Brown Butter & Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies
These brown butter chocolate chips cookies have crisp edges, fudgy middles & are made with rye flour for an extra nutty flavour!
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This was the first ever chocolate chip cookie recipe that I developed & has been the base for most of my cookie recipes ever since! These are incredibly easy to make & can be made in one bowl. There’s little washing up involved & you get a batch of seriously good cookies. What’s not to love?
There’s an ever growing collection of cookie recipes on this blog & we’re always thinking of new flavours to try! If you’ve got a suggestion that you’d like to see a recipe for, let us know in the comments at the bottom of this post!
Ingredient Notes
Brown Butter
The secret to making bakery style chocolate chip cookies that are full of flavour. Browning butter takes less than 5 minutes to do & gives cookies a deep, nutty flavour. If you want to add in another layer of flavour, stir in a teaspoon of toasted milk powder into the browned butter once it’s been cooked. We’ll also be using some softened butter (unsalted) alongside the brown butter, which I find give the cookies a better texture.
Sugars
We’re using both caster & dark brown sugar in our cookie dough. This gives the cookies the best flavour, texture & amount of spread in the oven. If you haven’t got any dark brown sugar, light brown will work as well.
Eggs
For this batch of chocolate chip cookies, you’ll need one large egg & 2 large egg yolks. The egg should weigh roughly 60 grams without the shell & the yolks should weigh around 17 grams each. The extra yolks are what gives these cookies an extra fudgy texture!
Rye Flour
Sticking with the toasted flavours from the brown butter, a small amount of the flour is made up of a light rye flour (the rest is plain flour). This gives the cookie dough an extra hit of nuttiness.
Raising Agents
We’re adding a small amount of both baking powder & bicarbonate of soda into our cookie dough which is key to getting the best texture & amount of spread in the oven.
Espresso Powder
The espresso powder in this recipe is entirely optional but helps enhance the flavour from the dark & milk chocolates. If you’ve got some espresso grounds kicking about, it’s easy to make at home. My recipe can be found here.
Chocolate
For these cookies, we’re using a mixture of dark chocolate & milk chocolate. If you’d prefer to use more of one than the other or use all dark or all milk, then feel free! The secret to achieving a molten puddle of chocolate on the top of each cookies is to press a chocolate chunk into the top of the cookie dough when shaping. I like to use a 72% cocoa dark chocolate & a 30-40% cocoa milk chocolate.
Sea Salt
Chocolate & sea salt is a fantastic combination! A small amount of good quality sea salt sprinkled onto the top of each cookies really brings out the flavour of the chocolate.
How To Make Brown Butter & Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies
The full, printable recipe card for these cookies can be found at the bottom of this post! Here’s a quick rundown of the recipe…
- Brown Butter
First, we cook unsalted butter over a medium heat, stirring frequently until it has started to foam, smells nutty & you can see the milk solids in the bottom of the pan have turned golden brown. Once cooked, transfer the brown butter to a bowl & leave to cool to room temperature. - Cookie Dough
To make the cookie dough, we place the cooled brown butter, softened butter & both sugars into a large mixing bowl then beat with a wooden spoon until combined. Next, we mix in an egg & 2 yolks, followed by the flours, raising agents & salt. Finally, we stir in chopped chocolate then chill the cookie dough in the fridge, for 1 hour. - Shaping
Once chilled, we scoop the cookie dough into 15 balls (each weighing 70 grams) then press a chunk of dark chocolate on top of each one. This is what gives us the molten pool of chocolate on top of the cookies once they’ve been baked. - Overnight Chill
Now that are cookies are shaped, they need to be chilled in the fridge overnight. This step is key, so don’t be tempted to skip it! This is what makes sure that our cookies don’t spread out too much in the oven. - Baking
The next day, we bake the cookies (in batches) at 180°c/356°f for 12 minutes. We’ll be using the pan banging technique for these cookies, which means that we bang the tray of cookies on the oven rack towards the end of the cooking process. I like to do this twice when baking these cookies. Once after 8 minutes of baking then again 2 minutes later. This causes the cookies to deflate, spreading the chocolate out & giving them crinkled edges. - Cookie Scoot
Once our cookies are baked, I’d recommend using a large round cookie cutter to “scoot” each cookie into a perfect round shape. This gives us a more uniform batch of cookies. Then to finish, we lightly sprinkle each cookie with sea salt.
Tips & Tricks For Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Brown the butter for extra flavour!
- Use chopped chocolate from a bar as this melts better than chocolate chips.
- Chill the cookie dough overnight for the right amount of spread in the oven.
- Use a cookie cutter to “scoot” the cookies into a perfect circle once baked.
- Bake the cookies until the edges are set & the tops are cracked but the centres are still soft.
- Use the “pan banging” technique for crinkly edges & pools of molten chocolate.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you’ve ever searched for a cookie recipe on Google, chances are you’ve come across the pan banging technique by Sarah Kieffer from The Vanilla Bean Blog. This technique involves banging the tray of cookies onto your oven rack towards the end of the cooking process. This causes the cookies to deflate, spreading the chocolate out & giving the cookies crinkly edges.
The cookie scoot is a technique used to shape cookies into a perfect circle as soon as they come out of the oven. To do this, take a large circular cutter & use it to move (or scoot) the cookies into a circle. This is the secret to making a batch of uniform cookies.
I like to use light rye flour in my chocolate chip cookies because it has a more subtle flavour compared to dark rye flour. Feel free to use dark rye flour if you’d prefer a more intense flavour.
Ideally, the balls of cookie dough should be chilled in the fridge overnight before being baked. If you’re short on time, a shorter 5 hour chill will work.
To freeze these cookies, make the dough, shape into balls then chill in the fridge until firm. Transfer to an airtight container then place in the freezer. Defrost fully before baking.
Baked chocolate chip cookies should be stored in an airtight container & will keep for several days.
How To Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies In An Aga
With all of my recipes, I include cooking instructions for conventional ovens, fan ovens & also Agas. Here’s how to cook this recipe in an Aga…
Brown the butter using the boiling plate then bake the cookies in the baking oven, on the bottom set of runners.
Equipment Used
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More Cookie Recipes To Try!
- Brown Butter S’more
- Salted Tahini & Vanilla
- Miso Banana Bread
- Salted Pretzel & Hazelnut
- Toasted Milk, Chocolate, Raisin Oatmeals
- Toasted Milk & Ginger
If you have enjoyed this chocolate chip cookie recipe, it would mean a lot if you could leave a review & rating. And if you’d like to stay up to date with future recipes, follow us on Instagram & TikTok!
Brown Butter & Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- Baking Trays
- Large Mixing Bowl
- Large Saucepan
- Cookie Scoop
- Large Round Cutter
Ingredients
- 200 g Unsalted Butter
- 145 g Dark Brown Sugar
- 130 g Caster Sugar
- 1 Large Egg
- 2 Egg Yolks
- 1 tsp Vanilla Paste/Essence
- 250 g Plain Flour
- 50 g Light Rye Flour
- 1 tsp Espresso Powder
- ¾ tsp Bicarbonate Of Soda
- ¾ tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Table Salt
- 180 g Dark Chocolate
- 75 g Milk Chocolate
- Sea Salt For Finishing
Instructions
Cookie Dough
- Start by browning 120g of the butter. To do this, chop the butter into evenly sized pieces then place into a medium saucepan. Place over a medium heat & allow to melt, stirring regularly with a spatula. Keep cooking, until the butter starts to foam, smells nutty & you can see that the milk solids in the bottom of the pan have turned golden brown.
- Transfer the brown butter to a bowl & leave to cool. In the meantime,, chop the remaining 80g of butter into even pieces & leave to soften at room temperature.
- Place both butters into a large mixing bowl & add both the brown sugar & the caster sugar. Cream the butter & sugars together with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined. We don’t want to add too much air to the cookie dough at this point. 2-3 minutes of mixing should do the trick!
- In a separate bowl, lightly beat the egg & yolks together then gradually mix into the butter & sugar.
- In another bowl, whisk together both the flours, espresso powder, salt, baking powder & bicarbonate of soda. Add to the butter mix & stir to combine.
- Roughly chop 125g of the dark chocolate & all of the milk chocolate. Add the chopped chocolate to the cookie dough, stir to incorporate then chill the dough for an hour in the fridge.There should be a mix of larger pieces & some smaller pieces of chocolate.
- Whilst the cookie dough is chilling, chop the remaining dark chocolate into 15 equally sized chunks.
- Once the dough is cool, scoop into 70g portions & roll into balls with your hands. Making sure that there’s plenty of chocolate in each portion. Press a dark chocolate chunk into the top of each ball.
- Place the portioned cookie dough on a baking tray or into a large container then leave in the fridge overnight.
Baking
- Preheat an oven to 180°c/160°c fan (356°f/320°f).
- Place 3-4 balls of cookie dough onto a lined baking tray, making sure that there’s plenty of room between them.
- Bake the cookies for 8 minutes then open your oven door, lift up the baking tray inside the oven, by a few inches then let it drop down against the oven rack. Use enough force so that the cookie starts to deflate. (This is the “Pan Banging” method.)Bake for a further 2 minutes then repeat the pan banging process. Bake for another 2 minutes (bringing the total bake time to 12 minutes) then remove from the oven.
- Using a large, round cookie cutter, scoot each cookie into a perfect round shape (this step is optional but makes the cookies more uniform). Sprinkle each cookie lightly with sea salt then leave to cool on the tray.
- Repeat the cooking process with the remaining cookies.
Hi Ben! I made your cookies today, I wanted to share my experience for those unsure about choosing this recipe. I found the texture of this cookie to be the perfect balance between a nutty crunchy( from the rye) and gooey center. The flavor of the brown butter works well with the subtle rye bite. I scooped my cookies using a 2.6oz auto release food service scoop which resulted in 9 perfectly round bakery sized cookies. Topped with kosher salt, they were close to perfection 🙂
Thanks for making my recipe & sharing your experience, I’m so glad you liked them!