Brown-Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
The cookies I send through the mail. Crisp edges, soft middles, salt on top.
There's a long tradition of "the best" chocolate chip cookie online. This is mine. The brown butter does a lot of heavy lifting; the overnight rest does the rest. The dough has a chance to fully hydrate and the flavors marry and deepen, and the next day's cookies taste like they came from a bakery you'd drive across town for.
Chop a chocolate bar instead of buying chips. The variety of shards — some big, some powdery — is the whole point. I use a 70% dark.
Method
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Brown the butter
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking, swirling often, until the foam subsides and the milk solids on the bottom go deep golden — 6–8 minutes. Immediately scrape into a large bowl, including all the brown specks. Cool until just barely warm (about 20 minutes).
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Build the dough
Whisk the brown sugar and granulated sugar into the cooled butter until fully combined. Whisk in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. The mixture will look glossy and slightly ribbony.
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Combine and rest
In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and fine salt. Fold the dry into the wet until almost combined, then add the chopped chocolate and fold a few more times. Cover and refrigerate at least 24 hours — yes, really. Up to 72 is even better.
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Scoop and bake
Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Scoop the dough into 3-tablespoon balls (a large cookie scoop is perfect). Space them well apart on parchment-lined sheet pans — six per sheet. Bake 11–13 minutes, until the edges are deep golden but the centers still look slightly underdone. Finish with flaky salt the second they come out.
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Cool, then eat
Let them cool on the pan 5 minutes; they finish setting up as they cool. Then move them to a rack. (Try to wait. I never can.)
Cook's notes
- Freeze the scooped dough balls and bake from frozen any time — add 2 minutes to the bake time.
- The cookies ship beautifully. Wrap pairs back-to-back in parchment and stack in a tin lined with crumpled paper. I've sent them across the country.
From the comments
3 notes from people who cooked this.
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Riya T.
The 72-hour test is real. I baked half on day 1 and the other half on day 3. Day 3 was meaningfully better.
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Beck W.
I shipped these to my grandmother in Florida and she called me crying. So that's where I am with these cookies.
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Marisol H.
A scoop of vanilla ice cream between two of these = best ice cream sandwich of my life.
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