My soft and chewy brown butter toffee cookies are packed with toffee pieces and flavored with vanilla, brown butter, and sprinkling of sea salt. Never browned butter before? I’ll show you how! Recipe includes a how-to video!
The BEST Toffee Cookies
I first shared these brown butter toffee cookies over 7 years ago. Since then, they’ve remained one of my favorites, a guaranteed-to-please go-to that everyone, without fail, asks me for the recipe for.
The inspiration for these cookies came to me via the cafeteria of the hospital where Zach and I used to work. The original was quite a bit underwhelming–too artificial, dry, and not enough butter flavor–but it provided me with some good starting points for my own creation.
My version is anything but underwhelming; we’re talking slightly crisped exteriors, crunchy milk chocolate toffee bits, and a nutty, buttery flavor in every bite (especially in those soft centers!). These cookies are so good!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Makes a fantastic fall cookie that’s both pumpkin and pumpkin spice free (if you’re not into that kinda thing). Something about the warm, buttery flavor just makes me think of fall in all the best ways. Feel free to make them year-round though–I certainly do!
- Brown butter provides the best, butteriest flavor that complements the toffee add-ins so well. If making brown butter seems intimidating to you, just know that it’s a simple process. I’ll walk you through every step below!
- No chilling or mixer required! Though you can always cover and chill the dough if you would like; 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 come to room temperature before you can scoop and bake.
- Soft and chewy texture that lasts for days, thanks to my tried-and-true baking technique. On the other hand, if you like crunchy cookies, try my butter crunch cookies!
What You Need
- Brown sugar. I recommend a blend of dark and light brown sugar, though you can use all light brown sugar if that’s all you have on hand.
- Toffee bits. Use the crushed milk chocolate toffee bits (Heath bar bits). You can usually find these near chocolate chips in the baking aisle of your grocery store.
- Vanilla. A hefty pour of vanilla (half a tablespoon!) adds SO much flavor to these cookies. I love using homemade vanilla extract in this recipe; if you haven’t made your own yet, you need to!
- Salt. While we are using regular table salt in the dough, I recommend sprinkling flaky sea salt on the cookies just after removing them from the oven. This really intensifies all of the already robust flavors of these brown butter toffee cookies.
- Butter. We’re using a full cup (two sticks) of butter today. We’ll brown this and let it cool completely before adding it to the dough. Note that unless otherwise indicated, you should measure your butter before browning it.
SAM’S TIP: Since we are using room temperature butter, it’s best if you use room temperature eggs as well. I have a trick to quickly bring eggs to room temperature if you forget to set yours out ahead of time.
This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Brown Butter Toffee Cookies
Brown the butter
Browning the butter is the key to adding truly incredible, jaw-dropping flavor to this recipe. It’s a key ingredient in my brown butter frosting, brown butter chocolate chip cookies, and pistachio cake and it’s every bit as important here, too.
To make it, add the butter to a light-bottomed saucepan over medium-low heat. Once melted, increase the heat to medium and stir constantly as the butter bubbles, foams, and pops. Pay close attention, and once you notice a toasty aroma and see brown bits forming on the bottom of the pan, remove from the heat and pour into a heat-proof bowl. You’ve just made brown butter!
Make sure to let the butter cool for 25-30 minutes before adding your other ingredients, otherwise you run the risk of melting your sugars and creating a seriously runny, unusable dough.
Make the dough
The dough comes together like most standard doughs. Once the butter has cooled (completely! Make sure the bottom of the bowl that it’s cooling in doesn’t feel even a little warm), you can add the sugars then the egg and vanilla.
Whisk the dry ingredients together separately then gradually fold it into the wet ingredients. This is a stiff dough, so I do this in 3-4 parts for the easiest combining.
Fold in your toffee bits until evenly incorporated, then you’re ready to scoop! No more chilling needed, you waited long enough for the browned butter to cool so you’re ready to go now!
Bake the cookies
Scoop and roll the dough into 1 ½ tablespoon balls, then place on parchment lined baking sheets.
Bake until the edges are just starting to turn golden brown (the centers will still look a bit underdone, then remove and sprinkle with sea salt (you need to do this while the cookies are still warm, so it sticks). The cookies will continue baking outside the oven on the hot cookie sheets. This is my favorite trick for soft and chewy cookies that stay soft for days!
SAM’S TIP: The toffee bits tend to stick to the baking sheets as the cookies cool, so I like to gently wiggle the cookies with a spatula after they’ve been out of the oven for a few minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
It’s not ideal with this recipe as the dough doesn’t spread as much after a prolonged period of time in the refrigerator and can even become crumbly. However, if you absolutely must save the dough, you can cover and refrigerate it for up to 3 days. Note that you will likely need to let it completely come back to room temperature before attempting to scoop and roll it, and the dough might be a bit crumbly even with thawing. You may be better off chilling the dough in pre-portioned balls instead.
You don’t have to, but your cookies won’t be quite as soft and tender or thick if you skip it. I recommend substituting flour for the cornstarch if you must leave it out.
The most likely cause is adding the sugars to the butter while it is still just a bit too warm. The butter melts the sugars and creates a super greasy dough which unfortunately cannot be remedied (even chilling won’t help).
This can also happen if you put your cookie dough on hot baking sheets–never do that!
I highly recommend that you re-heat your toffee cookies briefly in the microwave before enjoying (about 9-seconds per cookie, in my microwave). Warm cookies are the best cookies!
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Brown Butter Toffee Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup (200 g) brown sugar (light or dark is fine, I like to use a blend of the two)
- ⅔ cup (135 g) white sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature preferred
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ¾ cups (350 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch cornflour in UK
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (170 g) milk chocolate toffee pieces (Like Heath Milk Chocolate Toffee Pieces)
- 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.1 cup unsalted butter
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.1 cup (200 g) brown sugar, ⅔ cup (135 g) white sugar
- Stir in eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition.2 eggs
- Add vanilla extract and stir.1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt.2 ¾ cups (350 g) all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ¾ teaspoon 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.1 cup (170 g) milk chocolate toffee pieces
- Drop by heaping, rounded 1 ½ Tbsp (45g) scoops onto prepared cookie sheets, placing at least 2" apart.
- Bake on 350F (177C) for 9-10 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.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.
Notes
Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.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.
Sarah
I’ve made these cookies probably 5x… the dough was always kind of dry and crumbly until I realized that when I browned the butter of two sticks, it only made 3/4 cup lol so I did 3 sticks and WOW. Absolute perfection!!
Every time I share them with friends I get so many compliments! Thank you for the most perfect cookie recipe … and for introducing me to browned butter!!! 😋
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Sarah! 🙂
Debbie
so should I start with the 1 cup of butter the recipe states or 1 cup once browned?
Sam
As the recipe states 🙂 So you’ll start with 1 cup, brown it, and then use the amount that remains, this is how I do it. I hope that helps!
Sinikka
Making cookies is my new thing! I’ve tried a few of yours, but I prefer to us organic coconut oil instead of butter whenever I can. With these you don’t specify light or dark brown so I researched a few others and they used dark, which I see now I should have used light as my cookies are darker. Most definitely use more toffee. I’m sorry I didn’t put the whole 8 oz bag in. also you say sea salt but don’t specify coarse? I only had fine and that didn’t work. They are nice and chewy just not that pretty. These are my suggestions and if I do make them again, light brown sugar, 8-12 oz toffee bits and coarse salt.
Sam
Hi Sinikka! Light or dark brown sugar is fine, it’s jut a matter of preference. I do use fine flaky sea salt in mine, but coarse would be fine as well! I’ve added some notes to help clarify in case anyone else has the same question. I personally like the 1 cup of toffee, but nothing wrong with adding more! Thank you for the feedback, I appreciate it!
Lynn
I’m a cookie lover, and these top the chart.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Lynn! 🙂
Tina
Hi can i use one egg to have it cruncy inside?
Sam
Hi Tina! I’m not quite sure how that would turn out. I don’t think leaving the egg out would just make it crunchy, but let me know how it goes if you try it. 🙂
Dougie C
If you asked me yesterday, I would have strongly proclaimed the Jacques Torres chocolate chips cookie as the best cookie we have ever made and it is amazing. If you asked me this question today my answer would squarely be these luscious circles of heaven. Thank you so much for sharing. My daughter and I have been on a quest for browned butter cookie to make and our search is over. Perfect taste/look/texture and not overly difficult. We made our own toffee and chopped up a good 72% dark chocolate bar and probably added closer to a total of 1.5 cups rather than 1 cup… why not?! LOL. We were careful not to over mix when combining the dry ingredient which was a great tip… thank you thank you thank you!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed the cookies so much, Dougie! 🙂
KDub
My cookies were pretty dry and the first batch didn’t spread out in the pan so I smooshed some of the scoops to have them look more like regular cookies hehe. Taste was great but hoping for a little softer cookie. It think I over mixed the contents. Overall not bad but not my favorite… and probably mixed something up along the way.
Sam
Usually if they are dry it is because the flour was accidentally overmeasured, I hope that helps!
AJ
These are a hit. I had a burned batch of ghee (homemade clarified butter that can burn if you aren’t watching it 😉 and a box of gifted almond toffee. Voila. Modifications: I added 1/2 tsp of almond extract to pull out the almond flavor from my toffee. To be resourceful and use more of what I have a lot of, I used 2cups APF and 3/4 cup wheat flour, and I split the white sugar 50/50 with powdered sugar. I will do this again with the remaining toffee and plan to use more whole wheat flour, it tastes great in this.
Sam
So glad you enjoyed, AJ! Thank you for commenting!
Steph
Can I use salted butter? Lol it’s all I have left!
Sugar Spun Run
Yes, that will be fine, Steph! You will just omit the additional salt listed on the ingredient list. Happy Baking! 🙂
Shawana
I made these tonight and i followed the recipe EXACTLY and they absolutely AMAZING! My kids and husband almost ate the entire batch (I had to stop them). Thanks so much for sharing this recipes
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed the cookies so much, Shawana! 🙂
Patty
This. THIS. Is a great cookie. An AMAZING cookie. I am in cookie heaven. I LOVE cookies. I am a baker but could never find the perfect chocolate cookie/cookie base but THIS IS IT. Oh the browned butter gave it that perfect rich flavor while allowing it to still have that perfect spread. Nice crisp when you bite down and so soft inside. I am so happy. My pastry chef mother raved about them too. You really did an outstanding job. Bravo!!
Sugar Spun Run
What a compliment to receive, thank you so much, Patty! I am so glad that you now have a new go-to recipe and that you LOVED the cookies. Thanks for commenting. Enjoy! 🙂
Kim Nguyen
Hi, I was wondering did you cook the cookies on parchment paper?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Kim! Yes, you do! It helps prevent sticking and reduce browning. 🙂
Chrissy
Is it definitely an entire cup of butter that you call for? (2 whole sticks?)
Sam
Haha, yes 🙂
Voula
Sounds great, cant wait it to try making them. I do have one question, are you mixing by hand, hand mixer or in a kitchenaid?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Voula! I typically mix this cookie by hand or with a hand mixer. 🙂
Judy
I have been searching for the perfect brown butter cookie recipe, and this is it. Period.
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Judy! I am so happy that you finally found one that you loved. Thanks for commenting and for trying my recipe! 🙂
Jen
Could I bake this with chocolate chip cookies and plain heath toffee bits?
Sam
Hi Jen! That would work fine. 🙂
Janelle Barber
I have to admit, I am not the best baker. I am a great cook but baking not my thing…too much chemistry. So I made these cookies and they are delicious. However, I had an issue with the dough. It was crumbly right after being made (not due to refrigeration). The first batch I had to form and then smash them down so they melted into a cookie shape and did not end up looking like a Russian Tea Cake(Snowball cookie). I added another 1/2 cube of butter (partially softened) to the dough and it was much better. Still had to somewhat form the cookie when putting them on the pan. They turned out perfect at this point and tasted great. I live at 5000 ft but this should not have any affect on the dough itself. I followed the recipe to a tee. Has anyone seen this? I agree on doubling the amount of toffee bits (use 2 – 8 ounce bags)
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Janelle! I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed the cookies. I am sorry that your dough was crumbly. Most of the time this is a result of over measuring your flour. This is a common mistake in baking so I have created a guide on how to properly measure flour that can be used as a reference. I am not familiar with baking at high altitude so this could play into this as well. Regardless, I am happy that they tasted delicious. 🙂
Janelle Barber
What a great tip. And yes…I put the cup right in the bag and not only scoop it, I flattened it against the side of the bag which probably packs it in even more. I have a great scale but never thought to use it for baking. Awesome!. Will let you know how my next batch goes.
PS Laughed when the first comment on this site “how to properly measure flour” said “baking is chemistry”. That was my comment to you initially and is ant that the truth. Weight is consistent. Thanks
Sugar Spun Run
I am happy that you enjoyed the post! I hope that it helps, Janelle! Keep me posted on how your next batch turns out. 🙂