Brown Butter and Bread Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies

These chewy, ooey gooey Brown Butter and Bread Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies were originally just a bonus recipe on my newsletter, but I liked them so much that I thought they should live on the blog permanently! And yes, I think bread flour cookies are going to be the trend of 2024. King Arthur called it first, but now so am I.

I know what you’re thinking… what’s a bread flour cookie? Well, it’s exactly what it sounds like – a normal cookie, but made with bread flour. This may not sound like an interesting switch-up, but let me tell you, these cookies are so perfectly dense, chewy and crispy on the edges that your cookie game will be changed forever. And as for the brown butter, who doesn’t love a brown butter chocolate chip cookie? I love playing with cookie flavors and textures, but sometimes I just want a classic (but really good) chocolate chip cookie. This is the perfect recipe to fulfill all of your chocolate chip cookie cravings!

Why use bread flour in a chocolate chip cookie?

Bread flour is flour with a higher protein level than all-purpose flour, which makes it considered a high-protein flour, or a flour great for gluten development. Gluten is the structural protein found in grains like flour, and it is what results in a baked good being chewy (think: a really chewy sourdough), and a lack of gluten is what results in a baked good being tender (think: a very light chiffon cake!)

The thing is… cookies are better with a bit of chew. They just are, trust me. I like my cookies to have a crisp edge and a dense, fudgy center, and the extra bit of structure that a high-protein flour like bread flour provides changes a cookie tenfold. It doesn’t make the cookie tough, what it actually does is gives it the ability to hold together, while still being dense and soft after a low bake time. Cookies that use all-purpose flour wouldn’t be able to hold up in the same way, and the texture will be more melt-apart, than chewy-heaven.

It’s a small difference, but it’s worth trying the swap for this recipe! I always recommend it.

The ingredients you’ll need for these bread flour and brown butter cookies

Outside of the bread flour, the ingredients for this recipe follow a very standard cookie formula. Here is everything you’ll need:

• Salted Butter – Think of the “salted” element as flavor insurance. I find butter to taste less like itself when it’s not salted, so I always opt for salted butter in my baking!
• Granulated Sugar – This is to help the cookies spread. Granulated sugar spreads more than brown sugar, while brown sugar provides the depth of flavor. And of course, cookies need to be sweet!
• Dark Brown Sugar – Dark is preferable for the taste, but these brown butter cookies will also work just fine with light brown sugar.
• Extra Large Eggs – The larger the eggs, the better. Although large eggs will also work just as well. These provide both moisture and structure to the cookie, which is why I recommend the bigger sizes.
• Bread Flour – I like King Arthur Baking’s Bread Flour the best, but there are many great brands, and it’s becoming easier to find bread flour in most grocery stores! I like having it on hand for baking bread, of course, but these bread flour cookies are an added bonus.
• Baking Powder – which I will always prefer over its counterpart, baking soda. Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate, and even if it’s a wives’ tale, I really think you can taste the acridness of sodium bicarbonate more than baking powder, which has an activator and anti-caking agent included in it!
• Diamond Crystal kosher salt – but make sure to use half the amount if you are using another brand like Morton’s. Diamond Crystal has larger flakes, so they measure differently in a teaspoon!
• Guittard bittersweet chips – it doesn’t have to be this brand, but WOW, their dark chocolate is pretty heavenly, and they work so well in any brown butter cookie.
• Maldon smoked sea salt – this is for topping, but the cookies are so sweet that they could always use a bit of salty with them!

Step #1 – Prepare the brown butter bread flour dough

This dough starts with the brown butter, but then it’s just a stand mixer away from being done!

• First, preheat the oven to 400°F with the rack in the middle.
• In a small saucepan, brown the butter and let it cool until it’s solid. I like to do this by whisking the butter in a bowl that is surrounded by ice water. It turns into a pretty solidly “whipped” butter in a few minutes.
• Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugar. Then, add the eggs and beat together until the mixture is fluffy.
• Add the flour, salt and baking powder and mix on low until just combined.
• Add the Guittard chips and mix in by hand.

And there you have it! An easy, breezy brown butter cookie dough.

Step #2 – Bake the bread flour cookies

The baking is the fun part. You want to bake these cookies until they have spread, but still look a bit underdone. The residual heat from the oven will continue to cook the cookies, so after 20 minutes, they’ll be firm enough to hold, but their internal texture will be amazing, and it will be a texture the cookies will be able to hold onto for a few days. No crumbly or dry cookies here!

So to finish them, bake at 400°F for 10-11 minutes. The edges will be crisp but the center will be underdone.
Sprinkle the Maldon’s sea salt on top of the cookies, then let them cool.

Why is this brown butter cookie recipe in grams?

Baking is a very finicky and exact science. The only way to ensure complete accuracy is through measuring by weight, and not volume. As much as I wish I could give you multiple ways to measure ingredients, in this recipe measuring by cups might cause some volatility and miss-matched results. I want to ensure you get the best results with this recipe (and I want to keep this recipe fool-proof!) so I highly recommend getting a small affordable kitchen scale if you want to move forward with this particular recipe! Plus…it saves time on dishes 😉

Looking for more cookie recipes?

I have you covered! Cookies are my love language.

And that’s everything for these Brown Butter and Bread Flour Cookies!

If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.

And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you <3