Brown Butter Egg Yolk Chocolate Chip Cookies
These chocolate chunk cookies are incredibly flavorful thanks to browned butter and egg yolks. Brown butter adds a nutty, rich flavor to this chocolate chip cookie dough and big chunks of chocolate take it over the top.
I have made so many white cakes this year (at least ten and it’s barely mid-march…all those hidden rainbows and cherry blossoms!) and have had tons of yolks leftover from them. Sure, I made ice cream (we’ll talk about that later) but mostly, I’ve found the easiest thing to do is to turn them into cookie dough.
Because see, I’m a chewy chocolate chip kind of cookie person. This means that I’ll opt to use more brown sugar than white, will melt my butter and favor the yolk; all the tricks to getting a chewy texture rather than crispy.
For these, I take it one step further and brown the butter. It adds a ton of flavor to the dough and the extra step is SO worth it. I also use a mix of different chocolates to give these variety. Feel free to use one or two!
Recipe Ingredients
Butter: Any kind of real sweet cream butter will do (american or european) but avoid margarine. The butter needs to cool after it browns so do this step ahead of time.
Egg Yolks: You cannot substitute the yolks in this recipe with a whole egg. Make sure your yolks come from large eggs, we want all that good fat. No egg substitute either, if you are interested in an eggless cookie recipe see these almond flour chocolate chip cookies.
Sour Cream: full-fat is best but you can use low-fat if it’s what you have. You can also substitute with labneh or greek yogurt if need be.
Flour: All-purpose flour, not bread and not cake. Aim for a flour that has a midpoint in protein level, so around 10%.
Brown Sugar: Fresh, non-organic light brown sugar. If it has dried and has clumps you’ll have to find a different use for it (perhaps something that will be heated). Organic sugar tends to be drier and needs more moisture in a recipe (in theory you’d have to add another yolk). You may use dark brown sugar if you like.
Granulated sugar: not powdered. The sugar provides structure as much as flavor so don’t reduce it.
Baking Soda: Not baking powder; baking soda is more powerful than powder and helps with the spread of the cookies. Don’t substitute this.
Chocolate: Be sure to use eating chocolate (in the candy aisle, not the baking aisle) not baking chocolate. Use your favorite bars to eat!
Salt: Fine sea salt is my preference, and if you are using table salt you’ll need to adjust accordingly.
Vanilla: Pure vanilla extract and don’t skip it! Without it the dough is definitely missing some flavor.
How to make brown butter egg yolk chocolate cookies
Start by browning the butter
At least an hour before you want to make the cookie dough, brown the butter: set it in a frying pan over medium heat and cook as it melts, then separates into liquid and milk solids. Those milk solids will turn brown
Once the butter is foaming and you see dark brown bits all over, remove from the heat
And set in a heatproof bowl. Then, chill it in the fridge – halfway through chilling you can stir it so the brown butter bits are mixed into all the butter
Make the dough
Add the sugar, flavorings and butter to the bowl of a stand mixer, then affix the paddle attachment and beat it. It will start out dark and grainy.
Gradually, it will turn loose and lighter brown
and when it’s fully creamed it will bey very light and airy
Add the egg yolks and sour cream (or yogurt) and then mix very well
Add the baking soda, flour and chopped chocolate and mix to just combine
You can chill the dough and bake it later or you can go ahead and bake it when you’re done making the dough.
Set the cookie dough in 1.5 or 2 tablespoons portions on a greased, parchment lined pan.
Make sure there’s enough space for the cookies to spread.
And bake until slightly golden on the edges.
Tips to make Perfect Brown Butter Egg Yolk Chocolate Chip Cookies
Brown Butter Perfectly: You can make the browned butter ahead of time, hours or even a day and store it in the fridge. When you cook it, don’t look away! It will go brown quickly and you don’t want it to burn. When you remove it from the heat, make sure to scrape down all those brown bits – that’s the delicious part!
Beat the sugar & butter for a while: we want lots of air incorporated in this step which you know as ‘creaming’. The mix should turn several shades lighter, give it at least 5 minutes in a stand mixer. See the difference between these unmixed bits and well creamed? Scrape down the bowl and
Bake, but don’t wait for them to turn dark golden: cookies should be slightly underbaked when taken out of the oven. On the sheet they continue to cook through.
What to do with leftover egg whites after making brown butter egg yolk cookies?
Make a triple batch of my small batch double chocolate chunk cookies. The dough for these needs to rest overnight so you can have classic chocolate chip cookies today and double chocolate cookies the next day (or days – see note on storing cookie dough for baking later). Also, this flourless chocolate cake uses exactly three egg whites!
How do you get big pools of chocolate in your chocolate chip cookies?
When you chop your chocolate bar, leave some big pieces so you get the giant pools in the middle. And scrape everything that was on the chopping board into the dough, this will speckle the dough and ensure there’s chocolate in every bite.
Making the dough ahead of time
If you want to make the dough and bake it (or some of it) later on, prepare the cookie dough until the point of scooping. Portion the dough onto a parchment lined plate or small baking pan and freeze the dough balls. After about ten minutes they should be solid. Transfer them to a freezer safe ziplock bag.
More egg yolk based cookie recipes
- Egg Yolk Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Small Batch Oatmeal Cookies
- Small batch Monster Cookies
- Small batch Birthday Cookies
Tools to make Brown Butter Egg Yolk Chocolate Chip Cookies (affiliate links):
- Food Scale
- 1.5 tablespoon ice cream scoop
- Parchment paper
- Aluminium cookie sheets
- Stand mixer or hand mixer
Brown Butter Egg Yolk Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Brown Butter Egg Yolk Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ sticks 170g butter, unsalted
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- ¾ cups brown sugar 150g
- ⅓ cup fine granulated sugar plus 1 tablespoon, 80g
- 3 egg yolks from 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon plain yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 200 g flour
- 100 g dark chocolate chopped
- 100 g milk or white chocolate chopped
- sprinkles or flaked sea salt optional
Method
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue cooking as it bubbles and splutters. A foam will develop on top. Once it goes silent and the foam disappears, you’ll see some brown bits at the bottom and smell a nuttiness, this means it’s done.
- Remove from heat immediately once browned, and place in a heat-safe bowl. Make sure you have 135g browned butter. Add salt and stir. Place bowl in the fridge, allow to firm up for about an hour (when it’s time to make the dough, consistency should be thick like softened butter and color will be white on top with brown bits settling at the bottom)
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Cream browned butter and sugars for 5 minutes until mix is very light in color.
- Add egg yolks, cream for another minute. Make sure to keep scraping your bowl for unmixed bits.
- Add yogurt, vanilla, baking soda. Beat to combine.
- Add flour, mix just to combine.
- Fold chopped chocolate into dough.
- Portion into about 2 tablespoons, roll gently in sprinkles or sprinkle on flaked sea salt.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
Did you make this recipe?
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Made these a couple of days ago! They came out great despite the adjustments I had to do because I didn’t realize I was running low on brown sugar before I started! I also had to use less chocolate because I forgot to pick some up beforehand, lol. Even with my mistakes, these came out amazing!
PS found out these make the best!!! Chipwich. That’s cookies as bread and ice cream as your sandwich filling.
Oooh that’s brilliant!
Took these to a party and they got devoured. Two people called them the best CCC ever.
wow, I love to hear it! 😀
MAKE THESE NOW!!! The base recipe is fantastic on its own… but my new favorite cookies is a twist on these. For the 200g Sam suggests for chocolate, did I50g heath, 50 g milk chocolate, 50 g dark chocolate, 50 g caramelized white chocolate, and then a handful of chopped pretzels for a salt/crunch kick. DIVINE. The texture and flavor of these cookies are great. Everyone I shared them with said these should be my new go-to.
the fact that you had caramelized white chocolate in there… it must’ve made them heavenly!
These are delicious! They are super chewy and have an amazing flavor. I made these for a party and everyone loved them. I sprinkled Maldon Sea Salt on the top and it was delicious. I used about 150 g of chopped 70% Dark chocolate and then mixed in about 50 g of chopped up milk chocolate since I prefer more dark. The amount of chocolate was perfect in my book, especially since chopped bar chocolate stays so nice and gooey. The only substitution I made was using sour cream in place of the yogurt called for in the recipe. They turned out delicious and looked amazing!
My daughter husband and I all love these cookies!!! Anytime I have a recipe that uses egg whites, I make a batch to use the yolks ????
Foolproof recipe! I used this recipe to help clean out some ingredients in my pantry, so I used a different ratio of sugars, and I used choc chips instead of chunks, and yet it still came out delicious. I strongly encourage bakers to be very generous when rolling the dough in the sprinkles so your cookies turn into little bursts of in-your-face sunshine!
These are incredible and my only regret is waiting so long to make them. Worth every step, the hardest part is just waiting for the browned butter to cool. Followed the recipe exactly, using cup measurements as I don’t have a scale, and they came out perfect. Used the egg whites for a triple batch of the double chocolate cookies, also came out perfect. Thank you!!!
I’ll never have to look again! This is my go-to cookie recipe and I’m always so excited to make them. The browned butter really makes a difference and I usually will prep my cookie dough the day before. Thank you for an awesome recipe!
This is a GOOD cookie. I used a scale to measure and went with dark chocolate and milk chocolate. I usually don’t find browned butter worth the extra effort in many recipes, but here it really shines. To really bring it out, I’ve also had great success adding 2 tsp nonfat dry milk powder to the butter as it browns (since the milk solids are what carry the toffee notes as they brown), and proceeding with the recipe as written.
I used to be the cookie gal at a local bakery and have tested hundreds of cookie recipes over the years both there and at home. This recipe has *easily* taken top spot for my always-have-on-hand-in-the-freezer cookie dough balls!
I made these cookies with dark chocolate valrhona feves and homemade caramelized white chocolate chunks and they were to die for!!!! Will definitely make these again.
ok that is like my dream chocolate combo!
I made these, took a bag to work, and got a text from my co-worker the next day that said, “those cookies are the f—ing BOMB!” So yeah, thanks for the great recipe. 😄
SUPER excited to try this recipe to use up leftover yolks. I wonder if you might have any insight or suggestions on using an alternate flour? I know subbing flours gets complicated. Considering almond or maybe buckwheat? Thanks for any tips!
Kristen, I think oat flour works very well as an alternative (But don’t make your own because it often won’t grind fine enough). Almond is not a good sub because it has no gluten and wont “bind” the dough the way it should. Buckwheat could work, i wonder if it would be a tad drier so maybe reduce by a tablespoon or two?
Thanks so much for your reply! They’re about to go in the oven with oat flour, the batter is so good lol I can’t wait to try them! I might experiment with buckwheat next 😀
You said dark brown sugar but by your photos it doesn’t look like you used dark brown sugar? Perhaps light? Thanks
There are two different batches of cookies pictured and the step by step instructions were another batch! I make these cookies a lot 😉 You can use either light or dark.
I made these cookies for my family and my kids teachers and they are hands down the best choc chip cookies ever! I just used milk and dark chopped chocolate but each bite is pure bliss. This will be my new go-to recipe! Thank you for sharing it with the world!
The recipe should come with a disclaimer as these cookies are seriously addictive!
Awesome recipe! Will definitely be making them again!
Okay I was obsessed with the 1 yolk ccc’s… but these are them on steroids. The brown butter if absolutely worth it if you have the time, and it’s nice to reach into my fridge and grab regular old butter instead of the European butter the other recipe calls for. These cookies are simply amazing.
Hey,
Will this recipe work without plain yoghurt
If yes can I know what I can substitute it with please?
These cookies were delicious! I can’t believe they were no-chill. Thank you for the recipe!
Doh! I just found the answer to my question right there, in the “helpful hint’s” part: “When you remove it from the heat, make sure to scrape down all those brown bits – that’s the delicious part!”
Yes, those bits are the best part!
I’ve never browned butter before…turned out like you described, but not sure what to do with the brown bitts at the bottom…do I leave them in the pan, or scrape it out and add it to what I’m putting in the recipe?
This is an amazing cookie recipe!! In love with how it turned out and everyone I made it for loved it too. You can never go wrong with brown butter and I used a mix of white, milk and far chocolate, the sea salt on top really adds to the cookie, thank you!
These are not only the best cookies I’ve ever made, but probably the best I’ve ever eaten. SO GOOD!!! (Didn’t use sprinkles)
Another excellent cookie recipe! I made macarons this weekend and had three egg yolks on hand. Thank you for ensuring that the yolks would not go to waste!
Can I freeze this dough to use later? Love these cookies and always have extra egg yolks
yes! once you have your cookie dough scooped, flash freeze the scoops on a plate/tray for 10 mins. Once they are hard, store them in a ziplock bag. You can bake from frozen, just add 2-3 minutes more of bake time.
Oh. My. God. These are the cookies I’ve been trying to make since I started making cookies. I’ve never had a cookie THIS good…until now. They are perfect. Not too sweet, chewy and a tiny bit crisp on the edges. They are heaven. All other cookie recipes may be dead to me now.
well this is just the best review ever! 😀 😀
I made these for Christmas 2020 with M&Ms. This recipe is the best ever. It will be my base for any kind of cookie! I’m trying it with peppermint bark in it today. I am just going to keep making this over and over it is so delicious!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the nutty buttery flavor and the yogurt in these cookies!!!
Will be making ALL my cookies this way!!!
Sounds wonderful with peppermint bark! So glad you liked it!
I have made so many different chocolate chip cookie recipes and this will be my new go to. It’s delicious! I love the complex flavors from the browned butter. Turned my chocolate chip cookie world upside down 😁
Best cookies! So yum and gooey.
Just made these and they are delicious! My whole family loved them, we couldn’t eat just one! Thanks for sharing your recipe! The egg yolks, brown butter and yogurt really made it unique and so good! Will def be making these again!
Ahh so happy to hear that Adelaide! Thank you!!!
Hello! First of all, I haven’t made the cookies yet but based on the ingredients alone, I know they are going to be a favorite from now on. But the sprinkles?!!. So beautiful. I have 2 best friends turning 50 soon. These cookies will be in their gift baskets! Thank you and bless you.
Hi Gloria, that’s so wonderful that you are making them gift baskets! If you post a pic on instagram please tag me, I’d love to see!
Hi- can’t wait to make these! Could you please confirm how many cups of flour? It says 200 grams but I do not have a scale.
Hi Hiba, roughly it’s 1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon. But don’t overpack the cups, shake the flour then sprinkle it into them!
Found your recipe after searching for recipes to use up leftover egg yolks. I often have leftover yolks after baking macarons, meringue kisses and white cakes. Followed your recipe but just changed the chocolate chips to whatever I had on hand: dark morsels, white chocolate morsels, and sea salt caramel truffles baking pieces. Results were amazing! Chewy center, crispy edges. This will be my go-to recipe now! Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Hi Joy! The recipe is meant to use whatever good chocolates you have on hand so you did good. I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Excellent recipe! For years now I’ve been using a modified version of Cooks Illustrated’s brown butter recipe which is very, very good. I had leftover egg yolks from a yeast bread recipe and I stumbled upon your post. Using cooled browned butter is genius. I did make a few recipe mods. For starters, I prefer to use salted butter in baked goods and fur browned butter it is no different. I always add a bit of almond flour and I use vanilla salt and a good vanilla bean paste along with vanilla extract. Instead of white and dark chocolate, I used a combo of dark cacao chips and semi-sweet chocolate chunks along with chopped toasted pecans. I found the cookies baked batter in my oven when the scoops were flattened slightly. A good sprinkling of pink Himalayan sea salt flakes before baking and these came out beautifully. I never thought the CI recipe could be surpassed! Well done!
That’s some high praise! Thank you so much for trying out the recipe and leaving such a thoughtful review. I love the idea of adding pecans and cacao chips!
These are easily the best chocolate cookie I’ve ever made or eaten. I bake almost daily, and have for many years, and never thought I’d need to try another recipe for CCCs. But I had an excess of yolks and saw the praises sung on Instagram, and am so glad I tried these. I’m not sure I’ll ever make another cookie again. Thank you!
Alex! Makes me so happy to hear that they worked out well for you! Thank you for trying them out!
Can I leave out the yogurt if I don’t have any on hand? How will it change the texture?
Hi Livvie! In the post I talk about how I came to this exact recipe and how dry the cookies were without it. If you have sour cream, use that!
Any thoughts on using Greek yogurt instead of plain?
I think that would be fine!
I went ahead and used vanilla Greek yogurt, and the cookies turned out great! Very soft the day I made them, but we found they were much better on day 2!! Chewier with more flavour! I also added skor bits because they go so well with brown butter!!
That’s awesome! I will have to look up skor bits…
Does this dough need to be chilled at all before baking?
Nope! Instructions above are correct!
Any chance these could be made with oat or whole wheat flour? All the stores around me are out of AP flour
I actually made these with whole wheat pastry flour and they were delicious! Nice and chewy, nutty and just wonderful flavor! Thanks so much!
YES! Use oat flour! It’ll make them even chewier although you may want to add an additional tablespoon of the oat flour.
Just made these and they by faar the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve found! I think I slightly overcooked my butter but the rest came together really nicely and they still have a great flavor. The browned butter makes for a ‘fancy’ chocolate chip cookie… something I can use to impress my boyfriend’s parents 😉 Thanks so much!
That is awesome! Thank you so much for trying them!
ps just found your account today and I’m so in love! Can’t wait to try out more of your recipes!
aw thank you so much alli!!! I’m so glad to hear the cookies worked out for you and you are into the blog! Thank you for trying the recipe and being here =)
Thank you for this recipe! What type of yogurt do you use?
Hi! Plain is fine.
Would sour cream work for this recipe?
Yup!
I’m quite an avid baker, and have probably tested/ tried dozens of chocolate chip cookie recipes, and I have to say, yours blew my mind! The best chocolate chip cookies ever. I threw in 3 different kinds of chocolate chunks, divine!! Thank you for this recipe- it’ll be my go to from now on!
Felicia, I read your comment on the morning of my birthday and it was a just wonderful way to start the day! Thank you for trying out the recipe and for the note!
These are the best cookies I’ve ever baked! I’ve never left a comment on any blog or website, but everyone needs to hear how good they are. My new go to recipe!
Shari, you totally just made my day!!! Thank you for trying out the recipe and for stopping by to share how it went =D
hi Could you post the weights of butter and sugar too? I am from india, not sure how to measure in sticks.
hi there and thank you for stopping by! I added the butter weight. Next time I make these I’ll weigh the sugars =)
I meant browning. Silly autocorrect!
If you are doing the butter by weight, is it weight before growing or after? You will lose mass to evaporation after browning.
Hi Jessica, the weight is before browning as browning is part of the steps to make the dough. I talk about the loss of moisture in the post above (it’s why I add the yogurt!).
Love this post and the recipe! I will definitely be trying these. Thanks for sharing!! – Anita
Hi Anita! Thanks so much for the visit and the comment <3 Would love to hear back if you end up making them =)