Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

These brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookies are a crowd pleasing dessert, perfect for holiday baking or special occasions. 

These Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies with Sea Salt sound like a decadent cookie you’d get at a fancy bakery.   And, they taste like it too!

There are a few tricks that make this recipe really unique:

• The first is browned butter in the place of regular butter, giving the cookies a richer flavor.
• The second is toffee, which melts into delicious caramelized sugar bits
• Third is resting the dough 36-48 hours. Similar to this Jacques Torres’ cookie recipe, this allows the flavors to meld together and that is what gives it that bakery look and flavor.

They’re not as easy as oatmeal raisin cookies or double chocolate cookies, but if you’re wondering if these are worth it, yes, they totally are! This is a perfect cookie recipe for the holidays or special occasions such as birthdays, office parties, or bake sales.  And, while it sounds complicated it’s not actually that hard to get your own bakery style brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookie that will totally wow.  

INGREDIENTS

• Brown Butter: using brown butter in place of regular butter gives the cookies a really rich flavor.   This involves cooking the butter until the fat and milk solids in butter, separate and the milk solids start to brown creating a delicious, nutty flavor. 
• Toffee: This recipe makes its own toffee using butter and brown sugar. It really melts well with the brown butter and chocolate. You can easy use pre-made toffee like Skor or Heath
• Espresso Powder: this adds a delicious depth of flavor to these cookies without adding any actual coffee flavor. You can also substitute instant coffee. 
• Sea Salt:– Adding flakey sea salt really rounds out these delicious cookies 
• High Quality Dark Chocolate: using a good quality makes a big difference in this recipe. I recommend dark chocolate but you can use your favorite chocolate bar. 

How to Make

step 1: make toffee

Melt sugar and butter: Add 6 tbsp butter and 3/4 cup brown sugar to a large saucepan or skillet, and and cook/stir over medium heat until it reached 290 ℉.

Let Toffee Harden: Immediately pour onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and freeze, refrigerate, or let sit out until it hardens. Once it is hardened, add to a large ziplock bad and bang with a rolling pin to break it into smaller pieces.

Sep 2: brown butter

Melt Butter: If desired, cut the unsalted butter into 1 inch pieces for even melting. Then add the butter to a light colored saucepan.  Heat over medium heat until the butter has melted.

Allow butter to foam:  Once the butter has melted, it will go through a “foaming” stage, where it will foam up. This is totally normal.  While it’s foaming,  gently swirl the pan to ensure even heating.

Continue Cooking: As the butter continues to heat, it will transition from foaming to a clear liquid and then begin to develop a golden hue and the milk solids will start to separate.

At this point, turn down the heat to medium low and continue cooking until the milk solids are a nice brown color and there is a distinct nutty aroma.    The whole process can take less than 10 minutes, so watch the brown butter very carefully as it is easy to go from perfectly brown to burned.

Add Ice: Once the butter has browned, immediately remove from heat. Let cool a minute or two, and then add in the ice and stir until it has dissolved. Let the butter cool completely before making the cookie dough.

Step 3: Make Cookie Dough

Whisk Flour/Salt/Baking Soda: In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set Aside.

Mix Sugars and Butter: Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and espresso powder in a large bowl. Then, mix in the cooled brown butter until completely combined.

Add Egg/Vanilla: Mix in the eggs and vanilla.

Add Flour: Mix in the prepared flour mixture and mix until just combined. Try not to over mix.

Add Chocolate and Toffee: Using a spatula, gently mix in the toffee pieces and chocolate chunks.

Step 4: Rest cookie Dough

Pre-scoop Dough: Once the dough is mixed, place 1/4 cup (about 4 tbsp) balls of dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment. You don’t have to worry how far apart they are as we are chilling the cookie dough, not baking it. An ice cream scoop works great for this. You can also do 2 tbsp balls of dough for smaller cookies.

Cover and Chill: Cover the baking sheet with plastic cling wrap, leaving a tiny bit open at the corner so the cookies can dry out a bit. Chill in the refrigerator for 38-42 hours.

Step 5: Bake

Add to a Cookie Sheet: Add 4 balls of cookie dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, keeping them at least 3-4 inches apart. These are large cookies that spread a lot!

Bake: Bake in a 325 ℉ preheated oven for 18-20 minutes for large cookies and 12-14 minutes for 2 tbsp sized cookies. If desired, use the cookie cutter hack to get perfectly round cookies when they come out of the oven. Then, let cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes until the cookies firm up, then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling. Once cool, enjoy!

Make it even easier!

Don’t want to make toffee? Buy it! You can use store bought toffee in place of making it. You’ll want 6-7 ounces toffee in place of the homemade recipe. You can also omit the toffee altogether and replace with more chocolate.

tips and tricks

• Measure out the flour using the spoon and swipe method of spooning the flour into the measure cups and swiping the excess off the top with a knife. If you dip the measuring cup directly into the flour, it can pack down and you will add too much flour to the recipe.
• Make sure the brown butter has cooled down before adding to the sugar. If it’s too warm it can start to cook the sugar making the final cookies grainy. 
• I used a ¼ cup ice cream scoop for each cookie, which makes a big bakery style cookie. You can make regular sized cookies using 2 tbsp of dough.

FAQ

Storing

These brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookies will keep for 4-5 days in an airtight container in the fridge or at room temperature.

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Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

These brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookies are a crowd pleasing dessert, perfect for holiday baking or special occasions. This recipe calls for resting the cookie dough for two days and sprinkling the baked cookies with sea salt, elevating these delicious cookies to something you’d find in a high end bakery!

4.86 from 7 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 45 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Resting Time: 2 days days

Total Time: 2 days days 1 hour hour 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 16 Cookies

Calories: 438kcal

Author: Sophia Assunta

Equipment

• cooking thermometer
• parchment paper or a silicone baking mat
• Spatula

INGREDIENTS

Toffee

• ▢ 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ▢ ¾ cup light brown sugar lightly packed
• ▢ 1 tsp kosher salt
• ▢ water as needed

Cookie Dough

• ▢ 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into 1 inch pieces
• ▢ 3-4 ice cubes 1.5-2 oz
• ▢ 1 tsp kosher salt
• ▢ ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ▢ 1 ½ cups light brown sugar packed
• ▢ 2 tsp espresso powder
• ▢ 2 tsp kosher salt
• ▢ 2 large eggs room temperature
• ▢ ½ tsp baking soda
• ▢ 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ▢ 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (213 g) weighed or spooned and leveled
• ▢ 6 oz high quality chocolate chopped
• ▢ flaky sea salt for sprinkling (optional)

Instructions

Toffee

• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Set aside.
• In a medium saucepan melt the unsalted butter, light brown sugar, and salt over medium heat. Stir until the butter has fully incorporated into the sugar.
• Stirring constantly, continue cooking the toffee mixture until it reaches 280-290℉ on a candy thermometer. If the mixture starts to separate and get oily, add a few teaspoons of water and remix very fast until it comes back together. It should take about 10-15 minutes to reach 290 degrees.
• Once the toffee reaches the desired temperature, immediately remove from heat and pour onto the prepared baking sheet.
• Let cool for about 10 minutes at room temperature. Once it’s cooled down slightly, place the entire baking sheet in the refrigerator or freezer while you prepare the cookie dough. You can make the toffee up to an hour or two in advance.
• Once hard, break into smaller pieces by placing the toffee in a ziplock bag and smash with a rolling pin.

Brown Butter

• Cut the 2 sticks of butter into 1 inch pieces. In a medium saucepan melt the butter over medium heat.
• The butter will bubble up at first. But, keep slowly stirring and after about 5 minutes the bubbles will lessen and you will start to see the milk solids at the bottom of the pan start to brown.
• Continue cooking until the butter has a nutty smell and the majority milk solids are a dark amber brown color. Watch carefully, and be careful not to burn the brown butter. You do not want it black.
• Once the butter has browned, immediately remove from heat. Add one ice cube. The mixture will bubble up a lot, so slowing stir it in and let the ice cube melt.
• Add the remaining ice cubes and stir until melted.
• Continue to let the brown butter cool while you mix up the remaining ingredients.

Cookie Dough

• If you haven’t done so already, chop the chocolate bars and set aside.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, mix the granulated sugar, brown sugar, and espresso powder.
• Pour the cooled brown butter into the granulated sugar mixture and mix with a whisk or spatula until completely combined.
• Add in the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.
• Add the prepared flour mixture. Using a spatula, mix until there is no visible flour in the mixture, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to incorporate everything.
• Add the toffee and the chopped chocolate to the cookie dough and thoroughly mix using a spatula.
• Place a piece or parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
• Once it’s mixed you can use a ¼ measuring cup or an ice cream scoop to measure out balls of dough onto the prepared cookie sheet. At this point, since we’re only resting the cookie dough, you can place them close together on the pan.
• If the dough is still warm and spreads out when you try to form balls of dough, you can put the whole bowl in the fridge or freezer for 20 minutes to cool it down. This should help make it easier to form the cookies.
• Cover the tray with plastic wrap, leaving a small corner uncovered to allow the cookies to dry out a bit.
• Place the cookie tray in the fridge for 36-48 hours.
• When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325℉.
• Line multiple baking trays with parchment paper or silicone mats.
• Place 4 to 5 cookies on the cookie sheet keeping them at least 3-4 inches apart from each other. These are big cookies that spread a lot!
• Bake 18-20 minutes for larger cookies or 12-15 minutes for regular sized cookies.
• Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle with sea salt (optional).
• Let cool for for 10-15 minutes on the baking tray until firm. Move to a cooling rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!

Notes

• This recipe makes about 16 extra large cookies or 2-3 dozen regular sized cookies.
• These cookies will keep for 4-5 days in an airtight container in the fridge or at room temperature.
• Don’t want to make toffee? Buy it! You can use store bought toffee in place of making it. You’ll want 6-7 ounces toffee in place of the homemade recipe.  You can also omit the toffee altogether and replace with more chocolate.
• Make sure the brown butter has cooled down before adding to the sugar. If it’s too warm it can start to cook the sugar making the final cookies grainy. 
• This recipe is adapted from this video. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1Cookie | Calories: 438kcal | Carbohydrates: 60g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Cholesterol: 63mg | Sodium: 642mg | Potassium: 153mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 42g | Vitamin A: 520IU | Calcium: 44mg | Iron: 2.5mg

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