 6 minutes of high whipping in the Kitchen Aid. I’m sure that’s where I went wrong. Also, I only was able to get a dozen cookies. Probably also from the egg sugar stage, where I’m sure most of the volume was supposed to come from. Other than that, great recipe! Thanks!

  • Reply
    Linh
    Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 8:29 pm

    5 stars
    Really tasty recipe! Definitely a keeper!

  • Reply
    Isabella
    Monday, January 31, 2022 at 10:31 pm

    5 stars
    Very nice flavor albeit odd texture/formation. The batter’s very gooey that it expands to make very thin, large cookies. Make sure to use a small cookie scooper for these!

  • Reply
    Julie
    Tuesday, January 11, 2022 at 4:10 am

    5 stars
    These were lovely! Even the batter was so beautiful 🙂
    My only recommendation is to bake slightly longer — after 10 minutes mine were still very underdone in the center and I ended up putting them back in after they had cooled for about 3-5 minutes. All ovens vary though and its possible some heat escaped when I was opening it and this could have influenced the outcome

  • Reply
    Dana
    Tuesday, December 28, 2021 at 2:02 pm

    If I make the dough ahead & refrigerate overnight before baking, will the texture still be gooey, or will it be off?

    I made them exactly as written last week (except that I used salted butter) & they were FANTASTIC!

    • Reply
      Sarah Kieffer
      Tuesday, December 28, 2021 at 5:41 pm

      Hi! I haven’t tested refrigerating the dough overnight.

      • Reply
        Dana
        Tuesday, December 28, 2021 at 7:56 pm

        Ok – thanks! I’ll report back if I end up trying it:)

        • Reply
          Courtney
          Thursday, January 5, 2023 at 2:55 pm

          Hey Dana, did you try this?

    • Reply
      Jessica
      Friday, August 18, 2023 at 8:02 pm

      5 stars
      Hello – I made these today and chilled the dough for 6 hours and the cookies came out moist and wonderful! I chilled the dough for 6 hours, rolled 2tbsp size round balls, flattened them a bit (by pressing down on each ball with the underside of a drinking glass) then baked 350 for 9 mins. They look just like the picture and I will probably chill the dough in future to make it easier to handle.

  • Reply
    Cookies and cats
    Wednesday, December 22, 2021 at 8:15 pm

    5 stars
    Oh my gosh, this may be my new favorite cookie ever! I made mine a little smaller because that’s how we prefer cookies. Don’t leave off the flaky salt, makes a great cookie even better. I think I’ll be making these a lot. Thank you, Sarah!

  • Reply
    Allison
    Saturday, December 18, 2021 at 12:56 pm

    5 stars
    Omg! Wow! I have been scouring the internet for a similar cookie and the amazing Sarah just dropped it in my email box. Ty! She’s one of the few people I haven’t unsubscribed, for good reason! I did do a small sub with a 1/3 c dark rye and 2/3 c unbleached flour to attempt to copy one of my favorite cookies at a local french bakery. Et Voila! Perfection!

  • Reply
    Allison
    Monday, December 13, 2021 at 1:02 pm

    I just made this recipe and used 1/4 cup measuring cup as a scoop as instructed. This made enormous cookies – I could only get 10 from the batter rather than 16. And they were so large they couldn’t come off the cookie sheet without falling apart. Feeling a bit disappointed in these instructions and wasted time and effort. Also, the blog post mentions Dark Brown sugar but the recipe card says light brown sugar. I’m not sure which is intended. Thank you for any clarity!

    • Reply
      Sarah Kieffer
      Saturday, January 8, 2022 at 6:35 pm

      I’m sorry you had trouble! I used the amount as given and I didn’t have trouble with them being so large and falling apart. This recipe is from Jesse Szewczyk’s Cookie Book – you can reach out to him for troubleshooting (he is on Instagram and has a webpage here: https://www.jesseszewczyk.com/ )

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