Triple Chocolate Chunk Cookies
These triple chocolate chunk cookies are better than your average cookie recipe. Imagine deliciously sweet, nutty brown butter cookie dough filled with gooey dark, milk and white chocolate chunks. Be warned, once you try cookies this way, there is no going back…
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Chill Time: 30 minutes to overnight
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes + chilling time
- Yield: Makes about 16 cookies 1x
- Category: Baking
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 170g unsalted butter, diced
- 50g caster sugar
- 200g soft light brown sugar
- 1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 220g plain flour
- ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- Generous pinch of sea salt
- 150g good-quality dark chocolate, chopped into chunks
- 150g good-quality milk chocolate, chopped into chunks
- 100g good-quality white chocolate, chopped into chunks
Instructions
- First make the brown butter: pop the diced butter into a medium-sized non-stick saucepan and set over medium heat. Stir gently until completely melted. Increase the heat to medium and allow the butter to bubble, stirring often. It will bubble and spit - don’t panic, this is normal (just take care!). Continue to cook the butter, stirring to ensure it cooks evenly, until the crackling noises fade and the bubbles subside. At this point, you should see a foam appear on the surface and the colour will change from golden-yellow to light brown to deep amber brown. This can take anywhere between 7-10 minutes, depending on the size of your pan and how high your heat is. Watch the pan closely as it takes just seconds to go from brown to burnt.
- As soon as brown flecks start to appear and you start to smell a gorgeous nutty aroma, remove from the heat. Quickly, but carefully, pour into a medium-sized heatproof bowl. This stops it cooking any further. Leave to cool slightly. It doesn’t need to be room temperature but shouldn’t be scorching hot. You can do make the brown butter up to 2 weeks in advance and keep it chilled in your fridge. Allow to come to a softened room temperature before making the cookies.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the brown butter, caster sugar and soft light brown sugar. Using an electric whisk, beat together. You can use a wooden spoon too.
- Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix again until combined.
- In a separate large mixing bowl, sift together the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Mix half the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until combined. Gradually mix in the remaining dry ingredients, a little at a time, until you have a smooth dough.
- Gently fold in the chopped chocolate chunks. Take care not to overmix, just carefully fold in until the chunks are evenly distributed throughout the dough. Cover and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes - ideally overnight. I know it is tricky, but I promise it does make a difference and will be worth the wait!
- When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 190°C/170°C Fan. Line a couple of baking sheets with non-stick baking paper and set aside.
- Scoop the cookie dough into around 16 equal-sized balls and place roughly 5cm apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for about 11 minutes - or until the edges are just golden-brown but the centres are still puffy and slightly gooey. They might look underdone, but they will continue to bake as they cool on the trays.
- Leave to cool before eating so they have time to firm up. Obviously they are delicious warm from the oven - but try to give them at least 15 minutes so you get the perfect chewy texture of the cookies.
Notes
To store: The baked cookies will last for up to a week in an airtight container - although they are best the day they are made.
To reheat: if, like me, you love a warm cookie, reheat in the microwave in 20 second bursts until warm and the chocolate is melted. Or pop in a preheated air fryer at 170c for 3 minutes or so.
To freeze: this cookie dough freezes well for up to 3 months. I recommend freezing the individual balls so you can take them out and bake as you need from frozen (just add a couple of minutes to the baking time). Alternatively, shape the chilled dough into a log before freezing. You can then defrost in the fridge before slicing and baking.
Make ahead: the brown butter can be made up to 2 weeks ahead and kept chilled in the fridge (remember to bring to a softened room temperature before making the cookies). You can make the cookie dough up to 3 days in advance, then cover and chill in the fridge. You can either do this and keep it in the bowl or after you have shaped it into balls. You can also freeze in advance, I recommend freezing in individual balls and then bake from frozen. Just add a few mins onto the baking time.
Bake what you need: you don’t have to bake off all the cookies at once. I sometimes bake a couple of cookies at a time so I can enjoy them at their best. Plus, the dough will only improve as it chills in the fridge. If you are keeping it for longer than 3 days, shape into balls and freeze. Then bake from frozen for 13-16 minutes, as they will need longer than if they were just fridge cold.
Brown butter: browning the butter is an additional step that adds so much flavour to these triple chocolate chunk cookies. However, if you are short on time, you can just use regular softened butter. If you are worried you have a few burnt bits in the brown butter (black flecks instead of brown), you can pour through a sieve to strain any burnt bits which will give your brown butter a bitter flavour.
Chocolate chunks: you can use whatever combination of chocolate you like for these triple chocolate chunk cookies. I have gone for more dark and milk chocolate, but go with whatever you prefer. You can also stick with just 1 or 2 types of chocolate.
Nuts: you can swap 100g of chocolate for roughly chopped nuts for extra crunch. Chopped almonds, macadamia, pecans, pistachios or hazelnuts all work well. The latter has delicious nutella vibes.
Chilling: I know it is tempting to skip this, but these triple chocolate chunk cookies will be better for having time to chill. It helps solidify the butter to prevent them spreading too much in the oven. This gives a thicker, chewier cookie with better texture and more even browning. It also helps hydrate the flour which enhances the flavour.