These brown butter chocolate chip cookies are perfectly fudgy-gooey in the centre, deliciously crisp around the edges, packed with chocolate, and also super easy to make. The brown butter gives them the most amazing flavour, and you’d never know that they’re both gluten AND egg free, absolutely everyone will love them.
It’s been far too long since I’ve shared a new chocolate chip cookie recipe – but let me tell you, this one was 100% worth the wait. These brown butter chocolate chip cookies are INCREDIBLE: perfectly fudgy-gooey in the centre, with deliciously crisp edges, packed full of chocolate, and the brown butter (along with the light brown sugar and a generous dash of vanilla) gives them the most amazing flavour.
And they’re both gluten AND egg free – not that you could possibly tell, their texture is pretty much indistinguishable from that of regular (gluten- and egg-containing) cookies. This has recently become my new go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe, and absolutely EVERYONE goes crazy over these.
On top of all that, they’re also really easy to make!! The most difficult part is browning the butter, but I promise that even that is super straightforward and I’ll guide you through the whole process step by step. There are also no strange or unusual ingredients in the recipe (no chia or flax eggs) – it’s just a really simple, fail-proof recipe that gives the most delicious results every single time.
Before we get to the bits and bobs of making these amazing cookies – if you like what you’re seeing, subscribe to my newsletter to keep up to date on the latest recipes and tips!
Note: the whole recipe, including the ingredient quantities, can be found at the bottom of this page – just scroll down to the bottom, or click the ‘Jump to Recipe’ button at the top of this post.
Browning the butter
Brown butter is a truly magical ingredient in baking – it gives bakes a deliciously nutty, butterscotch-y, almost caramel-like flavour and it works incredibly well in these chocolate chip cookies.
To brown the butter, add the unsalted butter to a saucepan (preferably one with a light-coloured interior that allows you to see the butter changing colour) and cook it over medium heat with frequent stirring for 6-8 minutes in total. The butter will first melt and then start bubbling and foaming. Finally, it will turn amber and smell nutty. You should see specks of a deep brown/amber colour on the bottom of the saucepan – those are the caramelised milk solids and they’re the main carriers of all that delicious flavour.
Pour the brown butter into a large bowl and then you need to cool it until it firms up and thickens slightly: you want it to have the texture of very soft, spreadable butter. (You can speed up the cooling process by placing the bowl into a cold water bath.)
Making & chilling the cookie dough
Once you’ve made and cooled your brown butter, the rest of the process follows all the usual chocolate-chip-cookie-making steps (you can use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a hand mixer fitted with the double beaters):
- Add the sugars, yoghurt (this acts as an egg substitute, more on that below) and vanilla to the slightly thickened brown butter, and cream everything together until pale and fluffy.
- Add in the dry ingredients (gluten free flour blend, a bit of cornstarch (US)/cornflour (UK), baking powder, baking soda, xanthan gum and salt) and mix until you get a fairly soft cookie dough.
- Throw in a small mountain of chopped chocolate and chocolate chips, and mix again until they’re evenly distributed.
- And then you need to chill the cookie dough for *at least* 2 hours or ideally overnight. As the butter in the cookie dough cools down and sets, and the gluten free flour blend absorbs some of the moisture, the cookie dough will firm up, so you’ll be able to easily scoop it up and form into balls.
If you’re impatient, you can bake the cookies after only a 2 hour chill in the fridge – but I definitely recommend chilling them overnight. The longer chilling time greatly improves their texture and flavour.
The egg replacement
I’m not a fan of the “usual suspects” when it comes to egg replacements – I don’t use chia eggs or flax eggs or mashed bananas or apple sauce to replace eggs in my egg free and vegan baking. In my experience, these egg replacements give rather disappointing results… and honestly, they’re just not necessary.
In the average chocolate chip cookie recipe, eggs mainly provide moisture – and you can fairly easily replace them with a couple of tablespoons of unsweetened plain or Greek-style yoghurt. And that’s *exactly* what I’ve done in this recipe, with EXCELLENT results (if I do say so myself).
You really *really* can’t tell that these cookies don’t contain any eggs or gluten!
These are large, thick cookies!
I wanted these to be rather substantial cookies – both in terms of their diameter and their thickness.
The addition of cornstarch (US)/cornflour (UK) ensures that they don’t spread out too much during baking and thus end up too thin; instead, they’re satisfyingly thick and wonderfully fudgy in the centre.
Each cookie dough ball weighs about 100g or 3.5oz, which makes large (but still manageable) cookies. That’s about 4½-5 tablespoons of cookie dough, if you’re using an ice cream/cookie scoop or measuring spoons. Because they’re fairly large cookies and they spread quite a bit during baking, make sure to space them out on your baking sheets: I usually bake 4 cookies per baking sheet to be on the safe side.
You can, of course, make the cookies smaller or larger if you wish, just keep in mind that smaller cookies will need less time in the oven while larger cookies will require a slightly longer baking time.
Baking the brown butter chocolate chip cookies
To get a perfectly fudgy-gooey centre and deliciously crisp edges, bake these cookies at 350ºF (180ºC) for about 14-16 minutes or until they’re light golden on top with slightly darker edges and the centres are still soft and noticeably underdone.
Keep in mind that the cookies will continue baking for a couple of minutes after you’ve taken them out of the oven (due to the heat retained by the baking sheet and carryover cooking) – so those underdone centres will result in the absolutely *perfect* gooey texture.
Immediately out of the oven, while the cookies are still very hot, soft and malleable, you can use a round cookie cutter (larger than the cookie diameter) to nudge or scoot the cookies into a more perfectly round shape.
And that’s it! This covers everything you need to know in order to make these truly FABULOUS gluten and egg free brown butter chocolate chip cookies. This really is an incredibly easy, fail-proof recipe and it just never disappoints.
I really hope you’ll love these as much as I do.
Happy baking!!
More gluten free cookie recipes
If you’re looking for more amazing gluten free cookie recipes, you’re definitely in the right place!
- The Ultimate Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Fudgy Chocolate Brownie Cookies (Only 7 Ingredients!)
- Gluten Free Caramel Twix Cookies
- Orange Shortbread Cookie Sticks
- Gluten Free Lemon Crinkle Cookies
- Gluten Free Lemon Curd Cookies
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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (Gluten & Egg Free)
These brown butter chocolate chip cookies are perfectly fudgy-gooey in the centre, deliciously crisp around the edges, packed with chocolate, and also super easy to make. The brown butter gives them the most amazing flavour, and you’d never know that they’re both gluten AND egg free, absolutely everyone will love them.
Print Rate SAVE
Prep Time 30 minutes mins
Cook/Bake Time 25 minutes mins
Chill Time 2 hours hrs
Total Time 2 hours hrs 55 minutes mins
Servings 8 large cookies
Author Kat | The Loopy Whisk
Ingredients
- 115 g (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 150 g (¾ cup) light brown soft sugar
- 50 g (¼ cup) caster/superfine or granulated sugar
- 100 g (⅓ cup + 1½ tbsp) unsweetened plain or Greek-style yoghurt, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
- 240 g (2 cups) plain gluten free flour blend (I used Doves Farm Freee gluten free plain white flour that doesn't have any xanthan gum added.You can also mix your own gluten free flour blend using this recipe.Note that for this homemade blend, 1 cup = 150g, so ideally use a digital food scale and the weight measurements for best results.)
- 15 g (2 tbsp) cornstarch (US)/cornflour (UK)
- ½ tsp xanthan gum (Omit if your gluten free flour blend already contains xanthan gum.)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 90 g (½ cup) chopped dark chocolate (60-70% cocoa solids)
- 90 g (½ cup) dark chocolate chips
Instructions
Browning the butter:
Add the unsalted butter to a saucepan (preferably one with a light-coloured interior that allows you to see the butter changing colour) and cook it over medium heat with frequent stirring for 6-8 minutes in total.
The butter will first melt and then start bubbling and foaming. Finally, it will turn amber and smell nutty. You should see specks of a deep amber colour on the bottom of the saucepan (those are the caramelised milk solids).
Be careful not to overcook and burn your butter – remove the brown butter from the heat as soon as the milk solids turn an amber colour.
Pour the browned butter into a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer, if using), and allow it to cool until it firms up and thickens slightly: it should have the texture of very soft, spreadable butter. (You can speed up the cooling process by placing the bowl into a cold water bath.)
Making & chilling the cookie dough:
You can prepare the cookie dough using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a hand mixer fitted with the double beaters.
Add the light brown sugar, caster/superfine or granulated sugar, yoghurt and vanilla to the cooled and thickened brown butter, and cream them together until pale and fluffy.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: gluten free flour blend, cornstarch (US)/cornflour (UK), xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add the dry ingredients to the brown butter-sugar mixture and mix well until you get a smooth, fairly soft cookie dough.
Add in most of the chopped chocolate and chocolate chips (reserving some for adding on top of the cookie dough balls before baking) and mix well until evenly distributed.
Chill the cookie dough in the fridge for at least 2 hours or ideally overnight (in a bowl covered tightly with plastic wrap/cling film).
Tip: If you’re impatient, you can bake the cookies after only a 2 hour chill in the fridge – but I definitely recommend chilling them overnight. The longer chilling time greatly improves their texture and flavour.
Baking the cookies:
Adjust the oven rack to the middle position, pre-heat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) and line two large baking sheets with parchment/baking paper.
Tip:You'll bake the cookies in two batches, so you can line two baking sheets if you have them on hand. Otherwise, just re-use the same baking sheet, but make sure to cool it completely before you place the next batch of unbaked cookies onto it.
Portion out the chilled cookie dough into eight large 100g (3.5oz, about 4½-5 tablespoons) cookie dough balls.
Tip: You can make the cookies smaller or larger if you wish, just keep in mind that smaller cookies will need less time in the oven while larger cookies will require a slightly longer baking time.
Place the cookie dough balls on the lined baking sheets, making sure that they're as much spaced out as possible (as they're large cookies and they'll spread quite a bit during baking). I usually bake 4 cookies per baking sheet.
Press the reserved chopped chocolate and chocolate chips on top of the cookie dough balls.
Bake the cookies, one baking sheet at a time, at 350ºF (180ºC) for 14-16 minutes or until they’re light golden on top with slightly darker edges and the centres are still soft and noticeably underdone.
While the first baking sheet is in the oven, keep the other one in the fridge.
Tip: Keep in mind that the cookies will continue baking for a couple of minutes after you’ve taken them out of the oven (due to the heat retained by the baking sheet and carryover cooking) – so those underdone centres will result in the absolutely *perfect* gooey texture.
Immediately out of the oven, while the cookies are still very hot, soft and malleable, you can use a round cookie cutter (larger than the cookie diameter) to nudge or scoot the cookies into a more perfectly round shape.
Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack. Enjoy them warm or cooled completely to room temperature.
Storage:
The brown butter chocolate chip cookies keep well in a closed container at room temperature for about 1 week. Note that the cookies will get a bit softer and chewier with time.
Alternatively, you can store raw, unbaked balls of cookie dough in an airtight container in the fridge for about 1 week, or in the freezer for 1-2 months. Bake the cookie balls directly from chilled or frozen, just adding 2-3 minutes to the baking time to compensate. Note that the longer the cookie dough balls are in the fridge or freezer, the less they will spread during baking (so they'll end up thicker).
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