Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: SO MUCH 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: Definitely more involved than your typical cookie recipe, but well worth the effort.
Pros: Possibly the most flavorful cookies ever.
Cons: Browning the butter requires your constant attention and the 24 hour chill period requires patience.
Would I make this again? Absolutely. I have this cookie dough in the freezer! (Learn how to freeze cookie dough here).
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These cookies are an explosion of flavor in your mouth. I feel a little bit like Guy Fieri for saying that… but it’s true!
I’ve taken every step to 10x the flavor of chocolate chip cookies so much that I think these are on a whole other playing field. I hope you’ll give this recipe a try soon!
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.
In addition to a cup of chocolate chips in this cookie recipe, I’ve added in two whole cups of these chocolate butterscotch caramels. The complex salty sweet flavor they add to an already flavorful cookie dough is insane. Your taste buds will love you for it!
However, if you can’t get these specific candies, you can also use Rolo candies. Think of the Trader Joe’s candies as a classier more refined version of Rolos. If you’re going the Rolo route, I’d reccomend you add a sprinkling of flaked sea salt to the top of each cookie dough ball before baking.
Brown Butter
Browning the butter adds a rich toasted nutty flavor to these cookies and really just pushes them over the edge. If you’ve never browned butter before, not to worry. Just follow the recipe instructions closely and don’t walk away from the pan. The butter can go from perfectly brown to burnt real fast. Learn all my tips and tricks for browning butter in my How to Brown Butter article here.
Do I have to use bread flour?
The bread flour has a higher protein percentage, which helps create a chewier texture in these 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, the cookies just won’t be as chewy.
By the way, the egg yolk in this recipe also adds chewiness and richness!
Do I need to chill the dough?
The 24 hour chilling period is absolutely worth the wait. You can actually chill the dough for up to 72 hours, just make sure it’s in an airtight container. Think of this chilling period like marinating. All the flavors intensify and since the flour absorbs moisture from the dough during this time, the texture of the cookies becomes thicker and chewier. After the dough is chilled, just let it sit at room temperature until it’s warm enough to scoop.
If you don’t want to wait that long, or maybe just want to bake off a few cookies asap, then simply chill the dough until it’s firmed up enough to scoop. The cookies won’t be quite as perfect, but they’ll still be delicious.
Scooping the dough
I find that by baking off large chocolate chip cookies you can achieve a MUCH better texture than smaller cookies. I use my large 3-tablespoon cookie scoop to do this. You can use the more standard 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 is one of the KEYS to beautiful, uniform, evenly-shaped and evenly-baked cookies. My cookie scoop is one of my most frequently used kitchen gadgets. A spring-loaded scoop saves you *so much time* in forming the balls of dough. When using a scoop, you ensure each ball is evenly sized so the cookies bake evenly, meaning you don’t have any small overbaked cookies or large underbaked cookies. Learn more about Cookie Scoops and how to use them here!
More Recipes You’ll Love:
- Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
- My Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Butterscotch Pie
- Chocolate Coconut Cookies
- Brown Butter Dulce de Leche Cookie Cups
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Butterscotch Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (227 grams) unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups (187 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (127 grams) bread flour
- 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 (200 grams) chocolate covered butterscotch caramels (see post above)
- 1 cup (170 grams) semi sweet 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 flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- 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. Divide the dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls and drop onto prepared baking sheets. At this point you can freeze the dough balls until hard then 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.
- 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.
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