About These Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
These brown butter and toffee chocolate chip cookies are the chocolate chip cookies you know and love, but LEVELED UP!
First, the chocolate chip cookies are made with brown butter. The brown butter gives the cookies a rich, caramelized butter flavor distinct from regular butter. And instead of just plain old chocolate chips, the recipe uses chocolate fèves (bean-shaped wafers made out of fancy chocolate). The chocolate fèves melt into puddles throughout the cookie, layering every bite with chocolate. Finally, don’t forget the chopped-up toffee candy bars—they add extra flavor and crunch to the cookies!
Why You Should Make The Recipe
This brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookie recipe is internet famous.
Several years ago, Bon Appetit magazine hosted a contest soliciting their readers for their best recipes to feature in their magazine. One of the winning recipes was this brown butter and toffee chocolate chip cookie recipe from Kate Davis at Rage Bake. Her chocolate chip cookie recipe became the most popular recipe on their Instagram account and website in 2017.
This brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookie recipe is flexible and easy to customize with different types of chocolate.
Kate’s original recipe instructs readers to make the chocolate chip cookies with dark chocolate—in her blog post, she specifically recommends dark chocolate chunks. On the other hand, Rick Andrew Martinez of Bon Appetit advises folks to use very dark chocolate (at least 72% cacao) wafers (discs, or fèves like mine), describing his variation as the very best cookie ever. I rebelled against both and made them with MILK chocolate. Guess what? It was still delicious. It’s a testament to how good the cookie dough base is.
Ingredients and Substitutions
Now that I’ve convinced you to make these brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookies, let’s talk about some of its key ingredients any potential substitutions:
- All-Purpose Flour. You can use a 1-1 gluten free all purpose flour replacer to make the recipe gluten free. I like Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour or King Arthur Flour Gluten Free All Purpose Flour.
- Kosher Salt. Kosher salt is the best salt for baking recipes. But you can replace the kosher salt in the recipe with table salt. Just use half the amount listed in the recipe when you do!
- Brown Sugar. Brown sugar is available in two varieties: light or dark. Dark brown sugar is my personal preference; because it contains more molasses, I find it to be more flavorful.
- Milk Chocolate. Check out my article on The Best Chocolate For Baking Chocolate Chip Cookies to see my recommendations and favorite brands of baking chocolate!
- Skor Toffee Chocolate Candy Bars. Truth be told, I avoided making this recipe for a long time because I had no idea where to find Skor chocolate bars. But it turns out that Skor bars are available in most major grocery stores, pharmacies, and convenience stores in the country. Check the candy bar/impulse buy section of your local grocery store checkout. I guarantee that’s where you’ll find them! You can also buy them online on Amazon, but they’re more expensive and usually only come in bulk.
If you can’t find SKOR bars, you can substitute with Heath bars or Trader Joe’s Toffee Chips. But really—any hard butter toffee candy will do.
Recipe Troubleshooting and FAQ
Can I brown the butter in advance?
Yes! Brown butter can be made up to 1 week in advance of the cookie recipe itself. Follow the recipe’s instructions for browning the butter. Once cooled, pour into an airtight container, seal, and refrigerate for up to 1 week. When ready to bake the cookies, carefully rewarm the brown butter either in the microwave or in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until melted once again. However, don’t overdo it and brown the butter more! Just cook at a gentle heat to ensure that the butter doesn’t get warm enough to bubble or splatter.
Do I really need to chill the cookie dough before baking?
Between you and me, no, not really. I’ve made these cookies without chilling them first. However, chilling cookie dough typically results in better-tasting cookies. I mentioned this earlier, but the chilling time allows the flour (and sugar) to absorb more flavors from the other ingredients in the dough. For these chocolate chip cookies, this means deeper, subtle flavors of toffee, butter, and caramel.
That being said, you may need to chill the dough anyway if you used brown butter that was still too hot. You’ll be able to tell if the dough seems too liquidy and loose compared to traditional cookie dough. Chilling will help bring the dough together.
Help! My cookies came out super puffy and never flattened like yours in the pictures. What did I do wrong?
Check out my troubleshooting guide on How To Fix Puffy Cookies (And Other Cookie Baking Fails)!
Help! My cookies came out TOO flat and spread out a lot LOT. What did I do wrong?
I mentioned this earlier, but your cookies will come out flat if you used brown butter that was still too warm/hot from being browned. Chilling the cookies for at least 30 minutes—or more, even!—will help prevent the cookies from overspreading.
Best Recipe Tips
- I like to bake the cookies one pan at a time. I find that doing so makes the best cookies, ensuring that none of them have overly burnt bottoms or raw centers. However, to save time, you can bake two sheet pans at a time. Position a rack in the upper-third position of the oven, and a second one in the lower-third position of the oven. Bake a pan on each rack, swapping their positions half way through the Bake Time.
- It’s better to pull the cookies out of the oven early than leave them in too long—if you over bake the cookies, they’ll be too crunchy. They might appear underbaked, but I promise that when they’ve cooled, they will be perfect.
Video Tutorial
Use the video player below to watch my Instagram Story tutorial on how to make this brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookies recipe! The arrows to the left and right of the frame allow you to skip through the different recipe steps. You can also hit the “pause” or “enlarge” buttons on the upper right hand side of the frame to pause or enlarge the frames accordingly.
Alternatively, head to my Instagram profile to watch these Stories on mobile! The circles underneath my bio indicate saved Instagram Story highlights depicting various recipes. Clicking on one of the circles will play the videos you see above. You may need to scroll right to find this brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookies recipe.
Get the Recipe: Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
For the Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 1 cup (8 ounces or 227 grams) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 2 cups (9 ounces or 255 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup tightly packed (7.5 ounces or 213 grams) dark OR light brown sugar
- ⅓ cup (2.35 ounces or 67 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 8.5 ounces (or 240 grams) milk chocolate fèves
- 2 (1.5-ounce) Skor toffee chocolate candy bars, chopped into ¼- to ½-inch chunks
- flaky salt, for garnish
Instructions
For the Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
- First, brown the butter. In a light-colored saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat, swirling the pan occasionally, until it starts to foam. Use a heatproof rubber spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the pan occasionally to prevent the milk solids in the butter from burning. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the butter smells nutty and is amber with dark flecks at the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat and immediately pour the brown butter into a liquid measuring cup. Set it on a wire rack to cool while you prep the other ingredients.
- Make the dough. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugars.
- Pour the brown butter over the sugars in the mixer bowl and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the bottom and sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as necessary. Reduce the mixer to low and add the eggs and vanilla and beat until just combined. With the mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients and beat until just combined. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl once more, and beat on low for an additional 30 seconds. Increase the mixer to medium-low, add the chocolates all at once, and beat until the chocolate is evenly distributed throughout, about 1 minute.
- Chill the dough. Line a quarter sheet pan with parchment paper. Use a 4-tablespoon cookie dough scoop to portion the cookie dough into balls, placing the cookie dough balls on the prepared pan as you go. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Prep your oven and pans. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375°F. Line two half sheet pans with parchment paper. Place the chilled cookies at least 3 inches apart on the prepared sheet pans.
- Bake the cookies. Bake one pan at a time for 10 minutes, or until the edges have set but the centers are still gooey. Cool the cookies on the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes, or until the edges and bottoms of the cookies have set and feel firm to the touch. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough (or freeze it to bake later).
- Serve and store. Serve warm or at room temperature. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container or zip-top bag at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Notes
Can you freeze the UNBAKED cookie dough?
Yes! Follow the recipe instructions to make the cookie dough and scoop them out into cookie dough balls. Place the cookie dough balls in a small sheet pan. Loosely cover the pan with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 1 hour, or until the cookie dough balls are frozen solid. Transfer the cookie dough balls to a zip-top bag and freeze for up to 1 year. To bake the frozen cookie dough balls, follow the recipe’s instructions for preheating the oven and arranging the cookie dough balls on a sheet pan. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the edges have set but the centers are still gooey. Adapted from Kate Davis of RageBakeThis post was last updated 9/15/2020.
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Weeknight Baking:
Recipes to Fit your Schedule
Over the past several years of running Hummingbird High, I kept a crucial aspect of my life hidden from my readers: I had a full-time, extremely demanding job in the tech world. In my debut cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I finally reveal the secrets to baking delicious desserts on a tight schedule.
Thankfully I made these to mail to my son for his birthday because I think I would eat one or more….everyday! The brown butter with the toffee (my favorite) and the chocolate (I used large dark chocolate chips) made these a superior cookie! I hide a few in the freezer for myself .. lol. Great recipe. Thank You!
Mine turned out very greasy from the butter and not enough flour. Probably won’t make again
I think I didn’t cool my brown butter enough before I mixed it into the dough but refrigerating it for half an hour helped it come together perfectly. The crispy edges and chewy centre were so good, everyone loved these cookies!
The video says to bake at 350, but the written recipe says 375. Which is the preferred temperature? Thanks!
Oh sorry about that, 375 per the written recipe. Thanks!
Can we have a Jump To The Recipe option. It’s a lot of scrolling to get to it
Hi Melissa,
There’s a Jump to the Recipe button up top! It’s just a little hidden. It’s to the left of the main photo when you first arrive at the recipe; you can also use the links under the description of the recipe to navigate to specific sections of the blog post.
Hope that helps!
My go to cookie recipe! Make these a lot to bring to events and they are always a hit. Great recipe!
If I made the cookies smaller say at 2 tbsp a cookie would I have to reduce the cook time?
I would check them maybe 1 minute earlier!
Amazing recipe! Works great with gluten free flour too (I use the King Arthur measure for measure). I always keep it on hand in the freezer
Delicious! I love a toffee cookie and I love this recipe! I will definitely make these again!