Brown Butter Honey Caramel Cookies (Printable Version)
Chewy brown butter cookies with toffee, chocolate pools, honey caramel, and flaky sea salt.
# What You'll Need:
→ Brown Butter
01 - 1 cup (2 sticks / 227 g) unsalted butter
→ Cookie Dough
02 - 2 1/4 cups (280 g) all-purpose flour
03 - 1 teaspoon baking soda
04 - 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
05 - 1 cup (200 g) packed light brown sugar
06 - 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
07 - 2 large eggs, room temperature
08 - 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
09 - 2 tablespoons honey
10 - 1/3 cup (100 g) caramel sauce, thick but pourable
11 - 1 1/2 cups (255 g) semisweet or dark chocolate chips or chunks
12 - 1 cup (170 g) toffee bits
→ Topping
13 - Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling
# How To Make:
01 - Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking, swirling the pan occasionally, until the butter foams, turns a deep golden color, and releases a nutty aroma, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Immediately pour the browned butter into a large mixing bowl and allow it to cool for 10 minutes.
02 - In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and fine sea salt until evenly distributed.
03 - Add the packed light brown sugar and granulated sugar to the cooled brown butter. Beat vigorously until the mixture is smooth and well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Stir in the pure vanilla extract, honey, and caramel sauce until the mixture is uniform and silky.
04 - Gradually add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients, mixing gently until just combined and no dry streaks remain. Fold in the chocolate chips or chunks and toffee bits using a rubber spatula, being careful not to overmix.
05 - Cover the bowl tightly and refrigerate the dough for a minimum of 1 hour, or up to 24 hours, to allow the flavors to deepen and to prevent excessive spreading during baking.
06 - Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
07 - Scoop 2-tablespoon portions of the chilled dough and place them onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing each mound approximately 2 inches apart to allow for spreading.
08 - Bake for 11 to 13 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, until the edges are set and golden but the centers still appear slightly soft and underbaked.
09 - Remove the baking sheets from the oven and immediately sprinkle the tops of each cookie with flaky sea salt. Let the cookies rest on the sheets for 5 minutes to set, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
# Expert Advice:
01 -
- Brown butter transforms ordinary cookie dough into something that tastes like it took all day, even though the hands on time is surprisingly short.
- The pools of melted chocolate combined with sticky toffee bits create a texture that is somehow chewy, crunchy, and gooey all at once.
02 -
- The butter can go from perfectly browned to charred and bitter in roughly thirty seconds, so stay at the stove and do not walk away to check your phone.
- Underbaking slightly and letting the cookies finish setting on the hot baking sheet is the single best thing you can do for that soft gooey center everyone fights over.
03 -
- A light sprinkling of flaky salt right when the cookies come out of the oven ensures it sticks to the softened surface without melting away completely.
- Using a cookie scoop keeps all your cookies the same size so they bake evenly and you do not end up with some burnt and some raw.