Salted Butterscotch Chocolate Chunk Cookies

By Vaughn Vreeland

Updated October 28, 2025

  • Kelly Marshall for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne.
Media 1 of 2
Ready In
7 hr 15 min
(1 hr 15 min baking; 6 hr resting)
Rating
5(943)
Comments
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This is a grown-up version of the classic chocolate chip cookie: Brown butter infuses the dough with rich butterscotch flavor that pairs perfectly with crunchy toffee bits and chocolate chunks studded throughout. Crisp edges give way to a chewy, dense center, and the cookies are topped with flaky sea salt, which provides a necessary balance to their sweet, caramelized notes. Resting the dough for at least six hours gives it time to mature, deepening its flavor and hydrating the flour, making for a chewier, more gooey cookie. The longer the dough rests, the more pronounced the butterscotch flavor will be. While store-bought toffee bits such as Heath work fine, homemade toffee is worth the effort because its chunks positively melt into the cookies as they bake. 

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Ingredients

Yield:18 large cookies

  • 1 ¼ cups/284 grams salted butter (for unsalted butter, see Tip)

  • Ice, as needed

  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

  • 3 ½ cups/445 grams all-purpose flour

  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

  • 1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda

  • 1 ¼ packed cups/275 grams dark brown sugar

  • ¾ cup/150 grams granulated sugar

  • 2 large eggs

  • 6 ounces/170 grams 70 percent dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)

  • 6 ounces/170 grams milk chocolate, coarsely chopped (about 1 cup)

  • 1 ½ cups/217 grams store-bought toffee bits (or homemade toffee, cut into ½-inch pieces)

  • Flaky sea salt, for finishing

Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Once it begins to bubble vigorously, cook for another 6 to 8 minutes, swirling occasionally, until the bubbles subside and turn into foam, and toasty brown flecks begin to float on the surface. Take off the heat and scrape the bottom of the pan. Pour the browned butter into a heatproof liquid measuring cup. Add a couple ice cubes (or a couple tablespoons of cold water) until you have 1 ¼ cups liquid. Add the vanilla extract, stir and set brown butter mixture aside to cool slightly.

  2. Step 2

    In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. 

  3. Step 3

    In a large bowl, whisk together both sugars and the brown butter mixture until well combined. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking thoroughly after each addition, until the mixture is very smooth, about 1 minute. Add the flour mixture to the brown butter mixture and mix to fully incorporate. Fold in both types of chopped chocolate and the toffee bits.

  4. Step 4

    Using a ¼-cup cookie scoop or measuring cup, scoop mounds of dough (about 100 grams each) onto a baking sheet. Tightly wrap the baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 6 hours and up to 48 hours.

  5. Step 5

    When ready to bake, heat the oven to 350 degrees with racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 6 cookies onto each prepared sheet and bake for 18 to 20 minutes, moving the sheets between the racks and rotating them halfway through, until the cookies have spread slightly and their edges are golden. 

  6. Step 6

    Immediately sprinkle the tops of the cookies with flaky sea salt and let cool on the baking sheets for at least 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough on a single baking sheet. (You can also freeze the balls of dough and bake them for about 20 to 22 minutes.) Cookies will keep, covered at room temperature, for up to 3 days.

Tip

  • Using salted butter can result in a very evenly seasoned cookie, but you can opt for unsalted here, too. If using unsalted butter, simply add  1 ¼ teaspoons kosher salt (such as Diamond Crystal) to your flour mixture in Step 2.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
943 user ratings
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Comments

Rusty Nichols

I never wrote before. ( I had a stroke and it takes me time.) However, I had to tell everyone that this is a Dynamite recipe! I've been cooking for 65years, thanks to my great grandmother, "Pearl". You really hit the nail right out the ballpark with this recipe. I didn't have any milk chocolate, so I sub with white chocolate. Normally, I wouldn't make toffee tell the holidays, but I'm very glad I did. This takes a little bit of time but all good things do!!! "THANKS VV"

Hautbois

I think I might just roll the dough into a log, wrap, chill and then slice & bake.

Sam

Incredible! I substituted King Arthur GF flour, but aside from that made it to recipe. Great flavor and texture. Love how the recipe includes simple ways to elevate a chocolate chip cookie.

Jo

This recipe gives more depth than your boyfriend does, but slightly less than your English professor did. Maybe that should be reversed. Either way, cookies do exactly what they’re supposed to, nothing less.

Nick

I made these yesterday. I've made quite a few variations of chocolate chip cookies over the years, including many with browned butter. This one is really fantastic. I made the toffee from the linked recipe. It's quite easy. A few notes: I made the cookies smaller. I have a 3 tablespoon scoop (which really is quite large), and I used that. I think i got 26 cookies total. The cookies spread a bit because of the toffee. But they clean up nicely if you use the ring trick.

This was great!

This was delicious one thing is that the brown butter exploded after putting an ice cube in. I would recommend waiting longer than you think.

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