These chewy brown butter white chocolate pistachio cookies are a sweet and salty dream! Nutty browned butter, salty crushed pistachios, and creamy white chocolate all come together for the perfect bite. Let’s bake!

How to Brown Butter

The first step in making these white chocolate pistachio cookies is to brown the butter! This gives the cookies some more depth and an additional nutty boost—once you go browned butter, it’s hard to go back.

Let’s break down the steps:

Cut your butter into tablespoon-sized chunks and place in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat.
As it melts, gently stir with a spatula so the butter melts evenly.
Once the butter is fully melted and begins to bubble, you’ll want to continually (but gently) stir the butter to keep it moving.
It will start to bubble & foam, then quite down and turn clear, then begin to brown (about 5-7 minutes total).
Once it reaches an amber color, remove your saucepan from the heat and pour the butter into a heatproof bowl to cool down.

Make sure to scrape out all of the little toasty bits of butter too! You’ll want every last bit of brown buttery goodness to make its way into those cookies.

Brown Butter Tips

The trick is to gently stir the butter the whole time (not vigorously or you’ll incorporate too much air). You want to keep the butter moving so it doesn’t burn. Every stovetop is different! So while I may brown mine at medium-high heat and it takes about 5 minutes, some may brown their butter at medium heat and it can take closer to 10 minutes.

Watch the butter at the end and take it off before it turns TOO dark! It’ll continue to brown a little after you take it off the heat (especially if you’re not pouring it immediately into a heatproof bowl to stop the browning).

White Chocolate Chips vs. Bars

Yes—there’s a difference and yes, there’s a reason I’m having you use chips and not bars for this recipe! White chocolate bars contain cocoa butter. White chocolate chips do not (or at least contain less) and also contain added stabilizers to help them maintain their structure during the bake. Bars tend to melt quicker and spread more, which is great for certain cookie recipes where you want those puddles of chocolate!

For these white chocolate pistachio cookies, however, there’s already a lot of what we can call, “spread potential” with the browned butter. Adding chopped white chocolate from a bar would not give you the same end result here, which is why I’m asking you to use chips. More melting would mean more spreading and I want you to get that creamy bite from the chips!

I hope that clears things up! The same thing can generally be said for milk and dark chocolate, though slightly different rules do apply. Check out these articles from Cook’s Illustrated and Taste of Home for more in-depth breakdowns!

Materials You’ll Need:

Medium sauce pan
Medium-sized heatproof bowl
Separate medium-sized mixing bowl for dry ingredients
Measuring cups & spoons (see these adjustable spoons)
Whisk
Spatula
Cookie Scoop (can just use a tablespoon also)
Large baking sheet(s)
Parchment paper
Cooling rack

Tag me over on Instagram @joshisbaking if you make these brown butter white chocolate pistachio cookies! I would love to see how they turned out! Be sure to come back and drop a review and comment below to—it really helps me out.

Happy baking, friends!

Brown Butter White Chocolate Pistachio Cookies

Author: joshisbaking
Prep Time: 30 Min. + 1 Hr. 15 Min. Chill Time
Cook Time: 15-30 Min.
Total Time: ~2 Hrs. 15 Min.
Yield: 16–18 cookies 1x

Print Recipe

Description

These chewy cookies are a sweet and salty dream with nutty browned butter, crushed pistachios, and creamy white chocolate chips!

Ingredients

Scale

3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks, 174g)
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed (170g)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (58g)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5g)
2 large eggs (100g)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (200g)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (~3g)
1/2 teaspoon salt (3g)
1 cup white chocolate chips (160g)
1 cup shelled pistachios (142g), coarsely chopped (mine were pre-roasted & salted)

Instructions

Browning the Butter

Cut your butter into tablespoon-sized chunks and place in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat. As it melts, gently stir with a spatula so the butter melts evenly. Once the butter is fully melted and begins to bubble, you’ll want to continually (but gently) stir the butter to keep it moving. It will start to bubble & foam, then quite down and turn clear, then begin to brown (about 5-7 minutes total). Once it reaches an amber color, remove your saucepan from the heat and pour into a medium-sized, heatproof bowl to cool down for about 5 minutes before using. Make sure to scrape out all of the little toasty bits of butter too!

Making the Cookies

Add both of your sugars and vanilla extract to the bowl with your browned butter. Whisk until fully combined. Then add both of your eggs and whisk until fully incorporated.
In a separate bowl, whisk together your flour, baking soda, and salt. Then pour your wet ingredients in with the dry and whisk until just combined (until no streaks of flour remain). Then fold in your white chocolate chips and pistachios with a spatula until evenly distributed.
Cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Prep a large baking sheet or two with parchment paper.
After the 1 hour, take your dough out of the fridge. Scoop out 2-2 1/2 tablespoon-sized scoops of dough, roll each into balls with your hands, and place them onto your prepared baking sheets (place no more than 8 per sheet as they will spread quite a bit during the bake). Place them back into the fridge for 15 minutes while you preheat the oven to 350°F.
After 15 minutes, take your sheet(s) out of the fridge and bake at 350°F on the middle rack for 12-15 minutes (edges have browned, middles are set). Remove from the oven and let cool on the sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a separate rack to cool completely. Repeat until all of your dough is used up! Enjoy!

Notes

Cookies will keep for up to 2 weeks stored at room temperature in an airtight container (if they last that long, let’s be real).
If you wanted to bake two trays of cookies at once, position your racks in the upper and lower thirds of your oven and make sure to rotate your trays halfway through the bake time to ensure an even bake. You’ll want to switch the pans from top to bottom AND rotate each 180°.
Brown Butter Tips: The trick is to gently stir the butter the whole time (not vigorously or you’ll incorporate too much air). You want to keep the butter moving so it doesn’t burn. Every stovetop is different! So while I may brown mine at medium-high heat and it takes about 5 minutes, some may brown their butter at medium heat and it can take closer to 10 minutes. Watch the butter at the end and take it off before it turns TOO dark! It’ll continue to brown a little after you take it off the heat (especially if you’re not pouring it immediately into a heatproof bowl to stop the browning.