Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: So full of flavor! Butterscotch, caramel, browned butter, chocolate – it’s a party in your mouth.
Texture: Ultra chewy with crispy edges and a gooey center. Like every chocolate chip cookie should be in my book!
Ease: A little more involved than your typical cookie recipe, but well worth the effort.
Pros: Possibly the most flavorful cookies ever.
Cons: The 24-hour chill period requires patience – but these babies are worth it, promise.
Would I make this again? Absolutely.
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
Butterscotch Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies are the most flavor-packed, chewy, gooey, salty-sweet sweet treats you’ll ever try!
I’ve taken every step to 10x the flavor of Chocolate Chip Cookies – so much that I think these are on a whole new level.
Jam-packed full of brown butter, gooey chocolate chips, and a decadent secret ingredient, these cookies are the perfect crowd-pleasing dessert for any occasion.
What Makes Cookies Chewy, Crisp, or Cakey?
My free guide reveals the ingredients and tweaks that matter.
I hope you give this recipe a try, and be sure to let me know what you think in the comments below!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Butterscotch Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
The Secret Ingredient
The secret ingredient to these Butterscotch Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies is Trader Joe’s Chocolate Covered Sea Salt Butterscotch Caramels. They are absolute perfection! I was first turned onto them by Gaby of What’s Gaby Cooking and have been in love ever since.
The complex salty-sweet flavor they add to an already flavorful cookie dough is beyond wonderful.
If you can’t get these specific candies, you can also use Rolo candies. If using Rolos, I recommend adding a sprinkling of flaked sea salt to the top of each cookie just after baking, so you can still enjoy that salty-sweet perfection.
The Brown Butter
Browning the butter adds so much rich, toasted, nutty flavor to these cookies. If you’ve never browned butter before, don’t worry – just follow the recipe instructions and don’t walk away from the pan. The butter can go from perfectly brown to burnt quickly.
Learn all my tips and tricks for browning butter in my How to Brown Butter article here.
Do I Have to Use Bread Flour?
Bread flour has a higher percentage of protein, which helps create a chewier texture in cookies. It’s definitely worth picking up a bag at the store if you don’t have any on hand. However, if you don’t have any, you can use only all-purpose flour – just note that your cookies won’t be as chewy.
How to Avoid Dry Cookies:
- Measure your flour correctly: Use a digital kitchen scale to ensure precision. When using measuring cups, it’s so easy to unintentionally compact ingredients (especially flour) and add too much. Too much flour creates tough, dry, or cakey cookies that don’t spread. If you don’t have a scale, use the spoon-and-level method.
- Do not reduce the sugar: Sugar does so much more than providing sweetness. It plays a big part in a cookie’s texture, among other things. Learn more about what sugar does in baking here.
- Avoid overbaking: Pull these cookies from the oven when they’re just set at the edges for perfectly soft cookies. Using a high-quality baking pan helps too – learn more about the best (and worst!) baking pans here.
Why is There an Extra Egg Yolk?
The additional egg yolk in this recipe adds chewiness and richness to the cookies, so I don’t recommend skipping this.
Do I Need to Chill the Dough?
The chill period is absolutely worth the wait, I promise. Chill the dough for a minimum of 24 hours or up to 72 hours. Think of this chilling period like marinating meats – all the flavors intensify! The flour also absorbs moisture from the dough during this time, so the texture of the cookies becomes thicker and chewier. Learn more about Why You Should Chill Your Cookie Dough here.
After the dough is chilled, just let it sit at room temperature until it’s warm enough to scoop. Alternatively, you can portion the dough into balls prior to the chill period – just be sure to keep them inside an airtight container, to prevent them from drying out in the fridge.
Can’t wait that long? Just bake off a few cookies right away, to satisfy the craving, and chill the rest of the dough for 24-72 hours. Plus, it’s a fun experiment to see the difference the chill period makes in your cookies!
How to Shape Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies
I typically find that large cookies achieve a much better texture than smaller cookies. I use my large 3-tablespoon cookie scoop to do this.
You can use a medium 1 1/2-tablespoon scoop instead if you prefer – just shave off about 3 minutes from the baking time.
Why Use a Cookie Scoop?
Using a stainless steel spring-loaded cookie scoop when portioning out cookie dough ensures uniform, evenly-shaped and evenly-baked cookies. My cookie scoop is one of my most frequently used kitchen gadgets – it saves you *so much time* in shaping cookie dough. Learn more about Cookie Scoops and how to use them here!
Can I Halve This Recipe? Can I Double This Recipe?
Yes! Simply divide all ingredients in half to yield about 12-13 large cookies, or double all ingredients to yield about 50 large cookies. No other modifications needed.
How to Make Butterscotch Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies Ahead of Time
You have three options for making these cookies ahead of time:
- The cookie dough can be stored inside an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- Once shaped, the balls of cookie dough can be placed on a parchment-lined baking tray in the freezer until solid. Transfer to an airtight container and store in the freezer for up to 2 months. Let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before baking as directed. Learn more about freezing cookie dough here.
- Store the baked cookies inside an airtight container for up to 3 days. Store with a tortilla to keep them soft longer!
More Recipes You’ll Love:
Butterscotch Browned Butter 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 1/2 cups (187 grams) all-purpose flour,
measured correctly - 1 cup (127 grams) bread flour, measured correctly
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups (300 grams) packed dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 cups (198 grams)
chocolate covered butterscotch caramels (or Rolo candies)* - 1 cup (170 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a small saucepan 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 stops, continue to swirl the pan until the butter develops a nutty aroma and brown bits start to form at the bottom. Once the bits are amber in color, about 2 to 3 minutes after the popping stops, remove from heat and pour into a mixing bowl. Stir in the granulated sugar and dark brown sugar. Allow to cool for about 20 minutes to room temperature.
- In a medium bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, bread flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- With an electric mixer, beat the cooled butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until well combined, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add the eggs, yolk, and vanilla, beating until combined. On low speed, gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips and butterscotch caramels. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours but no more than 72 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheets with nonstick baking mats or parchment paper.
- Let dough sit at room temperature just until it is soft enough to scoop. Using a large spring-loaded cookie scoop, divide the dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls and place on prepared baking sheets.**
- Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely. Serve or store in an airtight container for 3 days.
Recipe Notes
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 2016 and has been updated with additional baking tips and metric measurements.
Tessa – thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I followed your directions exactly (I appreciate your providing the weight of each ingredient!) and everyone LOVED these cookies at my holiday party and asked for the recipe.I used the Trader Joe’s caramels per your suggestion — YUM!
Looking at your giant chocolate chip cookie recipe because I want giant cookies. can these brown butter caramel ones be adapted into 1/4 cup size cookies if i chill dough and just do a bigger scoop? or could i just add the tj’s caramels into the giant recipe? I’m a sucker for brown butter anything so this recipe is more appealing!
drooling at work by the way!! 🙂
I love all your recipes.. I want to try all of them.. looking for new recipes too.m.
Made these the other night – I used Heath bar bits (choco covered toffee) instead of the TJs. I like Heath and TJs is about 1hr away. Used the 1.5tbs scoop as I like smaller cookies. These babies were crispy/tender, rich, decadent and completely crazy good. My husband swore they were the best he had ever had and that they were even better than any store cookie. We have a new favorite. I found your website while searching for ways to make chocolate chip cookies better and your baking/cookie guides created a lifelong fan. I’ve always been good, but your site has brought my confidence to new levels and my baking as well. Thanks! 🙂
That’s so amazing, Cynthia! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I made a batch exactly as you described in your recipe and they came out with incredible smell of browned butter and butterscotch caramels (even the raw dough). After baking the smell was even better with a rich taste of all of its ingredients. Probably the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever eaten. Thanks for sharing it.
I have made dozens of chocolate chip cookie recipes and have loved many of them, but today I made these and they just might have topped them all. Followed the recipe but just used regular flour. Did a couple test cookies before refrigerating to check flour content. Perfect.
Hello Miss Tessa! Can I add some mollases for this recipe? If thas ok, how much?
Hi Tessa,
Cant wait to Make these.
Where in TJ’s do you usually find the caramels?
Also if i just used all purpose flour. He many cups would it be?
Thanks!
Bonjour Tessa! J’ai envie de faire cette appétissante recette. Je suis française et je ne sais pas quoi acheter comme caramel car je ne trouve pas d’équivalent, aurais tu une idée ? Très bonne journée !
Hi Tessa..just wondering about a measurement ..the recipe calls for 2 cups or 200 grams of the butterscotch caramels..200 grams fits in 1 cup so I wasn’t sure if I should add more..thanks , Lori
Tessa this recipe is Uhmayzing! Gooey on the inside withcrispy edges! It is definitely a big more involved than the average recipe BUT so worth t and browning the butter was neat! Thanks for another delish recipe, Cookie Queen!
Tessa, I recently made Cranberry Pistachio cookies. But when I looked at this recipe of yours, I cursed myself for not seeing this earlier. Anyways, I have to now find an alternate to your secret ingredient here in India and give it a shot. You are genius.
Sonia