Butterscotch Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

Zoha Malik

by Zoha Malik

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These are the cookies I make when I want to show off. Thick, fudgy and chewy with crisp edges, pools of dark chocolate, and crunchy homemade toffee bits in every bite. They taste like butterscotch and caramel and brown sugar and chocolate and everything I love, and they are hands down the best cookies I have ever made.

A chocolate chip cookie with toffee chunks is broken in half on a cooling rack, with melted chocolate and crumbs visible around it.

Yes, they are a labor of love. You make toffee (you can use store-bought but it’s not as magical), then make a butterscotch cookie dough, fold in chocolate and toffee bits, scoop and chill overnight. It is not a quick weeknight cookie. But it is exactly the kind of cookie you make during the holidays, or when you want to savor baking and create something next level.

These cookies take inspiration from my favorite brown butter chocolate chip cookies, which are still my go to on busy days. But they go so much deeper – oof.

What makes them different

Here’s what makes these different from other toffee chocolate chip cookie recipes out there:

  • A cooked butterscotch cookie base, not just brown butter. Nearly every toffee cookie recipe starts with browned butter. Mine starts by cooking the butter, brown sugar, cream and salt together until it reaches 220 to 230F. This creates a deep, caramel-y, butterscotch flavor throughout
  • Brown sugar only. We’re really leaning into everything brown here. Plus this makes the cookies chewier
  • A hint of coffee. Just a teaspoon dissolved in water. You will not really taste the coffee, but it balances out all the sugar and creates a delicious complexity
  • A full cup of homemade toffee bits. It is buttery, crunchy, crisp and melts in your mouth. The flavor and texture it adds is indescribable! If you want to buy store-bought toffee bits, you can – but homemade is so worth it
  • Dark chocolate only. With this much toffee going on, milk chocolate would tip over to too sweet
A stack of gooey chocolate chip cookies with melted chocolate and toffee bits, broken in half to show the rich, soft interior, sits on a cooling rack.

Making the homemade toffee bits

The toffee is the whole reason these cookies taste the way they do, and it’s made with butter, brown sugar and salt. All you do is stand and stir, then spread on a sheet, set and break it into bits. But because it can be tricky to tell when toffee is done, I have written a detailed recipe for homemade toffee. It walks you through the 5 stages of cooking toffee with step by step photos, and I highly recommend giving it a read.

Step by step photos

A baking tray with a silicone mat holds a large sheet of shiny, golden-brown toffee spread thinly across the surface.
Make the toffee following the detailed instructions in this post.
Shattered pieces of toffee candy spread out on a silicone baking mat and baking tray, with a white countertop visible in the background.
Shatter the toffee into small bits after it sets. I use the end of a rolling pin to do this!
A stainless steel saucepan on a stovetop contains a mixture of brown sugar and butter, ready to be melted or cooked.
For the cookie dough, add the butter, brown sugar, salt and heavy cream to a saucepan.
A saucepan of butterscotch bubbling on a stove, with a whisk stirring the mixture.
Cook and stir on medium-low heat until the butter melts, the mixture becomes frothy and develops a deep golden color. The temperature should be 220-230F – usually 8-10 minutes of cooking.
A glass bowl with brown sugar, an egg, vanilla, and butter being mixed with a whisk on a wooden surface.
Let the mixture cool down for 10 minutes, then add the egg, vanilla bean paste and coffee dissolved in water.
A glass bowl with a brown mixture and a whisk resting in it, placed on a wooden surface.
Whisk until smooth, then stir in the baking powder and baking soda.
A mixing bowl contains flour, liquid ingredients, and vanilla, about to be mixed with a black spatula with a wooden handle.
Sift in the all purpose flour.
A glass bowl with cookie dough with streaks of flour. The bowl sits on a dark wood surface.
Fold with a spatula until the flour is almost combined but some streaks remain.
A clear bowl with cookie dough, dark chocolate chunks, and toffee pieces, shown from above. A wooden spoon rests inside the bowl, which is set on a reddish-brown surface.
Now add the chopped dark chocolate and toffee bits from earlier.
A glass bowl filled with toffee chocolate chip cookie dough being mixed with a black spatula on a wooden surface.
Fold into a cookie dough – don’t over mix!
A baking tray lined with parchment paper holds twelve unbaked chocolate chip cookies topped with chocolate chunks and toffee pieces. The tray is on a wooden surface.
Scoop the cookie dough into 12-14 cookies with a 2″ cookie scoop.
A baking tray with eight unbaked toffee chocolate chip cookie dough balls on parchment paper, ready to be baked.
Chill overnight or ideally for 24 hours, then place on a baking sheet and bake!

Chilling is non-negotiable

These cookies need at least 12 hours in the fridge, and they are genuinely much better after 24 hours. The dough hydrates, the flavors deepen, and the texture becomes chewier and fudgier. So while I can be more lax with chilling time in other cookie recipes (I even have a no chill chocolate chip cookie recipe), I am going to hold you to it for this one!

toffee chocolate chip cookies with toffee shards are cooling on a metal wire rack over parchment paper. The cookies are golden brown and topped with chocolate chunks and pieces of toffee.

Important tips to get the bake right

The use of toffee does make these cookies trickier to perfect – so here are some important tips to get their bake right:

  • Check the bottoms. When you scoop the dough, what’s on top of the scoop becomes the bottom of the cookie. If there is chocolate or toffee sitting there, it will spread too much and burn on the bottom of the cookie. Either pull these pieces off or press them in and cover with plain dough.
  • Use a light colored baking sheet. Dark sheets run hotter and burn the bottom of these cookies more easily. They even prevent them from properly spreading.
  • 2 step bake, with a little shaping in between. All that toffee means these cookies can spread unevenly – with some that spread too much and some that stay puffy. So first, bake at 350F for 7 minutes, then pull the pan out. If the cookies look thicker than you want, bang the pan firmly on the counter 2-3 times to knock them down, and use a cookie cutter to scoot the edges back into the perfect round shape. Then back in the oven for another 2 to 3 minutes, until the edges are crisp and the middles are still soft to the touch
  • Don’t over-bake. These cookies continue cooking as they cool down, so take them out when they’re still slightly soft in the middle. If they already look brown on the bottom, carefully pull the parchment paper off the cookie sheet and then let them cool down
  • Always do a test cookie first. The exact baking time will vary depending on a hundred factors – so always start by baking 1 cookie. Let it cool down, taste it, and you’ll know how long to bake the rest
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A chocolate chip cookie with toffee chunks is broken in half on a cooling rack, with melted chocolate and crumbs visible around it.

Butterscotch Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

by Zoha Malik

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Butterscotch cookies with homemade toffee bits and dark chocolate – thick and chewy with crispy edges and a deep caramel flavor!

Yield:12-14 cookies

Prep Time:
1 hr
Cook Time:
10 mins
Chilling Time:
24 hrs
Total Time:
25 hrs

Ingredients

Toffee bits (makes 1 1/4 cups; or substitute 1 cup store-bought toffee bits):

  • 10 tbsp unsalted butter (140g)
  • 1 cup light brown sugar, packed (200g)
  • ½ tsp salt

Butterscotch cookie dough:

  • 10 tbsp unsalted butter (140g)
  • 3/4 cup light or dark brown sugar, packed (150g)
  • 1 tbsp heavy cream (15g)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 1 tsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1/2 tsp water
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (195g)
  • 6 oz dark chocolate, chopped (170g)

Instructions

Toffee bits:

  1. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat and set aside.
  2. Add the butter, brown sugar and salt to a stainless steel saucepan over medium heat. Stir slowly and constantly as the butter melts and the mixture bubbles, then smooths out and takes on color. Keep going until it is deep amber, very glossy, and starts to collect around your whisk and glide across the surface of the pan. This process will take between 15-20 minutes, and you’re aiming for 300-310F on a thermometer. Full instructions with step by step photos are in my homemade toffee recipe.
  3. Pour the hot toffee onto the silicone mat, and quickly spread it into a very thin sheet with a spatula. Let it set at room temperature, or in the fridge for about 20 minutes, until the toffee hardens. Then break into tiny pieces using the end of a rolling pin. This will make about 1 1/4 cup of toffee bits. You will use 1 cup (130g) inside the cookie dough, and can place leftover bits to press on top of the cookie balls

Butterscotch cookie dough:

  1. Add the butter, brown sugar, heavy cream and salt to a saucepan and place over medium low heat on the stove. Cook and stir, until the butter has fully melted and the mixture starts to bubble and froth. Keep stirring until it reaches a medium golden color, and a temperature between 220-230F. This will take around 8-10 minutes.
  2. Pour this mixture into a mixing bowl and let it rest for 10 minutes, until it is no longer hot.
  3. Whisk in the egg, vanilla bean paste, instant coffee dissolved in water, baking powder and baking soda. Mix until smooth.
  4. Sift in the flour and fold with a spatula, until a few streaks remain
  5. Add the chopped dark chocolate and 1 cup (130g) of the toffee bits. Fold gently until the chocolate and toffee is evenly dispersed and a cookie dough forms – do not over-mix
  6. Scoop the cookie dough into 12-14 balls using a 2 inch cookie scoop. Make sure there isn’t any exposed toffee or chocolate on the bottom of the cookies, and place the scoops in any dish / plate. Press extra chocolate and the remaining toffee chunks on top of the cookie balls
  7. Chill the cookie dough balls for 24 hours (it’s so worth it – but don’t go under 12 hours!)

Bake:

  1. Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350F (conventional / no fan) and line 2 light colored baking sheets with parchment paper
  2. Place the cookie dough balls onto the baking sheets, keeping at least 3″ of distance between them.
  3. Transfer to the pre-heated oven. Bake for 7 minutes, then remove from the oven (close the oven door so it doesn’t cool down). Bang the pans on your counter 2-3 times, and use a cookie cutter to scoot the cookies into perfect rounds. Return to the oven for another 2 to 3 minutes, until the edges are crisp and the centers are still soft to the touch
  4. Remove the cookies from the oven, and let them cool down completely on the baking sheets (if they look too dark, pull the parchment off the sheet)
  5. Serve and enjoy!

Video Tutorial

Notes

  • Make ahead: You can make these cookie dough balls ahead of time and keep them in a ziplock in the fridge for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Bake the cookies straight from the fridge/freezer (you may need to add 2-4 minutes of baking time if frozen) and enjoy them fresh whenever you want them
  • Storage: Keep any leftover cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, and reheat in the toaster oven for the ideal texture

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Chocolate chip cookies on a white background

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