These are the cookies that I make when friends/family come over. They’re company worthy, and extremely delicious – simply no one can resist them, and they make people feel special and at-home. These are the best brown butter chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made
Want more incredible cookie recipes? Check out:
The Best Peanut Butter Cookies
How to get chocolate puddle/pools on top of your cookies?
First things first, there aren’t actually any chocolate chips in this recipe! I’m using chopped dark chocolate bars. I also love feves like these, or chocolate wafers.
Ahhhh, the oh so instagram-worthy, photogenic puddles of chocolate that we all long for (sigh). They’re not that hard to get, I promise!
The oddly shaped and uneven chopped bars of real chocolate create these beautiful layers of chocolate throughout the cookie. In addition, I love to place a few pieces of chocolate right on top of the cookie dough balls. When they bake, the chocolate slowly melts into gorgeous puddles and pools of chocolate.
From there, I highly recommend sprinkling each cookie with a bit of flakey sea salt. My favorite brand is Maldon for the gorgeous angular flakes of salt.
Ingredients
Flour – I recommend using unbleached all purpose flour for these Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. I don’t recommend using bread flour, cake flour, or pastry flour here.
Eggs – For the most consistent results, use AA large organic eggs here. Organic eggs are usually richer, as you can see by the color of their vibrant yellow yolks.
Butter – unsalted butter is the way to go here! The recipe calls for kosher salt, and I like to control the amount of salt that goes into my cookies. In this Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, I’m asking you to brown your butter. That means to cook it in a pan over medium heat until the milk solids caramelize and turn brown. This adds so much depth of flavor and caramel toffee notes to your cookies.
Brown sugar – Brown sugar is basically granulated sugar with molasses added to it. I use dark brown sugar in this recipe because the caramel molasses notes go really well with the dark chocolate filling. Don’t use turbinado sugar or sugar in the raw, the result will be too crunchy.
Kosher salt – I always use Morton’s kosher salt. If you’re using diamond crystal, add an extra 1/4 teaspoon (1g).
Dark Chocolate – I like to use a 60-70% cacao great quality bar of chocolate here. I chop the chocolate roughly, so that there are different size pieces shingled throughout the cookies. Save a few of the bigger pieces to place on top of the cookie dough balls to create delicious chocolate puddles.
Toffee Bars – The toffee in these cookies takes them to the absolute next level. I go for chocolate covered toffee bars like SKOR or HEATH bars. Roughly chop them up, and fold them into the dough so that pieces stay large and delicious.
How to brown butter
Browning butter may seem intimidating but it’s very simple, and worth every extra minute of effort in the final product. You’re basically cooking the butter of medium heat for about 6-8 minutes.
First, it will bubble up, then it will start look foamy on top, and then you’ll see the browned milk solids poking through the middle. That’s when you know you’re done! Hot tip: don’t walk away from the stove, and don’t try to multitask. You don’t want to get distracted and burn your precious butter. Stay close by, and whisk the butter very regularly for about 6 minutes.
Then pour the browned butter out of the pan, into a heatproof bowl, to stop the cooking. Brown butter instantly makes EVERYTHING taste richer, with real depth of flavor but don’t take my word for it, try it for yourself!
Allow the brown butter to thoroughly cool before mixing up your cookie dough. A lot of times, I like to brown the butter the night before I bake the cookies to let it cool completely. This will make my cookie dough fluffier and ultimately makes the cookies puffier.
How to make the best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Start by browning your butter (see notes above). Once you let the butter cool completely, then begin mixing up your Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie dough.
I use a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment because I love the way the paddle evenly whips up the butter and sugar. I like the butter and sugars to get nice and fluffy before adding the eggs and vanilla.
Next, I add the dry ingredients slowly – the flour, baking soda, and kosher salt. Finally, I add in the chopped chocolate. Let the paddle attachment mix the chocolate chunks in until they are just combined. then remove the bowl from the mixer, and use a rubber spatula to ensure that the dough is thoroughly mixed, scraping down to the bottom of the bowl.
Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel, and let it rest at room temperature about 30 minutes to set up. If it’s really hot or humid in your kitchen, place the bowl of cookie dough into the fridge to firm up.
I like to use an ice cream scoop to portion out my cookies, this way they’re all the same size. If the dough seems too sticky and soft, scoop out the dough balls onto a plate, and place back in the fridge for another 20 minutes.
Bake the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet at 375 degrees F for 10-11 minutes. This might seem hotter than most cookies, but the higher temperature makes for a slightly crispy exterior, while the center stays soft.
PRO TIPS FOR COOKIE BAKING
- Cream your butter and sugars together for at least 3 minutes. Creaming butter and sugar together adds pockets of air that aerate the dough. This air puffs up these cookies as they bake, giving them a lighter and more appealing texture. The air is added by beating room-temperature butter with sugar on high speed.
- Don’t overmix the dough. Stop the mixer as soon as you see that the dry ingredients are incorporated. This will ensure that the cookies are light and tender. Over mixing cookie dough can develop the gluten in the flour, which results in a chewy/bready texture that we love in artisan bread, but not so much in cookies.
- chill the dough! I know it’s hard to be patient, because we all want cookies ASAP, but chilling the dough the flour a chance to absorb the wet ingredients, and helps the dough firm up. If you don’t chill the dough for at least 30 minutes, the cookies will spread out all over the baking sheet in the oven.
- Use a cookie scoop/ice cream scoop when portioning out the dough. This ensures that all of the cookies will be roughly the same size and will bake evenly.
- Space your Chocolate Chip Cookie dough balls about 2.5 inches apart on your baking sheet. The cookies will spread out slightly during baking, and you want to make sure that they don’t bake into one another.
- Last but not least, the trick to getting perfectly round cookies, is to use a large jam jar lid or round biscuit cutter to round-out and scooch the cookies into a nice circular shape right when they come out of the oven.
THE TOOLS I USE
- Stand Mixer – This KitchenAid stand mixer is such a work horse, and an absolute staple in my kitchen.
- Cookie/Ice Cream Scoop – I love this one because it’s so sturdy, and releases the drop cookies very cleanly
- parchment paper – can’t bake without it! I love this brand, because it gives me professional consistent results every time.
- Sharp Chef’s Knife – to chop chocolate like a pro, you need a great chef’s knife: my go-to knives for every single kitchen task are made by Nakano – handcrafted premium Japanese steel, lightweight, very sturdy, stays sharp for SO long – use code “LEANNE” for 15% off your order.
Store
The best way to store these Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Toffee is in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Another great way to enjoy these cookies for longer is to actually freeze the cookie dough balls. After you mix up the dough and let it rest, place the scooped dough balls on a plate and freeze. After they’re frozen, place them in an airtight ziptop bag, removing as much air as possible from the bag. Freeze for up to 2 months.
When you’re ready to bake them, place the dough balls on a parchment lined baking sheet, and let them thaw slightly while the oven preheats. Then bake, and enjoy!
I can’t wait to see all of your takes on these Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Toffee. Remember to tag me in your pictures so that I can see what you’re baking from the blog, @lions.bread
Want to save this recipe for later? Just tap the “P” on any of the images to save it to your favorite Pinterest Boards.
-LeAnne
Did you make this recipe? What did you think? Rate and comment below to let me know
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Toffee
The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie - crispy, chewy, decadent
Ingredients
- 16 tablespoons unsalted butter, I prefer grass-fed Kerrygold 1 cup, 226 grams
- 1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed 210 grams
- ¼ cup granulated sugar 50 g
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour 250 g
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, I use Morton's
- 2 toffee bars, roughly chopped 80 g
- 1 ⅓ cups chocolate wafers (feves, disks) around 70% cacao 200 g
Instructions
Start by browning the butter: place the butter in a small pan over medium heat, slowly melting the butter. Continue to cook the butter, whisking constantly until it begins to foam up. The milk solids will begin to brown, and the whole pan will smell nutty and caramel. This should take about 5-6 minutes. Pour the browned butter into a heat proof bowl, and set aside to cool. This step can even be done the day before, allowing the brown butter to cool completely is ideal.
Add the cooled brown butter, dark brown sugar, and granulated sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until the mixture is thoroughly combined, and slightly fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add the room temperature eggs, and pure vanilla extract to the mixing bowl, and beat for another 2-3 minutes until thoroughly incorporated.
Next, add the unbleached all purpose flour, baking soda, and kosher salt. Mix on low speed until barely combined. Remove the bowl from the mixer, as well as the paddle attachment. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold in the chopped toffee bits, and chocolate discs. Reserve about 1/4 cup of the chocolate for the tops of the cookies. This will create chocolate puddles on top of your cookies. Fold until there are no remaining streaks of flour, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel, and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375° F. Use an ice cream scoop to evenly scoop out cookie dough balls. Place about 9 cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 11-12 minutes. The cookies will be golden brown around the edges but the center will still be soft. Allow the cookies to set up on the baking sheet for 4-5 minutes, they'll continue to cook through! Place the cookies on a rack to cool.
The post The Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Toffee first appeared on Lion’s Bread blog.
Suzanne says
My new favorite cookie recipe!!! Not super sweet—-just perfect. Just for fun, I added a little Maldon flaked sea salt after moving the cookies to the cooling racks. Sooo good. Thanks so much for all of your posts and recipes. I’m a huge fan!!