Sweet, soft cookies packed with toffee pieces and just slightly salted. These Brown Butter Toffee Cookies are flavored with vanilla and a generous amount of perfectly browned butter. Recipe includes easy steps for browning butter!
The inspiration for these Brown Butter Toffee Cookies came to me via the cafeteria of the hospital where I work.
After taking our lunch together last week (I think I’ve mentioned that Zach and I work at the same hospital, just in different departments), Zach went to buy himself a drink. As we went through the checkout, I saw small, clear-wrapped package labeled “Butter Toffee Cookies” and immediately threw them at him.
I need these — for research!
He bought them and the graceless mouth-stuffing research commenced, but I was honestly a little disappointed.
They were almost too sweet– there was too much artificial flavor somewhere in there. Faux vanilla, maybe? Some sort of preservative?
They weren’t exactly crunchy, but still somehow seemed a little too dry for me. And for a cookie that touted the word “Butter” right in its name, I expected a much… butterier flavor.
I had some good starting points, thanks to an underwhelming cafeteria cookie.
These Brown Butter Toffee Cookies live up to the “butter” part of their name.
For the best, butteriest flavor, you’re going to use browned butter in this recipe. You may have spied this ingredient in several of my other cookie recipes, or maybe in my recent brown butter blondies (just… yum).
I absolutely adore browned butter because of its nearly nutty, toffee-like (what better complement to the toffee add-ins) flavor.
Brown butter used to seem intimidating to me — you have to get out a saucepan and turn on the stove and, yes, watch it very carefully for a few minutes, but it’s really a simple process. The recipe below includes step-by-step instructions on how to perfectly brown butter.
Hint: It should look like this when you’re done
Make sure to cool the browned butter for 25-30 minutes before adding your other ingredients, otherwise you run the risk of melting your sugars, and could end up with some seriously runny, unusable dough.
This recipe does not require any chilling (I know, a lot of my recent cookie recipes have required fridge time). However, it may be covered and chilled, if you would like, and this would likely give the cookies an even richer, more buttery flavor.
Keep in mind that that the dough gets a bit crumbly when chilled and will need to warm back up to room temperature in order to scoop and bake.
I have a serious cookie obsession and each time I make a new version I sincerely believe that it’s my new favorite, and these are no exception. They are so good — slightly crisped exteriors, crunchy toffee bits accented with milk chocolate, and a nutty, buttery flavor in every bite (especially in those soft centers!).
Make sure to top everything off with a small shower of sea salt, which really intensifies all of the already robust flavors of these brown butter toffee cookies.
I also cannot recommend strongly enough that you re-heat these briefly in the microwave before eating (about 9-seconds per cookie, in my microwave).
Warm cookies are the best cookies.
Enjoy!
Brown Butter Toffee Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup brown sugar (200g) (light or dark is fine, I like to use a blend of the two)
- ⅔ cup white sugar (135g)
- 2 eggs room temperature preferred
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour (350g)
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch cornflour in UK
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk chocolate toffee pieces (Like Heath Milk Chocolate Toffee Pieces) (170g)
- sea salt for sprinkling on top of the cookies (fine or coarse, your preference)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (177C) and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Cut your butter into Tablespoon-sized pieces and place in a medium-sized saucepan. Melt over medium-low heat.
To Brown the Butter (It's easy, I promise!)
- Once butter has melted, increase heat to just above medium heat.
- Swirl and scrape the sides of the pan frequently with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula - the butter will bubble and pop. Once the bubbling/popping slows, the butter will begin to turn brown, it will look like this once it's finished:
- Watch the butter very carefully at this point, and once it begins to brown and you smell the nutty aroma of browned butter, remove from heat quickly and pour into a large, heatproof bowl.
- Allow butter to cool for 25-30 minutes before proceeding with the recipe.
Cookie Dough
- Add sugars into cooled browned butter, stir well.
- Stir in eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition.
- Add vanilla extract and stir.
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, stirring until ingredients are nearly completely combined.
- Add milk chocolate toffee bits and stir until ingredients are well-incorporated.
- Drop by heaping, rounded 1 ½ Tbsp scoops onto prepared cookie sheets, placing at least 2" apart.
- Bake on 350F (177C) for 10-12 minutes or until edges are just beginning to turn golden brown (cookies should still be quite soft when you remove them from the oven, and may even appear slightly underbaked in center).
- Sprinkle lightly with sea salt.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking pan for about 3 minutes and then use a spatula to gently scoop beneath them and carefully wiggle them free from the parchment paper, as the toffee tends to stick.
- Allow to cool several more minutes and then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
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Alli
I’ve had a bag of Heath toffee pieces in the freezer forever, and was searching for a recipe to use them. (Just toffee pieces, w/o any chocolate.) I decided to try these, using the full 8 oz. bag of toffee pieces + approx. 1/2 a bag of Hershey’s milk chocolate chips. First time browning butter to make cookies — I’m SO impressed. These turned out delicious!
Barbara King
A BIG hit! The brown butter flavor with the toffee is scrumptious! The sea salt sprinkle was great, too. The cookie looks great, as well, and is easy to make . Perfect without refrigeration prior to baking! We tested, just in case!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you enjoyed them, Barbara! ❤
Jackie
Hi
Can I add chocolate chips to this recipe, ifso, how much.
Sam
Hi Jackie! You could add probably up to a cup of chocolate chips here. 🙂
Arlene
These cookies were absolutely delicious! Followed the recipe exactly, except I did not have the Heath Bar pieces, only had their bits of toffee. Used 1/2 c toffee bits and 1/2 c mini-semisweet chocolate chips, and everyone at the birthday party RAVED about them. Your suggestion to take them out of the oven when the edges were slightly browned was very helpful. Baked three trays on convection 350* for 9″. Thank you so much for this new extra special recipe!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy everyone enjoyed the cookies, Arlene! Thanks for coming back to leave a review 😊
JaWahna
I followed this recipe to the letter. Had never heard of browned butter before now I’m never going back. I baked these and to get them away from me, I took them to work. Now my coworkers want more. Awesome recipe!!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you found our recipe, JaWhana! Brown butter truly is life changing! Thanks so much for letting us know how you liked them 😊
yzabel
These cookies are soooo good, my friends always ask me to make some for them :))
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you and your friends like the cookies, Yzabel! Thanks for commenting 🙂
Allyssa Lacoste
What would happen if I didn’t have baking powder
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Allyssa! Unfortunately baking powder is necessary here. You can try to make a baking powder substitute, or wait til you have some. 😊
Maureen
These have become one of our favorite cookies in our house! Thanks for sharing
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
That’s great to hear, Maureen! Thanks so much for trying our recipe. Enjoy ❤️
Katie
Hello, can you please confirm if it’s 1 cup or 2 cups of butter? And if 2, is the 1 cup just soft and the other cup the melted brown butter?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Katie! You need 1 cup (usually two sticks) of unsalted butter for this recipe. You’ll melt and brown it before letting it cool and using it in the recipe. Hope that helps 😊
Chanty
I’ve made these twice and love them but I’m wondering if you can make the dough ahead of time and refrigerate it?
Sam
Hi Chanty! I haven’t tried it, but it’s a pretty dry dough that may dry out a little bit more in the refrigerator making it harder to work with. It may work better to roll the dough into balls and then store them that way rather than storing just the bowl of dough. 🙂
Faith
Hi! I love these cookies so much they were delicious but I have one concern. My cookies came out puffy is that a problem?
Sam
Hi Faith! Typically, if no substitutions were made, the culprit here is a little excess flour. I’m glad you still enjoyed them. 🙂