Toffee Chocolate Chunk Cookies

It’s true, this recipe isn’t exactly a classic, traditional take on everyone’s favorite cookie (chocolate chip, duh)… but anytime a chocolate chip cookie craving strikes, this is the recipe I run to. 

A little bit of patience goes a long way here, so please trust me when I say you really do want to take the extra time needed to brown half the butter and to allow it to cool some before proceeding with the rest of the recipe. It’s a step worth taking — especially if you’re a fan of toffee-like flavor that permeates every bite of your cookie dough … magical things happen when you mix brown butter with dark brown sugar. 

Once your butter is browned and cooled, the rest of the recipe mixes up quickly and easily in just one bowl and needs only a spatula and some elbow grease (*very* minimal on the elbow grease, folks — don’t worry) to come together. 

A couple of recipe notes before you make a mad dash to your kitchen to bake these melty gems…

• I always a prefer to use a mix of at least two (but preferably three!!) types of chocolates in my cookies. My go-to is usually a blend of equal parts dark chocolate chunks, milk chocolate chunks, and bittersweet chocolate chips. Aside from cocao percentage, also try to vary up the shape of your chocolate add-ins — in addition to the classic chip, I love adding fat chunks of a thick chocolate bar and then shards of a thinner bar (these bake up as thin layers of chocolate throughout the cookie and I love it; Ghirardelli or Lindt chocolate squares (the ones that come individually wrapped) and chocolate bars are great for this). 

• If you’re looking to recreate those melty puddles of chocolate that are covering the cookies in the photos above, make sure you use a quality chocolate! High quality chocolate melts into puddles, while a lot of chocolate chips (i.e. Nestle) and bars (i.e. Hershey’s) keep their form and don’t ‘puddle’ and spill all over into a beautiful mess the way you’ll want. 

• If you want to make this dough in advance, go for it — instead of popping the trays of scooped out dough into the freezer for a brief chill before baking, wrap the trays in plastic wrap and keep in the fridge overnight or up to 24 hours and then bake away (just a head’s up — they might not spread out as much if you go this route, but they’ll still be yummy!).

• This may be personal preference, BUT… I’m fully on Team Salted Butter when it comes to baking (for the most part… frostings and other cream type fillings are an exception). I’ve made these before using unsalted butter, and I definitely think there’s a better flavor going the salted route. 

Toffee Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Yield: about 16 large cookies

2 sticks butter, softened and divided

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

3 1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 – 2 1/2 cups chocolate chunks and chips (*optional: reserve 1/2 cup to press into the tops of the cookies)

1/2 cup toffee bits

Flaked sea salt, optional

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt one stick of butter. Continue to cook on the stovetop, gently scraping the bottom of the pan with a heat-safe spatula as it browns. Once the butter turns a a dark golden brown, remove the pan from the heat and pour into a large mixing bowl — be sure to scrape out all of the brown bits at the bottom (so much good flavor there!!). Set aside and allow to cool for about an hour until it’s no longer hot, but still warm. 

To the brown butter, add the stick of softened butter and set aside until you have a bowl full of butter that’s about 80% melted. Before that final stick of butter is fully melted, mix in the brown and granulated sugars with a rubber spatula until smooth. Then, mix in the vanilla extract and the eggs; continue to mix for about 2 minutes until the eggs are fully blended in.

Dump the baking soda, salt, cornstarch, and flour into the mixing bowl; begin by folding the flour mixture into the dough until it’s almost fully combined. By this point, test the texture of your dough — it should be soft, but no longer sticky; you should be able to press your finger against it without it leaving any trace of dough behind. If your dough is still a bit wet/sticky by this point, mix in additional flour 1-2 Tablespoons at a time just until it’s no longer sticky. 

Add in your chocolate chunks/chips and toffee bits and mix until just combined. Using a 1/4-cup ice cream scoop, scoop out leveled balls of cookie dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, about 1 1/2 – 2 inches apart from each other. If you reserved any of the chocolate pieces, gently press them into the tops of the cookies. 

Transfer your trays of scooped cookie dough to the freezer and let them chill for about 15 minutes (this will keep them from spreading out too much while they bake). Bake in your preheated over for 10-12 minutes, until the edges of the cookies are set and centers still appear soft. Allow to cool completely on the cookie sheets on a wire rack.

Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with flaked sea salt while the they are still warm and the pockets of chocolate are stilly melty. These can be kept in an airtight container for up to 5 days.