Brown Butter Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

5 from 5 votes

Brown Butter Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

These gooey brown butter gluten free chocolate chip cookies are exactly what you need this holiday season! Brown butter adds an extra layer of flavor to these ultimate chocolate chunk cookies while bitter dark chocolate perfectly balance the sweetness of the cookies.

Course Baked Goods, Dessert

Cuisine American

Diet Gluten Free, Vegetarian

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 9

Chill 8

Total Time 8 29

Servings cookies

Calories 127kcal

Author Caitlin Self, MS, CNS, LDN

Equipment

Ingredients

10 ounces butter 284 grams
14 ounces dark chocolate 400g, divided
2 ½ cups of Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Gluten Free Flour 410g
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons fine salt
¾ cup granulated white sugar 150g
1 cup light or dark brown sugar 225g
⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract 15g
2 large eggs

Instructions

Make The Brown Butter

Melt the butter in a medium sized pot or pan over medium heat. Once mostly melted, you will want to stir the butter the entire time to keep it moving. The butter will start to foam and eventually it will start to turn golden brown and the foam will begin to subside. You know it is done when the butter is golden brown and the milk solids at the bottom of the pan have become toasty brown but not burnt or black. The butter will also start to smell very rich and nutty! Immediately remove from the heat to stop the cooking process and pour into a large, heat-safe bowl.
Set the butter aside to cool and start to solidify again. You can do this over an ice bath, in the fridge or freezer, or you can place it outside in the snow for 15 minutes! You will want to stir the brown butter every 5 minutes so it will cool evenly.

Prep the Chocolate

Meanwhile, prepare the chocolate. We’re going to first chop the chocolate into various sizes. Set aside a few handfuls of chocolate chunks to use for topping the cookies before you bake them.

Make the Cookie Dough

Next we will combine the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, combine the gluten-free flour, baking soda, baking powder, and fine salt. Stir to combine, then stir in the majority of the chocolate chips and chopped chocolate, reserving some large pieces for topping the cookies later.
When the brown butter is opaque and softened rather than melted, stir it well and then add the white sugar, brown sugar, and nutmeg. Stir this to combine, then whip on relatively high speed with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer until nice and fluffy, about 5-6 minutes. You want to cream the butter together with the sugar so the sugar can fully dissolve into the butter.
Next, add the vanilla, and add one egg and whip until combined, then add the next egg and whip just until combined.
Finally add the flour, about a third of it at a time, stirring until fully combined before adding more flour. (You cannot really over mix these cookies because there’s no gluten to develop.)

Chill the Dough

Once your dough is done, we want to chill it for as long as possible. A few hours at a minimum, but overnight - or even a couple of days in the freezer - is ideal. I recommend forming the cookies and placing them on a baking tray first. Add a few pieces of chocolate to each one, and then place them in the fridge overnight.

Bake the Cookies

When you’re ready to bake - which should be the next day - preheat the oven to 325ºF. Place the cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet about 2-3 inches apart and bake for 8-11 minutes. Let them rest for 5-10 minutes before enjoying as they will likely be super soft and not very sturdy when they first come out of the oven.

Storing Cookie Dough to Bake Later

Once the cookie dough balls have hardened in the fridge, you can place them directly in a freezer safe bag or container and store them in the freezer for about 3 months.
To cook from frozen, remove a few cookie dough balls from the freezer and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet at room temperature. Preheat the oven while the cookies sit out - this should allow the cookies to sit out for about 20 minutes or so. Then you can cook them as normal, for about 8-11 minutes, though I usually cook them a minute longer if they're coming from the freezer than when they're coming from the fridge.

Notes

This recipe is very heavily inspired by a few Chocolate Chip Cookies recipes by Stella Parks - she has a version on Serious Eats and one in her cookbook called Bravetart. I have added elements from both recipes and made adjustments in order to make this recipe gluten-free.

To cook from frozen: remove dough balls from the freeze and place on a baking sheet. Let sit at room temperature while the oven preheats. Once oven is preheated, bake as normal, maybe adding 1 extra minute. In my oven, I bake the fridge-cold cookies for 8 minutes and the from-freezer cookies for 9 minutes.

FOR DOUBLE-SIZED COOKIES:

I LOVE making these as double cookies! They have a crispy exterior and a soft and gooey center because they're bigger. Simply smash two dough balls together and bake on 350ºF for about 10-11 minutes.

Equipment:

My favorite baking pans are the Nordic Stainless Steel Half Sheet Pans. These are aluminum pans (which is why I always line them with parchment or silicone - I don’t recommend cooking directly on aluminum), and you can read this article by Handle the Heat all about choosing the right baking sheet material for your chocolate chip cookies! Here in Estonia, we have terrible sheet pans available to use, as per these photos and the video, but if you have aluminum or stainless steel, you’ll have more consistent results!

And, also, when I went to her site to find that post (she had shared it on Instagram), I found this entire section on baking science related specifically to cookies! So feel free to geek out on her amazing resources!

For additional resources on nontoxic cookware options, check out Lara Adler’s nontoxic bakeware and cookware.

Nutrition