These Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies have a rich, toffee flavor, ultra chewy texture, and are packed with toffee bits and melty butterscotch chips!
Just when you thought chocolate chip cookies couldn’t get better, we added brown butter, toffee bits, and butterscotch chips. I’m telling you, you’ll never go back to the classic. 😉
What is brown butter?
Brown butter is “regular” butter that has been melted and cooked on the stove until the milk solids in the butter have “toasted”. The toasted milk solids provide the melted butter with an amazingly rich, nutty, caramel-y flavor.
The extra step takes just a couple of minutes and adds so much flavor depth, richness, and sweetness that make any recipe (sweet or savory) stand out.
Ingredients
The MVP’s of today’s recipe? Brown butter, toffee bits, butterscotch chips, and maldon sea salt!
- Unsalted Butter – cooked until melted and browned to give the cookies a fuller, richer flavor. See above for what is brown butter? Melted butter creates an extra chewy cookie.
- Brown Sugar and Granulated Sugar – both add sweetness. Granulated sugar promotes a nice browning while the molasses content in brown sugar makes the cookies chewy and moist.
- Eggs – helps the cookies hold their shape and also provide fat and additional moisture to keep the cookies tender.
- Vanilla Extract – adds flavor depth and a touch of sweetness. Pure vanilla extract or imitation vanilla may be used based on what you have on hand. In a recipe like today’s cookies, you won’t be able to tell if you’re using pure or imitation. The stronger flavors of brown butter and butterscotch chips will mask any differences.
- All-Purpose Flour – the most commonly used flour because of its mild flavor and versatility. Flour gives the cookies structure and depending on its ratio to the other ingredients, will make the cookies chewy, fluffy, cake-y, crisp, or crumbly. Today’s ratio of ingredients makes a chewy cookie.
- Instant Pudding Mix – made primarily with cornstarch and sugar. Instant pudding adds an additional sweet, vanilla flavor and keeps the cookies tender. Use a vanilla instant pudding mix or use butterscotch flavored for extra butteriness!
- Salt – a must for any sweet treat! Salt enhances other flavors in the cookies while also balancing out the sweetness from the sugars and butterscotch chips.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda – our leavening agents. The combination of the two gives the best “lift” to the cookies while maintaining a pleasant flavor. Too much baking powder and you’ll end up with a bitter cookies.
- Mix-ins – toffee bits, butterscotch chips, and chocolate chips. The toffee bits add a nice crunch, the butterscotch chips enhance the rich, sweet, caramel-y flavors of the brown butter, and the chocolate chips help cut through the sweetness of the other mix-ins.
- Maldon Sea Salt – for topping, if desired. Maldon sea salt provides a polished finish and a great salty crunch to contrast the sweet flavors of the cookie.
How to make
This one-bowl cookie recipe comes together so easily — even with the extra browning butter step!
- Melt butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. Once melted, cook, whisking regularly, until brown bits start to form and the butter is foaming.
- Carefully pour the butter into a large bowl, let cool for about 10 minutes, then add in brown sugar and granulated sugar. Beat until combined.
- Scrape down the sides, beat in eggs and vanilla, then add in flour, instant pudding, salt, baking powder, baking soda. Beat again until fully incorporated.
- Mix in toffee bits, butterscotch chips, and chocolate chips.
- Use a large cookie scoop to portion the dough out into 32 dough balls. Place on 4 baking sheets lined with silicone mats. Optional: chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Bake at 350ºF for 10-15 minutes, then cool, serve, and enjoy!
Do you have to chill the dough?
No. Chilling the dough is optional. However, if you have the time, I do recommend doing so.
Chilling the dough gives the butter a chance to re-solidify in the cookies which helps them hold their shape as they bake. It also gives the flavors time to really meld together. This makes your final product thicker and tastier!
Why are my brown butter chocolate chip cookies dry?
There are a couple of reasons as to why your brown butter chocolate chip cookies came out dry:
- Over-browned butter. Stop cooking the butter as soon as brown bits form and it starts to foam. If you cook it too long you will lose some of that essential moisture and the cookies may be dry.
- Too much flour. Measure the flour by spooning it into a measuring cup then leveling it off with a knife. If you scoop it with the measuring cup, it may get too packed in and you’ll end up with more flour than you need.
How to store
Leftover cookies will last in an airtight container at room temperature for 1 week, in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer for 3 months.
To enjoy again, serve at room temp, from the fridge, or warm in the microwave if frozen.
– Jennifer
Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment for this recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- ¾ cups brown sugar packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour spoon and leveled
- 1 (3.4 oz) box instant pudding mix I’d suggest vanilla or butterscotch
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cups toffee bits
- ¾ cups butterscotch chips
- 1 ½ cups chocolate chips use semi-sweet, dark, and/or milk chocolate chips
- Maldon sea salt optional for topping
Instructions
- Melt butter in a sauté pan over medium heat.
- Once melted, cook, whisking very regularly, until brown bits start to form and the butter is foaming, about 1-5 minutes.
- Carefully pour into a large bowl and let cool slightly, about 10 minutes.
- Add in brown sugar and sugar and beat until combined.
- Scrape down the sides, then beat in eggs and vanilla.
- Add in flour, instant pudding, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and beat again, until incorporated.
- Beat in toffee bits, butterscotch chips, and chocolate chips.
- Line 4 baking sheets with silicone baking mats.
- Use a large cookie scoop to scoop out 32 dough balls — place 8 onto each prepared baking sheet.
- Optional - chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. This helps prevent the dough from spreading.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F then bake for 10-15 minutes.
- Remove from oven and optional - sprinkle with maldon sea salt.
- Cool slightly before transferring to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling.
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Nutrition Information
*Note: Nutrition information is estimated and varies based on products used.