Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

brown butter chocolate chip cookies on cooling rack.

4.63 from 8 votes

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!

Prep Time45

Cook Time20

Resting Time2

Total Time2 1 5

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 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.

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