These brown butter sugar cookies are soft, chewy, and full of nutty brown butter flavor! This is a recipe you’ll want to make again and again—trust me. 🙂
✉️ want to save this?
enter your email and i’ll send it directly to your inbox! & as a bonus, you’ll get new recipes & resources sent to you every month. 💛
🍪 Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s flavorful, simple, and straightforward. You can make it one bowl with a whisk and a rubber spatula—no need for fancy equipment like a stand mixer.
- Rich & oh-so delicious! Because of the brown butter, the cookies have a hint of toasty + caramel flavors.
- The cookies are adorable 🐻. I made them into little bears with just a few extra ingredients. But don’t worry, if you don’t have the time, these cookies will taste exactly the same without the bear design!
Looking for more easy cookie recipes? Try out my double chocolate shortbread, ube sugar cookies, or pumpkin snickerdoodles!
Ingredients
To make these brown butter sugar cookies, you’ll need the following ingredients:
- The unsalted butter will be cooked in a saucepan until all the milk solids turn golden brown and toasty, aka brown butter! For even richer brown butter flavor, I recommend adding milk powder to the unsalted butter as it cooks. This adds more toasted milk solids, amplifying the nuttiness. Totally optional, but well worth it.
- Espresso powder complements the brown butter, giving the cookies an additional depth of flavor! If you prefer not to use espresso powder due to the caffeine, you can omit it.
- A mix of both brown and granulated sugars make these cookies soft and chewy. You can opt for light brown sugar or dark brown sugar, either work great in this recipe.
- The cookie dough balls are rolled into extra granulated sugar before baking, which adds a sweet, crisp texture.
- Immediately after baking, the cookies are topped with flaky sea salt. This adds the perfect amount of saltiness and balances out the flavors.
- To decorate the cookies into bears, I used white and milk/dark chocolate melting wafers. Alternatively, you can use chocolate chips or candy melts.
For the full list of ingredients and measurements, see the recipe card below.
💡 Baking Tips
- Weigh your ingredients! One of my favorite kitchen tools is a kitchen scale because it is more accurate than measuring my volume. If you use cups, spoon the flour in gently, then level it with a knife or spatula.
- Do not over mix the cookie dough. Excess mixing develops gluten and results in tougher, denser cookies.
How to make brown butter sugar cookies
Step 1: Add your unsalted butter and milk powder into a saucepan. Brown the butter on medium-low heat until nice and toasty, then transfer to heat-safe bowl to fully cool. Stir in espresso powder. (Full brown butter tutorial here)
Step 2: Mix in your brown and granulated sugars.
Step 3: Add in your egg and vanilla. Mix until smooth.
Step 4: Dump in all of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Fold together using a silicone spatula until no dry spots remain.
Step 5: Use a cookie scoop (2-3 tablespoon capacity) to gather dough, then roll into granulated sugar. Place cookie dough balls on lined baking sheet about 3 inches apart. To make bear ears, take about 1 teaspoon of dough, split it into 2, and roll them in sugar. Place them on the top left and right sides of the cookie dough ball.
Step 6: Bake at 350°F/177°C for 9-11 minutes or until the edges are set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on sheet for at least 5 minutes, then transfer to write rack. Use melted chocolates to add bear faces.
For full instructions, see the recipe card below.
“These are my favorite cookies. Ever.” – My mom ❤️
Brown Butter Sugar Cookie FAQs
Brown butter is made by cooking butter until it becomes nutty, toasty, and caramelized. It has a very distinct flavor in comparison to regular butter—richer with a taste similar to a light toffee. It can replace plain butter in both savory and sweet dishes, elevating any dish.
And the best part? It only takes about 5 minutes to make.
Milk powder intensifies the brown butter flavor. It really makes a difference!
However, if you do not have milk powder on hand, you can omit it.
Espresso powder can be omitted, but it really does add to the depth of nutty flavor to the cookies.
Did you try this recipe?
Please leave a review & share it with me on Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, or Pinterest!
Thank you so much! -Bianca ❤️
📖 Recipe
Brown Butter Sugar Cookies
✉️ want to save this?
enter your email and i’ll send it directly to your inbox! & as a bonus, you’ll get new recipes & resources sent to you every month. 💛
Equipment
- stainless steel or light-colored pan
- heatproof bowl
- medium mixing bowl for dry ingredients
- large mixing bowl for mixing cookie dough
- hand whisk
- Medium cookie scoop 2-3 tablespoon capacity
- Parchment Paper
- Wire rack
- 3 microwave-safe bowls, optional for bear design
- 3 Piping bags optional for bear design
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 1 ⅓ cups (166.67 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon (4.5 g) table salt
Wet ingredients:
- ½ cup (113.5 g) unsalted butter cut into tablespoons
- 2 tablespoons (15 g) milk powder I used whole fat, but you can use any milk powder
- 1 teaspoon (1 g) espresso powder
- ½ cup (110 g) brown sugar light or dark, packed
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 1 (1) egg
- 1 tablespoon (13 g) vanilla extract
For rolling:
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
Topping:
- flaky sea salt
Optional decorations for bear:
- 3 tablespoons (44.36 g) white chocolate
- ½ tablespoon (7.5 g) milk or dark chocolate
- oil-based pink food coloring, see steps
Instructions
Brown the butter:
- (Feel free to check out my more in-depth post about brown butter)In a light-colored pan over medium heat, add ½ cup unsalted butter and 2 tablespoons milk powder. Continuously stir with a silicone spatula.After the butter melts, it will begin to foam. Then, the foaming will subside and brown specks will start to form at the bottom of the pan. Keep stirring. The color change will be fairly quick, so keep an eye on the butter. Remove the pan from heat once you smell a nutty aroma and the butter becomes golden brown. Transfer to a heat-safe bowl and let cool until room temperature, about 10-15 minutes. Stir in 1 teaspoon espresso powder.
For the cookie dough:
- Preheat the oven to 325°F/162°C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper/silicone mat.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients: 1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, and ¾ teaspoon table salt.
- In a large bowl, whisk the cooled, melted brown butter with ½ cup brown sugar and ½ cup granulated sugar until combined.
- Add in 1 egg, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth.
- Dump in all of the dry ingredients. Fold together using silicone spatula until no dry spots remains.
Scoop & bake:
- For regular cookies: Use cookie scoop to gather dough (about 1 ½ tablespoons each), roll into granulated sugar, and place on baking sheet. Repeat, spacing cookie dough balls about 3 inches apart.
- To make bears (optional): For the ears, take about 1 tsp of dough, split it in 2, and roll them in granulated sugar. Place them on top left and right sides of a cookie dough ball on the baking sheet. Repeat for other bears, spacing the cookies about 3 inches apart.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes or until edges are set. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle flaky sea salt on top. Cool on sheet for at least 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack to fully cool.
For the bear faces (optional):
- Note: You can a piping bag, toothpick, or cookie scribe to add on the details. I used piping bags.
- Add white chocolate to small microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring in between, until fully melted.
- Leave about a tablespoon of melted white chocolate and transfer the rest to a piping bag. Use this for the snouts and ears.
- To the remaining white chocolate, add a drop of oil-based pink food coloring. Transfer to piping bag and use this for the blush.If you don't have oil-based food coloring, then the chocolate will seize/become lumpy. To counter this, stir in a tsp of neutral oil (canola, vegetable) at a time, until it becomes smooth again.
- Melt dark or milk chocolate in another bowl, transfer to piping bag, and use this to draw on the eyes and nose.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
- Check out my more in-depth post on browning butter here!