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Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Possibly the most flavorful chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever tasted.
Texture: Big, thick, chewy, slightly gooey, with perfectly sticky bits of toffee.
Ease: This is a higher effort recipe. Perfect for a weekend bake or special occasion, or when you truly need to impress.
Why you’ll love this recipe: I’ve been told by hundreds of people this recipe has ruined all other chocolate chip cookies for them…
These Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies are about to be the BEST cookies you’ve ever tried.
This 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!
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.
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!
Seriously THE BEST cookie I’ve ever made!! The homemade toffee chips are a game changer!
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.
Ingredients Notes
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 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
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.
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).
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.
Chocolate
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.
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.
Portioning the Cookie Dough Before vs. After Chilling
- Refrigerate the dough as a whole if you don’t have space in your fridge for scoops. Let the dough come completely to room temperature before scooping, which may take a couple hours.
- Refrigerate pre-scooped dough if you’ve got the space, and can commit to keeping the scoops well sealed in an airtight container so they won’t dry out.
- Simply bake the pre-portioned scoops straight from the fridge after the 24-72 hour chill time!
Freezing Instructions
Freeze the portioned 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.
To bake from frozen, drop the temperature to 325°F and add about 3 minutes to the baking time. Click here for my full guide on how to freeze and bake frozen dough.
FAQs
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.
No! I’ve taken the water loss that naturally occurs from browning butter into account when I designed this recipe.
Yes. The cookie will spread out too much if baked immediately after mixing the dough. I’ve gotten away with chilling for as little as 2 hours when I’ve been impatient. But longer chilling times really will improve the flavor and texture. You can always bake a few off the day you make the dough, and bake off the rest later!
You can, but you’ll be losing some of that magical chewy texture. If using all AP-flour, use 2 cups (254g) total.
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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!
- Note: You do NOT need to measure the butter after browning, I've engineered this recipe to account for the average water loss.
- 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 4 hours, preferably 24 hours, but no more than 72 hours. You can chill the scooped dough so long as it's well sealed to avoid drying out. If you chill the entire mass of dough, let it come to room temperature so it's soft enough to scoop.
- 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 the oven and immediately use a round cookie or biscuit cutter slightly larger than each cookie to gently reshape them into perfectly round, thicker cookies.
- 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.
More Recipes You’ll Love:
- Toffee Brownies
- Hot Cocoa Cookies
- Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Brown Butter Dulce de Leche Cookie Cups
- Peanut Butter Toffee Chocolate Chunk Bars
- Bourbon Rye Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Visit my full Cookie Recipes index for more recipes, tips, and insights into the science of cookie baking!
This post was originally published in 2014 and updated with recipe improvements, more tips, and new photos. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
These cookies are INCREDIBLE!!! The salty to sweet and chocolate ratios are just perfect!! I’m wondering if the dough is scooped into balls before the 24hr chill period, will I need to adjust the baking time if I’m going to be pulling the cookies straight from refrigerator and then baking?
Not sure if this answers your question, but I chill the dough for about 20 min then scoop into balls, place in a pan tightly covered and bake them 24-48 hrs later, straight from the refrigerator. The 12-14 min baking time is accurate for me straight from the refrigerator.
So happy you love the cookies, Julia! No need to adjust the baking time if the dough is scooped into balls ahead of time 🙂
Wonderful cookies with a few recipe tweaks!! Very popular amongst my colleagues.
My main changes were:
1. Reduced the toffee chips to between 1/2 – 3/4 cup. I read another comment about the toffee pieces sticking to their teeth and I wanted to limit that. I really think 1 cup would be too much
2. Added a little over 1/4 cup more flour. Note, I went the route of using all AP flour, but when I mixed the dough with the original proportions (2 1/2 cups AP flour), it was very sticky and greasy. The extra flour helped bring the dough together and the cookies were not overly cakey – they were perfect
Hey! Not sure what went wrong. Followed the recipe but ended up with these. Any tips?
Note: I want to add that every cookie recipe I’ve tried ends up looking like this. Whenever I bake ANYTHING THAT ISN’T A COOKIE, it turns out great, but my cookies always come out awful (which is a shame because my favorite treat in the whole world is a chocolate chip cookie, and I can never make them!)
Do you need to wait 24 hours in the fridge before cooking them?
Hi Lyss! Yes, because this recipe uses melted butter, the chill time is highly recommended. It improves both the taste and texture of the cookies, and helps them not spread so much in the oven. If you absolutely can’t wait to try them out (totally get it!), chill them for at least an hour, and be sure to follow the instructions in step #9 for reshaping the cookies after you pull them from the oven.
Hi! Love your recipes! Can I ask, why does this recipe have 300g of total sugar and the other brown butter chocolate chip cookies 350g? All the other ingredients are the same except for the Toffee.
Not assuming anything because I didn’t write the recipe, but I would guess it would be because the toffee would make the cookie sweeter, so there would be no need to add more sugar, and omitting some of the sugar wouldn’t make a huge difference in the texture of the cookie and things like that, maybe having something to do with the toffee too.
I made these yesterday before going out to dinner,,,and my family had eaten them all by the time I got back! I just prepped more dough today because I decided I want to gift them to people for Christmas! I am adding crushed walnuts this time! (Hoping that was a good decision) So yummy!
Don’t add crushed walnuts…
Hi, I froze my cookie dough balls for two days after having them in the fridge for one day. How long do I have to let them thaw and what temperature do I bake them at?
I’ve made this recipe countless of times, just never froze them!
Hi Nasro! You can actually bake them directly from frozen! You’ll just need to reduce the bake temp to 330°F and add a couple of minutes to the bake time. Tessa actually wrote an article on how to freeze cookie dough & bake from frozen here 🙂 Hope that helps!
Hi, I’m the notes that if using all-purpose flour instead of bread flour to use 2 and 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour but in the recipe it states 1 and 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour. Is this incorrect? Should it be 1 and 1/2 cups of bread flour?
Hi Chloe! The recipe is written to use both flours: 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus 1 cup bread flour. If you’re using only all-purpose flour, you need to replace the bread flour as well. That’s why the notes say to use a total of 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour. If you only used 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, the dough would be very sticky and the cookies would spread a lot. Hope that clears it up!
Would this recipe work well if I used light brown sugar?
When I use cookie recipes where I cook the butter I always add some milk or cream back into the dough because you lose water when the butter is browned. Should we add some cream in your recipe?
No need! This recipe was developed with the loss of that water in mind 🙂
I didn’t realize I used gluten-free bread flour until I was done mixing everything. The cookie dough is very gummy. Have I ruined my cookies? 🙁
We’ve never tried using GF bread flour, so I can’t say for sure! How did they turn out?
I made them gluten free and they turned out very well! They’re slightly crispier so I would recommend slightly reducing the bake time, but otherwise they are delicious!
I am curious if any changes should be made for high altitude? Also, what about using European butter in these? It’s typically all we buy, and I got stuck with it for the toffee recipe which says American preferred (it still turned out great!)
Lastly, how far apart should they be!? Mine appear to have been much too close together
Great questions! Neither Tessa nor I bake at high altitude, so we can’t say for sure if adjustments are needed. If you’re experienced with high-altitude baking, you may already have small tweaks you normally make, but we don’t have specific recommendations for this recipe. European-style butter should be fine to use here. You may notice a slightly richer flavor or subtle texture difference, but it shouldn’t negatively impact the recipe. I’m glad to hear it worked well for you in the toffee, too!
As for spacing: on a standard half-sheet pan, I place six dough balls total, about 3 inches apart — two in a row, then one centered, then two in a row, then one centered (a staggered pattern). If you’re using a smaller sheet pan, like the one Tessa uses in the video below the recipe, she places five. Hope that helps!