Chewy Buttercrunch Cookies with Homemade Toffee Chips
A butterscotch and toffee lover's dream! Thick, chewy cookies studded with buttery, melt-in-your-mouth homemade toffee chips and topped with flaky sea salt.
Ingredients
Homemade Toffee Chips
- 56 grams unsalted American-style butter (4 tablespoons / half a stick)
- 100 grams dark brown sugar (½ cup, tightly packed)
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Buttercrunch Cookies
- 113 grams unsalted American-style butter (you will need 90 grams of brown butter)
- 75 grams dark brown sugar
- 75 grams sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (use twice as much if using vanilla extract)
- 200 grams all-purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 100 grams homemade toffee chips (recipe follows)
- 1 tablespoon flaky sea salt (for finishing)
Instructions
Homemade Toffee Chips
- Line a sheet pan with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
- Melt butter over low-medium heat in a small sauce pot. Add brown sugar and salt and whisk vigorously for one minute until well incorporated (no visible melted butter on the sides/surface of the sugar). Switch to a silicone spatula and continue stirring for about 5-7 minutes, until the mixture bubbles, thickens, and reaches 295-300°F on an instant read thermometer.
- Pour the toffee mixture onto prepared sheet pan and use a silicone spatula to spread it into a thin layer. Work quickly, it will begin to harden immediately. Let it cool completely (about 15-20 minutes) then break into chips about ⅙-¼" in size.
Buttercrunch Cookies
- Brown butter. Melt butter over low-medium heat. The butter will bubble and sizzle as the water content boils away. Continue stirring to push the bubbles out of the way so you can see the milk fat particles toasting on the bottom of the pan. This can take a few minutes. When the milk fat particles are light to medium brown in color, remove from heat and measure 90 grams of brown butter into a large mixing bowl. Set aside to cool slightly, about 5-10 minutes. See recipe notes for what to do if you have less than 90 grams of brown butter.
- Add sugar, egg, and vanilla. Add both sugars to browned butter and mix well with a spatula until sugar is hydrated and has a paste-like texture. Add room temperature egg and vanilla bean paste. Whisk well for 60 seconds until thick, smooth, and lightened in color.
- Add dry ingredients. Add the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda all at once and mix with a spatula until flour is almost entirely combined. It will seem dry and crumbly at first, but keep mixing and it will come together.
- Add toffee bits. When there are a few streaks of flour still in the dough, add the toffee chips and continue mixing. Shape the dough into a ball with your hands, place it back in the bowl, cover and chill for 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line a sheet pan with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
- Shape. Scoop the chilled cookie dough with a #40 (1½ tablespoon) cookie scoop and roll into balls with your hands. The dough will be very firm from the fridge, but will warm up from the heat of your hands. Roll each dough ball in plain white sugar.
- Bake. Arrange the dough balls on the prepared sheet pan about 2-3 inches apart. Bake in 325°F oven for 13-15 minutes. The cookies will puff up in the oven and won't take on much color, if any. If you can't bake all the dough balls at once, pop the remaining ones back in the fridge while you bake the first batch.
- Finish. Sprinkle hot cookies with flaky salt and use a round cookie cutter to scoot them into a round shape immediately after removing from the oven. Let them cool on the sheet pan for 5 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.
RECIPE NOTES
- If you end up with less than 90 grams of brown butter, add a bit of plain butter to the brown butter until it reaches the correct weight. Stir to melt the butter into the brown butter.
- You can bake the cookies immediately after mixing the dough (reduce the bake time by 2-3 minutes) but you'll get a much chewier texture and better flavor if you chill the dough for an hour first.
- Toffee chips can be made up to a month in advance; pat dry with a paper towel to remove any excess grease, then store in an airtight container in a cool, dark place. You may need to give the container a good shake or whack the chips with a rolling pin to break them up again before use.
- If you end up with less than 90 grams of brown butter, add a bit of regular butter to the brown butter until it reaches the correct weight. Stir to melt the butter into the brown butter.
- Toffee chips recipe adapted from Handle the Heat.