Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Possibly the most flavorful chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever tasted. The combination of the nutty brown butter, the rich sweetness of the dark brown sugar, and the caramel-y toffee is INSANELY good.
Texture: These cookies are big, thick, chewy, ooey, and gooey. Seriously perfect.
Ease: More involved than your standard chocolate chip cookie recipe. There’s the browning of the butter and letting the dough chill for at least 24 hours.
Pros: Fantastic chocolate chip cookies that your family and friends will adore.
Cons: A little extra work involved, but I promise it’s completely worthwhile.
Would I make this again? Oh yes. I always keep a steady supply of these cookies in my freezer!
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
These Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies are about to be the BEST cookies you’ve ever tried.
This Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe has gone completely viral. It’s been featured on Good Morning America, and TikTok videos of people making this recipe have gotten millions of views.
I originally published this recipe in 2014 but just had to update it with recipe improvements and new photos. These cookies deserved it!
What Makes Cookies Chewy, Crisp, or Cakey?
My free guide reveals the ingredients and tweaks that matter.
In fact, my recipe photographer Ashley, who shot all 50 recipes in my cookie cookbook, said this may just be my BEST COOKIE RECIPE yet. People have been known to fight over these cookies. Yes, they’re that good.
This Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe is kind of a mouthful to say. But when you actually have a mouthful of one of these cookies, I think you’re going to love me.
These are one of the most flavorful chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever tasted, and the texture is absolutely perfect. You NEED to try this recipe. If your friends and family are anything like mine, they plead and beg you to make it again and again.
Yes, this recipe is a little extra work. But the best things in life usually are.
You may even want to make a double batch so you have plenty of dough to freeze when the craving hits. Trust me… it WILL hit!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
How to Brown Butter:
- Use a stainless steel sauté pan for best results.
- Nonstick prevents the butter from browning completely and prevents you from being able to visually see how browned it’s getting. Same with the dark color of cast iron.
- Something with a wider surface area, like a sauté pan over a saucepan, encourages browning more quickly.
- Don’t step away from butter that’s browning after it’s melted. It can go from browned to burnt quickly.
- At the same time, don’t be afraid of letting that color develop. It should become a rich and fragrant amber.
- Scrape all the brown bits into the mixing bowl – that’s where the flavor lives!
- I highly recommend using unsalted butter – learn why here.
- Learn all my tips and tricks for browning butter in my How to Brown Butter article here.
Do I Really Need to Use Bread Flour?
You don’t absolutely have to use bread flour, but it adds a ton of chewy texture to these Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies that’s worth the extra trip to the store. If you don’t have bread flour, then use a total of 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour in the recipe. Make sure to weigh your flour accurately. If you add too much flour, your cookies may end up dry, dense, or crumbly cookies that barely spread.
Granulated Sugar + Dark Brown Sugar
- To make these Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies extra delicious, we’re using a combination of granulated white sugar and dark brown sugar.
- This combination brings sweetness, a fantastic texture, and a butterscotch flavor that’s so rich and delicious.
- The extra molasses in the dark brown sugar draws in more moisture, making the cookies thicker, softer, and chewier.
- You can use light brown sugar instead, but you may lose some of the additional flavor.
- Whatever you do, don’t lower the sugar in this recipe. Sugar does SO much more than simply sweetening your baked goods. Learn more about sugar’s role in baking here.
Eggs + an Extra Yolk
Eggs are essential to forming a beautifully pliable dough and cookies that stay soft for days – and we’re adding an extra yolk for extra richness and added chewiness. Eggs should be at room temperature when beginning your dough, but separate the one yolk from its white while cold for best results (yolks are more fragile and tend to break more easily when warmer).
Why is There Espresso Powder in This Cookie Recipe?
I really like the way the bitter espresso plays off the sweetness of the toffee and the nuttiness of the browned butter. It’s totally optional, so if you don’t have it or don’t want to use it, feel free to simply omit it.
What Kind of Chocolate for Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies?
I like to use semi-sweet Ghirardelli baking bars and chop them up coarsely for these Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies. Feel free to use chocolate chips, but note that you won’t have the same delicious marbled result you get from chopping your own chocolate.
Where to Find Toffee Bits?
You can find Heath brand toffee chips at many grocery stores, typically located with chocolate chips in the baking aisle. If you can’t find them, I have a super easy recipe to DIY Homemade Toffee Bits which I used for these cookies here. It takes just 15 minutes and they taste SO much better than store-bought!
Do I Really Have to Chill the Cookie Dough?
I know, it’s annoying, but I promise you it’s SO worth it, especially for this recipe which uses melted browned butter. Both the taste and texture of the cookie improve during this time. Think of it as a marinating time where everything just gets better and better!! Freezing does not work the same as chilling, so there are no shortcuts here. Learn more about chilling cookie dough in this article here.
Can I Make Smaller Cookies?
Yes, though I much prefer the crisp edges, chewy texture, and soft center 3-tablespoon-sized Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies. If you want to bake smaller cookies, scoop into 1 1/2 tablespoon-sized balls and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
Portioning the Cookie Dough Before vs. After Chilling
- I recommend following the directions in the recipe for chilling the dough in one big mass, and then portioning the dough, because it prevents the dough from drying out while chilling.
- However, if you’re finding it too challenging to scoop the Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookie dough at this point, feel free to scoop before chilling.
- There’s a bit more risk that your dough will dry out in the fridge this way, so just to be safe, store the cookie dough balls in an airtight container or good quality ziptop bag, to prevent them from drying out.
- Then simply bake the pre-portioned Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies straight from the fridge after the 24-72 hour chill time!
Can I Freeze This Cookie Dough?
Yes! Freeze the portioned Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookie dough balls after letting the dough marinate in the fridge for at least 24 hours. Place dough balls on a baking sheet and freeze until solid. Remove frozen balls of dough to an airtight container and store for up to 6 weeks. Click here for my full guide on how to freeze and bake frozen dough.
Tessa’s Favorite Tools for This Recipe:
- Large 3-tablespoon size cookie scoop for that bakery-style texture
- Or use a medium 1.5-tablespoon size cookie scoop and bake only for about 10-12 minutes instead
- Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Baker’s Half Sheet won our side-by-side comparison of the best baking pans
- 12″x16″ non-stick parchment paper for the best bake and easiest cleanup!
- The Ultimate Cookie Handbook: Your Guide to Baking Perfect Cookies Every Time by Tessa Arias (me!)
More Recipes You’ll Love:
- Toffee Brownies
- Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Brown Butter Dulce de Leche Cookie Cups
- Peanut Butter Toffee Chocolate Chunk Bars
- Bourbon Rye Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Visit my full Cookie Recipes index for more recipes, tips, and insights into the science of cookie baking!
Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
Email This Recipe
Enter your email, and we’ll send it to your inbox.
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (227 grams) unsalted butter
- 1/2 (100 grams) cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup (200 grams) lightly packed dark brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups (190 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (127 grams) bread flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder, optional
- 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 10 ounces (283 grams) semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 cup
homemade toffee bits , or Heath brand - Flaky sea salt, for finishing
Instructions
- In a medium stainless steel sauté pan set over medium heat, melt the butter. Swirling the pan occasionally, continue to cook the butter. It should become foamy with audible cracking and popping noises. Once the crackling becomes quieter, continue to swirl the pan or stir until the butter develops a nutty aroma and brown bits start to form at the bottom. Once the bits are amber in color, remove from heat and pour into a mixing bowl. Be sure to keep the brown bits at the bottom of the pan as well, they hold so much flavor!
- Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar to the hot butter, stirring to combine. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and espresso powder.
- To the cooled butter mixture, whisk in the eggs, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Gradually stir in the flour mixture with a rubber spatula. Stir in the chocolate chunks and toffee bits. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours but no more than 72 hours.
- Let dough sit at room temperature just until it is soft enough to scoop, about 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Divide the dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls using a large cookie scoop and drop onto prepared baking sheets. Dough may be slightly challenging to scoop.
- At this point, you can portion the dough, place it on a baking sheet, and freeze just until solid. Remove frozen balls of dough to an airtight container and store for up to 6 weeks.
- Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and sprinkle flaky sea salt on top of the cookies, if desired. Let cookies cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
The Ultimate Cookie Handbook
Learn the sweet SCIENCE of cookie baking in a fun, visual way to customize your own recipes frustration-free. Plus, my best 50+ homemade cookies!
This post was originally published in 2014 and updated with recipe improvements, more tips, and new photos. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
I love this recipe and have made it 4-5 times now and its always a massive hit. Unfortunately, i can no longer use the website as its borderline unusable with the amount of ads that are causing my page to refresh. Have tried it on my desktop, MacBook, iPad, and iphone with all of the same results.
Have copied it over to my own note pad and will continue to make, but just some constructive feedback regarding the website since i won’t be returning for other recipes. Thanks for this one, and best of luck moving forward!
Hi Arik! I’m so happy you love this recipe, but I’m sorry to hear you’re experiencing so many ads! This is something we’re currently working to improve! There should be a small “x” to close some of the ads. If this happens again, please take a screenshot of what you’re seeing and email me at [email protected] so I can share it with our tech team. In the meantime, if you click on the print icon for any of our recipes, it will open a new window and “reformat” the recipe without ads. I hope that helps!
Have you tried Reader View? It usually takes away the ads. The other trick if you just want to access the recipe without all the other stuff, you go to the print option and it will put it in a new window.
Next level! Followed recipe exactly and they turn out perfect, beautiful and delicious. I weighed out 2-1/2 oz balls and they baked up large and amazing.Perfect for gift giving and thank you gift.
Thank you so sharing your amazing recipes! I need to buy your cookbook.
Hi Laura!! So excited to hear that you loved these cookies!! (they’re one of my personal favorites, too!!). Andddd since you mentioned it, here’s the link to buy Tessa’s Ultimate Cookie Handbook!! You’re going to love it! 🙂
Hi! I absolutely love these cookies but I have a couple questions!
Do I need a candy thermometer to make the toffee? Mine seemed to be a little grainy but still delicious!
Have you made a plant based/vegan version? Is it possible?
Thank you so much!!
Hi Karleigh! A candy thermometer is not totally necessary, but definitely recommended, just so you know for certain that your mixture is at the right temperature points throughout. If your toffee was a little grainy, it could be due to the sugar not getting hot enough to fully melt – or it could even be that it got too hot, and separated ever so slightly before cooling. I’m glad it was still delicious, nonetheless! I hope you try it again – and be sure to read all of Tessa’s tips in the pink box above the recipe, so you can watch out for the exact stages and sensory indicators you’re looking for!
Unfortunately, we don’t test plant-based/vegan versions of our recipes, so I can’t say for sure if that would work. My guess would honestly be that it would not work – but you can always give it a try and experiment for yourself! 🙂
hi!! i dont have toffee, can it be substituted with chocolate chips?
Hi Angie! Yes, you can replace the toffee bits with chocolate chips! Just replace with the same weight. You will lose some of the delicious butterscotchy flavor these incredible cookies have, though! You can alternatively try making your own toffee bits! It’s super simple! Tessa describes everything you need to know, plus the recipe, in this post here! Happy baking 🙂
These cookies were insanely good. I am an experienced baker and these were the best cookies I have ever made! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Hooray!! So excited to hear you loved these cookies, Megan!! 🙂
I have to say, for all this effort and time and ingredients, these cookies are just a touch too mediocre for it to be worthwhile. They are delicious, don’t get me wrong, but they don’t beat a regular throw-together and bake cookie. Instead you have to wait 24 hours, almost dislocate your shoulder while scooping the dough out of the bowl and bake them in a seemingly endless amount of batches because the spreading is almost absurd. Won’t be making these again.
Hi Bela! I’m sorry to hear these cookies didn’t turn out as you had hoped! They definitely shouldn’t spread a whole lot in the oven. Here at Handle the Heat, we advise you chill pretty much all cookie doughs overnight or up to 72 hours to maximize the flavor – but before you portion out the cookies, you can let them sit for an hour or so, to warm up a little before scooping. That way, no one dislocates their shoulder scooping the dough!
Just a few things that could have gone wrong and made your cookies spread so much. Are weighing your ingredients? Weighing vs. measuring by volume can have a huge impact on your baked goods. Tessa talks about how to measure ingredients properly in this article here. Another issue could be your leavening agents may not be fresh. If your baking powder or soda are not fresh, this can impact the cookie’s ability to rise, and result in cookie puddles. Tessa talks about how to test for leavener freshness in this article here!
Lastly, just for your own future knowledge, I want to mention what to do if cookies spread too much, or bake into strange shapes! Tessa has a great hack for solving this issue! Using a round cookie or biscuit cutter that’s slightly larger than the size of your cookies, swirl the cookie cutter in circles around the cookie edges a few times. Make sure you do this straight out of the oven (before they have a chance to set up). This makes the cookies perfectly round, and helps them set up nicely when they have spread too much! Here’s a link to the reel on our Instagram, where we shared this fun cookie hack a few months ago 🙂
I hope some of this proves helpful to you, and if you still experience issues, feel free to reach out to our team and we can continue to troubleshoot with you! Happy baking 🙂
Wow, these cookies exceeded my expectations! Excellent!
Yay! So thrilled to hear that you enjoyed these cookies, Claude!!
I tried so hard to make these and redid things over and over again. The toffee but recipe just did not work. I did it to an exact T and it just wouldn’t solidify and it stayed soft so I left it out of the recipe.
As for the cookies again, i followed everything to an exact T and my cookies while cooking did not get flat they stayed into small little balls..
What could i be doing wrong?
Taste was otherwise a nice chocolate chip cookie.
Hi Jacqueline! Oh no, I’m so sorry to hear things didn’t go to plan with these cookies! What type of butter did you use for the toffee? If you are not in the US or used a European butter, that could be the reason for having issues. This toffee won’t set if the butter you use has a very high fat content. We advise using 80% butterfat butter for this reason. It could also have been that you didn’t get your toffee mixture quite hot enough while cooking. Toffee won’t set to a hard crack if it doesn’t reach the right temperature.
As for the cookies, do you weigh out your ingredients, or measure by volume? It’s so easy to over-measure ingredients if using cups, rather than a digital scale for measuring, and flour could be a big reason why your cookies didn’t spread at all. Another reason the cookies went awry could be your leavener is not fresh. Tessa talks bout this, and how to test for freshness, in this article! Please let me know if you would like to troubleshoot further, as I’m always happy to help! 🙂
Hi,
Im from the UK and just wondering what the actually difference is between European and American butter in terms of fat? I’m looking online but all seem to be saying different things. Could you please advise so then after I could search to see if I can find American butter around me.
Thank you!
Hi Al! I can’t say for sure what the butter in the UK is like, but the butter here in the US is around 80% butterfat. If you’re looking at making something like the homemade toffee bits used in these cookies, you will want to search your supermarkets for something with around 80% butterfat. If all your available butter is more like European butter and closer to 82-86% butterfat, you may not have success with the toffee (it can separate and not set correctly with that higher fat content). Making other American recipes should mostly be successful, but they may just take a little experimenting! Good luck and happy baking 🙂
Can I double this recipe so I can cook some and freeze some?
Absolutely, Virginia! Your bowl might get a bit too full if you just double the recipe all at once, but if your bowl is big enough, go for it!! Just be sure to follow Tessa’s tips (in the pink box above the recipe!) for “marinating” the dough! You want to be sure to let the cookies sit in the fridge for 24-72 hours before freezing them, to allow the flavours to fully develop, as well as preventing them from spreading too much. Happy baking 🙂
I just made this recipe, following all the directions and weights carefully. It smells wonderful, but the dough seems greasy. Is that to be expected because of the melted butter?
Hi Gisele! If your cookie dough isn’t well chilled, it will be very soft. The “greasy” feeling you mention should only be noticeable before the cookies are thoroughly chilled and baked. We recommend chilling this dough for at least 24 hours (and up to 72), before baking. This allows the cookies to fully set and firm up, and also allows the delicious flavours to fully develop! I promise, it’s worth the wait! Please let me know if you have any other questions or wish to troubleshoot any further 🙂
Thanks for such a quick response! I came back to report that the dough turned into really fabulous cookies!
Hi Gisele! Woohoo! I’m so happy they turned out well and you enjoyed them!! Thank you for coming back to let me know! Happy baking 🙂
Omg!! So delicious! I shared them with my office workers and friends and they absolutely loved them! What a hit!
Hi Andrew! So thrilled to hear you (and your lucky coworkers and friends!) loved this recipe! It’s honestly one of my very favourites, too 🙂 Happy baking!