These brown butter chocolate walnut cookies are soft, thick, chewy, a bit crunching of walnuts and extra flavourful. Infused with the nutty flavour of browned butter, and loaded with semisweet chocolate and walnuts, these cookies are incredibly gourmet and will surely become your new favourite cookie recipe! Did I say no mixer is required? Just two bowls and a whisk!
Am I late to the party?? Brown Butter! How did I not make you before this? After my best chewy chocolate chip cookies, Pinterest flooded my feed with all kinds of cookies, most of which were "Brown Butter cookies". I thought they were referring to "Desi ghee"! My bad! 😬 Apparently, Clarified butter, Ghee and Brown butter are three different things! 🤯
If you are into nerdy reads or the science of cooking, then do check out the article by Epicurious detailing how the three are made and why they are different from each other.
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Ingredients
This brown butter chocolate walnut cookies recipe is so yummy that I bet you can't stop with one unless you have the willpower of an athlete aiming for the Olympics! Brown butter is truly liquid gold and I urge you to try it at least once I am sure you will love this version too! Between F and I, I think I ate more cookies 😄 but you never know - he is too good at making me believe it.
- Butter: You may use salted or unsalted.
- Brown sugar: Light or dark will work.
- White sugar: use regular granulated sugar.
- Egg: use a large one
- Vanilla extract: You may use almond extract
- Flour: All-purpose flour aka plain flour or maida
- Cornflour: This gives the cookies a soft consistency and helps keep the cookies thick so do not skip it.
- Baking soda: Baking soda cannot be replaced with baking powder. They are two different things and react differently.
- Salt: Adjust if using salted butter
- Chocolate chips: use your favourite semi-sweet, dark, milk etc.
- Walnuts: make sure they are not rancid or you may skip and add more chocolate.
What is brown butter?
Brown butter aka browned butter is nothing but the result of slow-cooking regular butter. The French call it beurre noisette and they use it in both savoury and sweet dishes as a sauce.
The melting method gently cooks the butter and turns the milk solids into brown bits while evaporating all the water present in the butter. This develops a nutty flavour and toasted aroma making it liquid gold in the culinary world.
Browned butter has a deeper, richer, and more intense flavour than melted or clarified butter.
Instructions
The first step is the make the brown butter and let it cool. Making browned butter needs your full attention because, in a split second, you can go from brown butter to burnt butter! Once you have the brown butter, you can make this batch of chocolate walnut cookies and eat them guilt-free.
Next, you will whisk the sugar and egg into the brown butter and then stir in the flour items.
Lastly, fold in the chocolate chips and chopped walnuts. Your cookie dough is ready. Reminder! chilling the cookie dough is mandatory. You may chill for 30 minutes or overnight.
Baking time! Preheat your oven and line the baking tray. Scoop the cookie dough and place it on a lined baking tray leaving a gap between each. You may shape the dough into neat balls and then bake until golden to brown edges - approx 13 minutes.
Make sure to remove the tray from the oven and let it cool as the cookies will continue to cook while cooling. So, it is better to remove them at 13 minutes for chewy cookies. Refer below for the detailed cookie recipe.
How to freeze cookie dough?
- Chill the cookie dough balls in the refrigerator for 1 hour
- Place the solid and cold cookie dough balls into a freezer-friendly bag or box
- Label the date and any other details to remember like the baking temp, name of the cookie, etc. and place the bag in the freezer. You may freeze cookie dough for up to 3 months
- To bake the frozen cookie dough balls, remove them from the freezer, preheat the oven according to the recipe’s instructions and bake them for a minute or two longer than the required time
Variations
Chocolate walnut cookies are a classic, and there are several variations you can try:
- Double Chocolate: Add unsweetened cocoa powder to the dough and use both chocolate chips and cocoa nibs for an extra rich chocolatey flavour.
- White Chocolate: Replace the chocolate chips with white chocolate chips for a sweeter and creamier cookie.
- Oatmeal: Mix in some rolled oats for a heartier texture and a touch of cinnamon for extra flavor.
- Peanut Butter: Add a dollop of peanut butter to the dough for a tasty twist on the classic combo of peanut butter and chocolate.
- Coconut: Sprinkle shredded coconut into the dough for a tropical flair.
Feel free to get creative and mix and match these ideas to make your own unique chocolate walnut cookies.
Equipment
- Light-coloured saucepan: To prepare brown butter.
- Mixing Bowl: A couple of mixing bowls, one for wet ingredients and one for dry, will come in handy.
- Whisk: You can use a simple whisk to blend the ingredients together.
- Spatula: For mixing and scraping the dough.
- Baking Sheet: To place your cookie dough on. You might want to line it with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat for easy cleanup.
- Cooling Rack: Once the cookies are done, let them cool on a rack. This helps them firm up nicely.
- Cookie Scoop or spoon: To portion out your cookie dough evenly.
Storage
When it comes to storing those scrumptious chocolate walnut cookies, here's what you can do:
- Room Temperature: If you plan to enjoy the cookies within a few days, you can store them in an airtight container at room temperature. They should stay fresh for up to a week this way.
- Freezing: To store baked cookies for a longer period, consider freezing them. Place the cookies in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze until they're firm. Then transfer them to an airtight container or a zip-top bag. They can last for about 2-3 months in the freezer.
Remember, when you're ready to enjoy the frozen cookies, you can let them come to room temperature for the best taste and texture.🍪😋
FAQ
Browned butter adds intense flavour to the cookies making them no ordinary cookies. But because browning butter process removes the water content of the butter, the cookie dough needs addition of liquid in the form of milk or more sugar or butter.
You can use either light or dark brown sugar for making the cookie dough. You may even use a mix of both.
Yes, you can. My Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe uses melted butter and also has more sugar. You can use that recipe and replace melted butter with brown butter without altering the sugar quantity. In this recipe, I reduced the sugar and added a tablespoon of milk to compensate for the moisture loss that happned while browning butter.
Related
Looking for other recipes using chocolate? Try these:
📖 Recipe
Chocolate Walnut Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter (100gms)
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 to 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour (maida)
- ½ teaspoon cornflour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chocolate chips
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
Instructions
Prepare the brown butter
- Cut the butter into smaller pieces and add to a light-coloured saucepan which will help to determine when the butter begins browning.½ cup unsalted butter
- Melt the butter on low to medium heat while stirring constantly. Once melted, the butter will begin to foam and make a crackling sound but do not stop stirring. The butter will begin browning with a nutty aroma and lightly browned bits will begin to form at the bottom of the pan.
- Remove from heat once the brown bits reach amber colour and the popping sounds have stopped. Pour the browned butter into a large mixing bowl and let it cool completely.
Prepare the cookie dough
- Whisk the flour, cornflour, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.1¼ cups all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon cornflour
- Take the cooled brown butter bowl and whisk in the brown and white sugar until no lumps remain.½ cup brown sugar, ¼ cup white sugar
- Whisk in the egg, milk and vanilla extract.1 large egg, 1 to 2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon milk
- Use a rubber spatula and gradually stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture until combined with no traces of dry flour but do not overmix.
- Fold in the chocolate chunks and walnuts making sure they are distributed all through.½ cup chocolate chips, ½ cup chopped walnuts
- Cover the dough and chill in the refrigerator for a minimum of 30 mins or overnight. Chilling is mandatory and I highly recommend chilling the cookie dough overnight for better flavour and colour.
Prepare to bake or freeze the cookie dough
- If you chilled the dough for only 30 mins, then you can use it straight away to bake. For any longer than 30 minutes chilled dough, it will get too firm to scoop. If it is too difficult to scoop, let it sit on the counter for a few minutes so it can soften a bit. If you let it sit longer, then your cookies will spread a lot. If you think it has melted, then put it back in the fridge.
- Preheat the oven to anywhere between 170°c to 180°c
- Line a baking tray with baking paper (you may need two trays depending on your oven size)
- Scoop 3 tablespoons of dough for each cookie and roll them into neat balls.
- Place the cookie dough balls on the sheet leaving space between the cookies and the edges of the pan so that the cookies can spread evenly. At this point, you may freeze the cookie dough balls (refer to post)
Bake the cookies
- For chewy gooey cookies, bake for 12 to 13 mins only. For light crunchy cookies bake for 14 to 15 mins. But do keep an eye on them after 8 mins or so and remove them as soon as you see golden spots and brown edges. Cookies will continue to cook while cooling.
- Take out of the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Serve or store in an airtight container for up to one week but I bet you it won't last that long!
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