These chocolate chipless cookies are made with the same soft, chewy, buttery cookie dough base as chocolate chip cookies simply without the chocolate! So whether you’re a purist, not a fan of chocolate, or simply ran out of chocolate chips, these soft and chewy chipless chocolate chip cookies are for you!

Chocolate Chip-less Cookies AKA Chocolate Chip Cookies without the Chocolate

I know what you’re thinking, “a chocolate chip cookie without chocolate?! Are you out of your mind?” And, while I firmly believe that chocolate is always a good idea, these chocolate chip-less cookies are every bit of tasty as your classic chocolate chip cookie. These super soft and chewy cookies are made with the exact same batter as my famous chocolate chip cookies, but simply are made without the chocolate. So whether you’re just out of chocolate, but really love those cookies or if you are seeking a chocolate free treat, these chocolate chip-less cookies are for you. They’re basically a browned butter brown sugar cookie and I have to say…they’re pretty damn amazing.

Ingredients for chip-less chocolate chip cookies

You’ll need all the usual suspects for chocolate chip cookies, to make these bad boys–minus the chocolate, obviously. The good news is that all the ingredients are basic pantry staples you probably already have on hand. Here’s your shopping list:

• Unsalted Butter: Using unsalted butter means that you can fully control the amount of salt going into your cookies and also ensures that it browns evenly. You’ll brown the butter for a nutty, toasty deep flavor as the base for your cookies!
• Sugar: Chocolate chip cookies (even chipless ones) should always be made with a mixture of brown and white sugar
• Eggs: Eggs will bind your cookies together. A single egg and one egg yolk will gives these cookies their soft, chewy, not too cakey texture.
• Vanilla Extract: Do NOT leave out the vanilla.
• Flour: All purpose flour is our flour of choice for these chewy cookies. It creates a tender but hearty crumb. Make sure when you are measuring your flour you measure it carefully using a spoon to aerate the flour. We recommend adding the first cup in and then adding the remaining 3/4 cup a little at a time. Browned butter evaporates as it browns, meaning that the amount of butter can vary depending on how long you browned it for which can lead to less liquid in your cookie dough. See the directions for more guidance on this!
• Salt: Baked goods NEED salt. Without it they’re just cloyingly sweet. Salt adds that perfectly nuanced salty-sweet flavor that pushes a baked good from good to great.

How to make brown butter:

If you haven’t had brown butter yet, you MUST try it. Browning your butter gives it an amazing complexity that enhances so many recipes.

1. Start by melting your butter over medium heat in a small sauce pan.
2. Whisk the butter constantly as it melts to ensure it’s evenly heated. As it melts the butter will start to foam. This is the sweet point between boiling the butter (NOT what you want) and not hot enough.
3. Keep a close eye on the butter. Like DO NOT WALK AWAY. As it transitions from it’s usual yellow color to a deeper golden hue and at last to a beautiful light brown. You’ll know it’s done by the smell: a toasted, nutty,  intoxicating scent. It can very quickly go from this light brown to burnt, so make sure you take it off the heat as soon as it makes the turn.
4. Take it off the heat and transfer to a bowl to allow it to cool before using in your recipe.

Tips for the best chewy chocolate chip-less cookies

As far as baking goes, cookies are one of the more straightforward sweets to make, but a few tips and tricks never hurt anyone. To ensure super soft, chewy on the edges, gooey in the middle cookies every time follow these tricks!

1. Don’t overmix the dough: Over mixing leads to more gluten developing in your dough which can lead to a tough or dry cookie. Only mix the batter until the flour is just incorporated and no streaks remain!
2. Go heavy on the vanilla: Since you won’t be adding chocolate to these cookies, you need to really lean into the brown sugar, vanilla, brown butter flavor instead. Make sure you’re using pure vanilla extract (not artificial) and it’s okay to heavy a pretty heavy hand with it. You should be able to smell the vanilla in your dough!
3. Underbake them slightly: A cookie that comes out of the oven fully done will cool to being overdone. When you take a baked good out of the oven it will continue to cook as it cools down, so be sure to take your cookies out when they’re still a little gooey in the middle to ensure they still say soft and chewy.

Happy baking, my friends!

XXX