Chocolate Chip-less Cookies
These are your favorite chocolate chip cookies, minus the chocolate chips. Think you’ll miss the chocolate? Think again!
These chocolate chip-less cookies have been on my site for years now and it’s amazing how many people love them. Whenever I first describe them to people I always get strange looks.
Why would you make chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips???
The reason is that they simply don’t need it, these cookies have so much fabulous flavor all on their own. They’re rich and buttery, with lots of nutty and butterscotch-y flavor thanks to brown butter and plenty of brown sugar. These cookies are crisp on the outside, with no chocolate chips to break up the velvety texture on the inside. One bite is all you’ll need to be convinced, I swear!
Melted brown butter is the star of this recipe
Since this recipe actually starts with melted butter (instead of butter at room temperature), it only make sense to brown the butter first. Why not kick the flavor up a notch, right?
baking tip:How to brown butter
1. Place a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium low heat.
2. Add cubed butter to the pan and let it melt (cubing the butter first allows it to melt more evenly).
3. Once the butter is melted, it will start to foam. Stir frequently with a rubber spatula, scraping the bottom of the pan.
4. Continue to cook butter until you see brown specs in the butter and it has a nutty aroma.
5. Remove from heat immediately. Do not let it burn.
6. Use the browned butter right away or put in the fridge for later use.
Also, no mixer required!
This cookie recipe is a little different from other chocolate chip cookie recipes. Not only does it start melted butter, but it also is mixed completely by hand. I borrowed this cookie recipe from Cook’s Illustrated and I love how easy it is.
- Mix melted browned butter with sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until combined. The mixture will be very soft and greasy.
- Add eggs and egg yolk one at a time, mixing for about 30 seconds after each addition. You’ll notice the mixture lightens in color and starts to thicken.
- Wait for a few minutes, then mix again for 30 more seconds. This will lighten the color and texture even more.
- Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and stir until combined. This will take a few minutes mixing by hand, but it will com together to make a thick cookie scoop.
- Portion onto cookie sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes.
- Add coarse see salt to warm baked cookies, if desired.
Just when I thought there was nothing new to do with chocolate chip cookies! You have to give these a try, I promise you’ll fall in love too.
Can I add chocolate chips?
I get this question all the time, and the answer is— yes of course! If you can’t bear to leave out the chocolate, or if you want to turn this into your go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe, feel free to add 1-2 cups of whatever kind of chocolate chips or chunks you like.
(To be completely honest, I add chocolate chips sometimes too.)
Other cookie recipes to make today
- Monster Cookies
- Caramel-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
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This recipe was originally published June 2015.
Chocolate Chipless Cookies
Ingredients
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter (140 grams)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar (50 grams)
- ¾ cup packed light or dark brown sugar (160 grams)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour (210 grams)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Coarse salt , for sprinkling (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- In a small saucepan set over medium heat, melt the butter. Continue to cook the butter until it turns golden brown, stirring frequently, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.
- Pour browned butter into a large bowl and add the sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Add the egg and egg yolk, stirring for 30 seconds after each. Let batter rest for about 5 minutes, then stir vigorously for about 30 second. Batter should lighten in texture and color.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to the cookie batter all at once and stir until no streaks of flour remain.
- Drop dough by rounded tablespoon onto the prepared sheet pan. Bake until cookies turn golden around the edges but centers aren't completely set, about 9-11 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
128 Comments on “Chocolate Chip-less Cookies”
Love this! When I was younger, my mom would always bake a couple of cookies without the chocolate chips for me. It wasn’t until years later that I actually learned to appreciate the chocolate chips, but the chocolate chip-less cookies are still my favorite!
At first, I was a little EHHHHH what is she thinking with this whole no-chip shenanigans?
But then I saw the browned butter. And my heart melted. Totally obsessing over these cookies! Pinned!
I know, I know, it sounds so crazy until you give them a try. 🙂 Thanks Taylor!
The picture of the dough in the bowl literally made my mouth water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought I was the only one who loved the dough sans chips!! These look decadent!
I’m giving this recipe 5 stars even though I haven’t even made it yet. ( I know it’s gonna be so good :). ) I do have a question, though. Can you skip on the salt if you use salted butter or it it a must to use unsalted butter and add salt later? I’m asking this because it’s quite difficult for me to look for unsalted butter sometimes when EVERY butter tastes like it’s salted.
You can use salted butter in place of unsalted without any problem! I usually recommend unsalted for baking, but cookies are a little different as the sweet and salty combo works so well. If you use salted butter, you can reduce the salt if you’d like, but I wouldn’t leave it out.
Wow, I love this idea! I love brown butter in my chocolate chip cookies and it pairs really well with the brown sugar and vanilla – why do we need chocolate chips anyway?
Brown butter cookies with sea salt…I can definitely live without the chocolate for a bit!
I never thought I’d be interested in a chocolate chip cookie without chocolate, but these look incredible! The browned butter sounds so tasty.
I love brown butter so I know I’d love these cookies!
I made your chocolate chip cookies for my mother. They were fantastic! I’m so glad I found your blog. We don’t eat sweets that often and traditional recipes make way too many cookies. This was perfect. Thank you!
So happy to hear you and your mother enjoyed these cookies! Thanks so much for the comment!
Yeah! I love that you made these. I just made some for Pete this week. We’ve all been enjoying them cold from the freezer. I too make them with brown butter and you can never go wrong with a touch of sea salt!!
I live in Switzerland where it is impossible to find chocolate chips (seriously, they don’t exist!) so this is the perfect recipe! Thank you!
I love these cookies. The first time I made them they came out so good. I have a problem though, the last 2 times I tried the recipe they came out almost bread like and I need help figuring out what I am doing wrong. Any advice? I don’t want to try another recipe b/c this one is really so good. Any words of wisdom are much appreciated.
Thank you for this recipe!!
Hi Leah! I’m not sure what you mean by bread-like? Are they more cakey and less chewy? See if you can think of any differences between the first batch and the other two. Maybe there was a difference in how you measured the flour? I’m sorry, I wish I could be of more help!
well its ok, i guess………….. One out of five stars
Sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy these cookies. They’re definitely unique and not for everyone. 🙂
These came out perfectly! I was so worried about browning the butter but it was very easy and smelled amazing. The cookies were soft and so flavorful my boyfriend immediately said there’s no reason for chocolate chips!
The instructions were also very clear and easy to follow.
Will this work with non diary Earth Balance butter?
I had the same problem as Leah! I made these once when I was in Miami and they were great. Then I just tried again and they were really dry and came out cake-like! Not very good.
I did notice that when I put the eggs in there was a film that developed but I mixed it quickly and didn’t notice anything else until I put the powder mix in and could immediately tell it was too dry. I don’t know if it had to do with the eggs or the butter was hot or what it was. Any insight would be much appreciated!
You said powder- did you put baking powder in instead of baking soda? That would change the consistency.
I made these for some friends, and they were delicious! I thought the brown butter and a tiny pinch of salt on top added a really nice flavour to the cookies.
The batter was a bit darker than pictured. I’m a bit worried in regard to how they’ll turn out. I guess I’ll see in 9 minutes
I see your cookie collapsed nicely during cookie. My version tasted superb but it stayed very bumped (with cracks), so less pretty and less chocolate chip-less. I wonder why? Maybe my 1/2 tsp baking soda was to royally measured? What do you think?
I did everything exactly as written by you but did use dark brown sugar.
Thanks anyway for a great recipe!!
I meant to write..during cooling.
The first time I made these they were good but were a little to puffy and cake like. I did some research as to why and made a second batch. This time stirring the batter (before adding the flour) less. I only stirred to get it evenly distributed. Secondly, I added about a pinch or two less of baking soda than the recipe calls for. Cookies were perfect the second time around.
Hi, John! Thanks so much for the comment and feedback. I’m sure other readers will find them helpful, and I may even give your suggestions a try myself!
After scouring the net for chocolate free cookie recipes and came upon your site. I followed the recipe exactly and the result was near perfect. Crispy on the outside chewy in the middle, delicious. I normally keep some for the following day, but these were so nice, they were all snaffled up before they had chance to cool down. Definitely a favourite cookie recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Made these last night. SO GOOD! THANK YOU 🙂
Can you use a standing mixer for this recipe. I was going to double it.
Of course!
I hate chocolate chips in cookies because they taste so good without it.. and less calories!
I’m so gonna try this when I have time, thanks : )
Is it ok to use regular brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar?
Absolutely!
I do not like chocolate chips. BUT LOVE THE DOUGH. this is the best of both of both worlds. DELISCIOUS DELISCIOUS. TY I CAN EAT COOKIES AGAIN.
Could unsweetened soy milk be used instead of almond? With extra sugar?
I’m out of chocolate chips so I’m thinking of using vegan sprinkles!
Are you sure you’re on the right recipe? These cookies do not require almond milk or chocolate chips. 🙂
)
Just made and ate them just now! Should have read the comments BEFORE but like the others mine came out too cakey (poofy) so next time I will use less baking soda and take them out a little earlier so the middles are gooey.
Half of my batch I didn’t add chips to and the second half I did add butterscotch & chocolate chips to and OMG the butterscotch ones complimented the butter flavor amazingly. Definitely add butterscotch chips to get that extra kick <3 <3 <3
I also used whole wheat flour — so that may have been why they turned out too fluffy and cake-like. TBD.
Just tried making these and I think I nailed it! ^-^ I had a sweet tooth and had been craving cookies all week when I realized, much to my dismay, that I ran out of chocolate chips. After looking around for recipes of chocolate chipless cookies I stumbled upon your website. I was a little worried about mixing them too much and ending up with a bread like texture, like one of the other comments said, but these came out nice and chewy. They tasted wonderful and perfect texture too. Best cookies I’ve made yet!
I followed the recipe but my “dough” came out runny. Not dough at all. I don’t know what happened! On a side note though, the dough tastes amazing ?
same here ! just add some flour, brown and white sugar, until your desire consistency … turned out amazing !
I made these but I added a 1/2 a cup of pecans and made them in bars. They were excellent
My husband has been asking me for years to make chocolate chip cookies w/o the chips! I told him the recipe wouldn’t work – that it would have to be changed! THANK YOU for figuring it out! These were delightful – I did add pecans to half the batter! And that worked as well!
You are so right. I was going off her chocolate chip browned butter recipe and omitted chips and they weren’t as good as this recipe. This one rocks with no chips.
Would this recipe still work if you let the dough sit in the fridge for a day or so?
Absolutely! The flavor should be even more developed, with lots more butterscotch nuttiness from the brown butter.
I love love love these!!!
My cookies did not flatten and they just baked as round balls which I didn’t want. And they looked more like sugar cookies than chocolate chip cookies (darkness and smoothness)
Hmm, that’s not supposed to happen! If you’d like to troubleshoot what went wrong, feel free to reach out. 🙂
I didn’t have vanilla but am pregnant and was desperate to try these cookies. I figured worst case my husband gets sent to the store for either vanilla or premade cookies lol! I ended up adding an extra 1/4 cup brown sugar to help make up for that missing vanilla taste and omg these are amazing. You can’t even tell I didn’t use vanilla! I could cry tears of joy they are so good. Definitely a new favorite. Thanks for the fantastic recipe from baby and me ?
I have not liked chocolate chips since I was young. I am always on a hunt for chocolate chip cookies w/o the chips. People always ask do you mean a sugar cookie, no. I like the flavor of the chocolate chip cookie dough but not the chips. A friend made them with walnut or a bit of oatmeal for texting.
I hope this is the chip-less chocolate chip cookie recipe you’ve been looking for!
I also make brown butter for my chocolate chip cookies, Domino makes a maple flavored pourable sugar. Try that instead of brown sugar, Be aware it is lighter per cup so yu may have to add a bit more. I always make my chocolate chipless cookies with chopped toasted nuts, either pecans walnuts or macadamia nuts. Also great with dried cherries added as well
Is the recipe 1 whole egg and an additional egg white? Maybe be a silly question.
May be*
Just made these and love them! I love how light they are. Not overly buttery. Thank you for the recipe!
I made these last night and they were a hit! Didn’t even last 24 hours. My boys loved them. ?
This literally my first “from scratch” recipe EVER! and they came out amazingly perfect and they taste exactly how I wanted them to!
Thank you for sharing this!
Yay! Thanks for the feedback Jonathon, so happy to hear you enjoyed these cookies!
When made correctly, best cookies EVER!! I have converted many a chocolate chip lover ??
This cookies are a family favourite. I make them all the time 🙂
Hi! This is my all time favorite cookie recipe. I make them all the time back in the states, i recently moved abroad and forgot to bring my cup measures with me :/. So I have been using the metric system, dL and mL. The first time I made them they came out super flat I think the proportions were off since I had to translate cups to dL and France doesnt really sell brown sugar like in the states so i used all white sugar, still tasted good though. I was wondering if could transfer the recipe to mL and dL for me? I know it is a big ask, and no worries if you cant! Thank you! Love love love your recipes!
Hi Kelsey! I’m so happy to hear you love these cookies too, they’re also one of my faves! I include weight measurements in grams precisely so my international friends can make my recipes too. Since ml is a volume measurement (just like cups) and won’t change for different ingredients, it is just a simple math equation. Google is always a good help making the conversion. And I’m afraid I don’t even know what dL is, sorry! Best of luck! 🙂
It worked!!!! OMG you have no clue how long I’ve been searching for a recipe which will work for me, of course I changed some ingredients as to what usually works and doesn’t work for me, so many failures taught me so many things which I’ve been able to include when working with your recipe, excuse the terrible ENG it’s my third language. thank you so much!!!!!! it was delicious !!!.
I have been looking for a good base recipe that will work with different types of chips, nuts, etc. I really loved these cookies. I’m just wondering if you change the recipe at all when you add chocolate chips?
Nope, I make no changes when I add mixins. I’ve add chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit, coconut, etc. to this recipe plenty of time. Aim for about max 1 1/2 total mixins. 🙂
My daughter made these and put cranberries in them. They were amazing!!!
I made these and they were the bomb!?
I made these and they were the bomb!?
Hello , I love this recipe, at first I was skeptical because I wanted to use an electric mixer so I did and it came out perfectly. Plus the brown butter was really easy to do it which I loved. This recipe is something that is going to be book marked because of how good and easy it is to do. Definitely 5 out of 5 stars
Best cookies ever. At first I was skeptical about the mixing. So instead I just used an electric mixer and it came out perfectly. These cookies are very easy to do and they taste so good at the end trust me. The brown butter smelled so good and at took me 8 minutes to do it. This recipe is great and definitely a 5 out of 5 stars in my book. So try out the recipe and you won’t regret it.
I made these, and they didnt flatten out. I’ve tried 3 times and it never works. So sorry but I’ll give it a 2,star
I was extremely happy to see that these cookies did not flat out, which is a problem I have been having lately! The dough was a bit sticky, which was more than likely user error. The main problem I had with these cookies was that they were not as flavorful as I had hoped for. Probably because I am so used to chocolate chips (but did not feel like going to the store to get some!), but a few other family members enjoyed the cookies. I will probably not make these cookies again, but they were worth a try and the recipe was very easy to follow!
Big hit in our house tonight! I needed a recipe because I was out of chocolate chips-they were delicious, and the salt on top-loved it! Thanks for sharing!!
Finally someone understands me!! Everyone always thought I was so crazy. I always told my mom when I was younger that I wanted chocolate chip cookies without the chocolate chips. I’m not a huge chocolate lover. I have to be craving it to enjoy. Can’t wait to try this out.
Your cookies were so good I at least make them once a month
Oh my goodness, I love this recipe! I didn’t have any chocolate chips on hand so I needed something else. Everything came out perfect and that flavor that comes from the browned butter is gorgeous! Thank you for this recipe!
Really nice and soft I had it with ice cream when I first took it out the oven. I accidentally used baking. powder instead of soda but they still turned out delicious!
Have you ever made a reverse choc chipless cookie? You do the recipe you provided and let them cool to room temp . Melt semi-sweet choc chips in double boiler and dip the cooled down cookies in them half way. Put the dipped cookies on a cooling pan insert and stick them in freezer for 1/2 hour. They are really good. You get half no choc and then half dipped in choc, but still without the whole chips in them. I’m making these tonight your way, because I have no choc. These even make a good fall cookie by sprinkling chopped pecan pieces on the cookie after dipping them in the chocolate. Or you could fill a bowl with the pecan pieces and then dip the choc half inserted in nuts then place on the cookie sheet to cool in fridge/freezer. I’ll let you know what I think! Thank you for recipe!
It’s amazing really I loved it. Thank you.
Not a choclate fan so this is the perfect cookie…sometimes I add caramel chips and pecans or butterscotch chips and walnuts..so good
My dog appreciates this recipe. He normally only got tiny pieces of the cookies I ate due to trying to limit the amount of chocolate he would have. But now he can have his own. Haha.
I love this recipe. Ive made it 28 times, never failed 🙂 Definetly my go to cookie recipe. Made it for holidays too, they ran out in an hour. Thanks for sharing 🙂
I have always wanted to make a chocolate chipless cookie. So, when I came across this recipe I knew I’d have to make it. It was DIVINE!
Great! Me and my mom would love to make these cookies :3
Great! Im making a suprise for my mommy, and i cant believe i made it myself 😮
It was very easy, and ty for the no need of mixer! Bc i dont know how to use it lol
and lol i needed some help from my dad to get the cooker ready
Turned out amazingly good and they tasted amazing!
Love this cookie recipe! It’s a household fave.
The cookies can be a little fluffy if you’re not careful w/the baking powder. We love making them when a sweet tooth hits.
These are amazing. I cant stop making them!
I followed the instructions to a T. Dough came out dry and crumbly. I’m not a beginner baker, so I don’t know what happened. Very disappointed.
Hi Jamie, I’m sorry to hear these cookies didn’t turn out. Without knowing exactly how you prepared these cookies, one option for what went wrong could be how you measured the flour. Here is how I measure flour for all of my recipes.
it was GOOD!!!!!
ello i didn’t try it but i wish i could because it looks so freaking good. good on you annalise
hiya i tried it and it was sooo freaking good! good on you annalise, ill definitely be trying this again!
It was actually good but if you like hard and crunchy cookies this is not the recipe for you!
gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood
This undoubtedly is one of the best Cookies I have ever tried…Delicious it is….love it.
This is excellent! This look´s nice. I can wait to try it.
Nice recipe and clear instructions 👍
I’m going to try it out today ,hope it works 🤞😊
I’m going to try it out right now
Hope I have successful results
Fingers crossed 🤞🤞🙂
I did it
It worked
My friends and family all loved it
delicious and they didn’t expect that from me
So thank you for your recipe and instructions
Continue making more
Soooo delicious and and easy to prepare. I was concerned that the cookie would spread and flatten like a pancake since no chilling is required but they came out perfect. The brown butter is perfection in this recipe.
I pre-scooped and froze the remaining cookie batter. I hope they turn out just as good.
How many calories are they
Approximate nutritional info is found at the bottom of each recipe card.
Meow
Awesome recipe Annalise! What inspired you or encouraged you to make chip-less cookies?
These are amazing!!! Just didn’t have any chocolate chips, nor oatmeal (bc I WAS going to make no bake cookies to start) so i needed to find something since id promised my toddler we were making cookies! So glad i found this recipe. They came out absolutely perfect! Thank you so much for your recipe!
Can I exchange normal flour for almond flour if so how much per cup? Making these for a friend.
It was amazing but was it meant to be like shortbread???
nice
This recipe came out HORRIBLE. I ignored others comments because I thought they probably did something wrong but they came out cake like and didn’t spread! I even used a tad bit less baking soda and flour. Worst recipe ever not sweet enough and not worth the time. If you wanted like a Mexican bread cookie this is it.
Hi Regina! I have literally made these cookies a hundred times or more, and I can assure this is a solid recipe. I’d love to help troubleshoot went wrong if you’d like to give another try. Email me at completelydelicious@gmail.com anytime. I’m sorry the first try was such a bust! Wishing you all the best.
Yass queen
ehhh they are ok
I’m giving this recipe 5 stars even though I haven’t even made it yet. ( I know it’s gonna be so good :). ) I do have a question, though. Can you skip on the salt if you use salted butter or it it a must to use unsalted butter and add salt later? I’m asking this because it’s quite difficult for me to look for unsalted butter sometimes when EVERY butter tastes like it’s salted. Pl
Definitally not as gooey as I was hoping for. But the nuttyness of the butter is so delisious!!!
For a gooey-er cookie, try underbaking by a minute or two. 🙂 Glad you enjoyed them!
I made them and they are sooo tasty. We ate the whole batch in one day. They are really nice and soft. Also I love that you dont need any special ingredients, they are made of things I usualy have at home.
Really delicious. My go to recipe. This time, I didn’t have enough flour (1/4 cup short) so I ground up some oatmeal to make up for the missing flour. Turned out really nice.
So I was reading thr recipe and it says 1 egg and 1 yolk so do u mean 1 egg and half or just one whole egg separated? Also mines came out cakey followed the recipe as stated and instructions.
1 whole large egg + 1 large egg yolk (white removed). I hope that makes sense!
Unfortunately these didn’t work for me. They stayed in the shape of small golf balls and were hard and really not tasty. I followed the exact recipe but they taste of flour 🙁 looked really good though in the photos
Hi Christina! I’m so sorry this recipe didn’t work out for you. How do you measure flour? I’m guessing that could be the issue. Flour should be spooned and leveled or else you’re likely adding way more than the recipe requires. Learn how to measure flour here, and I’ll add a note in the recipe to help others out too.
I didn’t have quite enough butter (just 1 stick) so I think that’s why mine didn’t spread much, but they were definitely delicious especially with the brown butter! They’re nicely balanced and not too sweet. It seems like a good base for a flavor like cardamom or orange blossom, I might add that next time!
I made these cookies following the recipe exactly. They turned out delicious! They were more cake like than crispy, but that didn’t take away from the flavor! I bet I could have left them in for a minute or two more to crisp them up. The brown butter is what makes these special. Thanks for sharing!