Brown Butter Oatmeal Choc Chip Cookies (easy!)

Meet my favourite cookie in the whole world – Brown Butter Oatmeal Choc Chip Cookies. Buttery. Nutty and caramel-y undertones. Melty pockets of chocolate, crispy on the edges and chewy in the middle. Unbelievably quick and easy – no electric beater, no waiting around for butter to soften.

I know there are more “perfect” cookies out there in this world. But for effort vs results, these cookies leave them in the dust. It’s one of those rare gems where the end result is not compromised by speed and ease. In the world of baking, this is so rare, I am confident that you, like me, will try these once and know that it’s a Keeper!

They are everything you dream of a chocolate chip cookie to be. Chewy inside (thanks to the oats), crispy edges, very buttery flavour (from the browned butter!) and big melty pockets of chocolate from chunks of chocolates rather than using chocolate chips.

They are perfect. And they are fast and easy!

Ingredients in brown butter choc chip cookies

When I’m making to impress, I prefer to chop up good dark chocolate myself. Lindt is my choice – not cheap, so I stock up when discounted! For everyday purposes, I’ll just use good ole’ choc chips. Bakers’ choice!

• Chocolate or chocolate chips – See notes above photo.

• Unsalted butter – This recipe calls for the butter to be browned which intensifies the buttery flavour. It’s really easy – just melt the butter then simmer for a few minutes until it turns brown and smells beautifully nutty. That’s it!

• Oats – Just ordinary rolled oats. This is what gives these cookies a great chewiness! Recipe should work with quick oats, but not sure about steel cut oats.

• Sugar – Brown sugar for caramely flavour and to make the cookies a bit chewy rather than crisp.

• Flour – Just plain / all-purpose flour. Please don’t substitute with self raising flour as it doesn’t have enough rising agent in it.

• Baking soda (bi-carb) – This is the leavening agent used in these cookies (ie to make them rise a bit). It is stronger than baking powder and has slightly different leavening effect depending on what you are making. Baking powder makes these cookies dome slightly whereas baking soda makes them rise more evenly which is better.

• Vanilla – Just a bit, for flavour.

• Salt – It’s generally good practice to add a bit of salt into sweet baking recipes as it brings out the flavours in other ingredients. It doesn’t make these cookies salty. But there’s certainly the option to finish them with a sprinkle of salt flakes!

PRO TIP – Don’t use the chocolate “dust”. It melts and smears in the cookie dough and makes it look a bit messy. Save the dust for your cappuccino and just use the chunks for your cookies!

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How to make brown butter chocolate chip cookies

Are you ready to see how shockingly and dangerously easy these are to make?

1. Brown the butter

Browning butter is as simple as melting butter then letting it simmer until it changes from yellow to golden brown which only takes a few minutes. This intensifies the buttery flavour and adds nuttiness. Both good things!

1. Melt butter in a silver or other non-black saucepan or small pan. Why does the colour of the cooking vessel matter? Because it’s impossible to see when the butter changes from yellow to golden in a black pan. You’ll need to rely on your smell or using a spoon to scoop the butter up to check the colour!

2. Brown butter! Simmer the melted butter on medium to medium high for 3 to 5 minutes or until you see little golden bits (which are the dairy bits that go toasty) and you can smell the nuttiness. The butter will also change from yellow to golden brown in colour.

   Remove from the stove immediately to prevent it from going too brown / burnt. Pour the browned butter into a large mixing bowl (including all the little brown bits – extra flavour!). Then let it cool for 5 minutes.

2. Cookie dough – just mix by hand

3. Whisk dry ingredients in a bowl – the flour, oatmeal, salt and baking soda.

4. Whisk wet – Add sugar into the still warm brown butter and whisk. It will look a bit split, that’s ok, it will come together when you add the egg. Add egg and vanilla then whisk.

5. Combine wet and dry – Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Mix with a wooden spoon until the flour is mostly incorporated.

   Then add the chocolate chips and mix through until you can no longer see flour.

6. 5 minutes rest – Set the cookie dough aside for 5 minutes to let it firm up slightly so it’s scoop able into mounds.

3. Use a cookie scoop for speed!

7. Scoop mounds of cookie dough onto lined trays, 5 cm / 2″ apart. I use a size 40 cookie scoop which is 1 1/2 tablespoons (a heaped tablespoon measure). You should get 22 cookies.

   I use 3 trays – 8 cookies on 2 trays and 6 cookies on a 3rd tray.

8. Press the mounds down to 0.8 cm / 1/3″ thick rounds, reshaping as needed if they split or go wonky.

4. Bake 11 minutes

9. Bake – Bake 2 trays for 11 minutes, switching and rotating the trays at the the 7 minute mark until light golden. Remove, then bake the 3rd tray for 10 minutes, rotating at the 6 minute mark.
   

10. Cool cookies on the tray for 10 minutes – they will continue to cook and go a bit more golden. Then transfer to a cooling rack to fully cool. They will crisp up on the edges and base, but be chewy in the middle – best of both worlds! 🙌🏻

You know the hardest part about these cookies? Picking that point in the cooling time when the cookies have firmed up enough so they aren’t too soft, but the chocolate is still (very!) melty. The window of opportunity is actually wider than you think – around 25 minutes to 50 minutes after pulling them out of the oven.

But I always fret, not wanting to miss the chance – because once the chocolate has hardened, you cannot re-melt it without compromising the cookie itself – and I find myself hovering over the cookies, prodding them every 5 minutes or so wondering if I should go in for the kill.

The Kill being THIS moment:

Now you understand, right?

25 to 50 minutes out of the oven. Set your timer, my friends. Don’t miss it.

Or, if you do, just make them again. They’re so easy, why not! 😈 – Nagi x

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Watch how to make it

Life of Dozer

Dozer, no amount of hovering is going to get you any chocolate! It’s bad for you!