These delicious butterscotch cookies are made with brown butter which gives the cookies an amazingly complex flavor. Soft, chewy, rich, and flavorful, these delicious cookies are both sweet and salty, and make the perfect sweet treat everyone will enjoy.
I’ve always loved the flavor of butterscotch. When I was a little girl, my grandmother had a purse full of little butterscotch candies – as all grandmothers do, I’m sure. And while other children turned their noses up at them, I waited for her to reach in and hand me one or two. When I got older and began cooking and baking, I made my fair share of butterscotch cookies. I still do, in fact. However, it wasn’t until relatively recently that I discovered the joys of baking cookies with brown butter. I use it in place of softened butter for these cookies and that sweet, nutty, almost toffee-like flavor pairs so well with the butterscotch!
Butterscotch Cookies
These delicious cookies start with butter than I brown until it’s golden and amber. Then, I use it in place of softened butter in a simple cookie dough that bakes up soft and chewy thanks to the brown butter and the sour cream I use in it. Finally, I fold in butterscotch chips and bake the cookies until they’re golden, soft, and chewy. It’s a quick and easy cookie recipe that will have everyone begging for more without you begging to get out of the kitchen.
Why You’ll Love This Butterscotch Cookie Recipe
- These cookies are made with brown butter, which adds a richness and nutty flavor to the cookies
- The butterscotch chips add sweetness and intense flavor to the cookies.
- The cookies are soft and chewy, and the brown butter helps create a tender, flavorful cookie.
Butterscotch Cookies Ingredients
This recipe uses basic baking ingredients that you probably have in your kitchen, already like baking powder, flour, sugar, and the like. Anything you don’t have can be found easily at your local grocery store.
- All purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Butter
- Brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Large egg + 1 egg yolk
- Vanilla extract
- Sour cream
- Butterscotch chips
- Sea salt
How to Make Butterscotch Cookies with Brown Butter
Even beginners will have no trouble with this recipe. It’s an easy, straightforward cookie recipe, and even browning the butter is incredibly simple.
Step 1: Brown the Butter
Cook the butter over medium heat in a frying pan, stirring constantly, until it turns an amber color. Remove from the heat immediately and pour into a medium mixing bowl. Let it cool for about 15 minutes.
Step 2: Combine the Wet Ingredients
Stir the brown sugar and sugar into the brown butter until combined. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and sour cream to the brown butter mixture until combined.
Step 3: Combine the Dry Ingredients
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together.
Step 4: Make the Cookie Dough
Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat on low speed until combined. Then, stir the butterscotch chips into the cookie dough.
Step 5: Roll and Bake
Scoop out dough portions with a 1-inch cookie scoop, rolling each one into a ball and placing it on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 11 minutes or until the edges start to brown.
Step 6: Cool
Remove the cookies from the oven, sprinkle them with sea salt, and let them sit on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Then, transfer them to a wire rack to cool.
Recipe Tips
- Remove the butter from the heat as soon as it turns amber. It’s easy to burn it.
- Let your butter cool before combining it with the other wet ingredients so you don’t curdle the sour cream or scramble the eggs.
- It’s important to roll the scooped dough into balls to help control the spread of the cookies.
- Be sure you let your cookies sit on the baking sheet for 5 minutes so carry-over cooking time can finish baking them to perfection.
Variations
- Try adding chopped walnuts or pecans to your cookies.
- If you don’t have sour cream, you can use full-fat Greek yogurt.
- Try using a mix of half butterscotch and half white chocolate baking chips.
What to Serve with Butterscotch Cookies
There’s nothing better with these cookies than a glass of ice-cold milk or a cup of hot coffee or tea.
Recipe FAQ
Brown butter makes a huge difference in cookies. It makes a thinner, softer, and chewier cookie with nutty, toffee-like undertones.
If you love deep flavor and thin, soft, chewy cookies, then brown butter is exactly the way to go. It’s as simple as using the same amount of butter called for in the recipe but browning it instead of softening it.
You can make your cookies chewier by adding an extra egg yolk and/or using more brown sugar than white sugar. In addition, browning the butter called for in the recipe makes cookies chewier, as well.
They actually probably did get soft and melty just like chocolate chips. Butterscotch chips tend to hold their shape even when they soften unless they’re stirred. That means that although they’ve gotten soft and melty in your cookie, they look like they haven’t.
Cookie dough freezes very well and will last for up to 3 months in the freezer when stored properly. Be aware, however, that freezing this brown butter butterscotch cookie dough solidifies the butter in the dough, which defeats the purpose of browning it in the first play.
How to Store and Freeze Leftover Butterscotch Cookies
Store these cookies for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container at room temperature. For longer storage, place the cookies in an airtight, freezer-safe container in single layers separated by parchment paper and freeze for up to 3 months.
Try These Delicious Butterscotch Cookies Today
This butterscotch cookie recipe takes the classic toffee-like flavor of butterscotch cookies and makes it even more complex and rich by using brown butter. Adding a nutty undertone and making for super soft and chewy cookies, brown butter is the secret to these incredibly delicious and luscious butterscotch cookies. Give them a try, and I know they’ll be a permanent – and prominent – part of your cookie rotation for years to come.
More Delicious Cookie Recipes You’ll Enjoy
These Lemon Cookies with Lemon Glaze are soft, chewy and delicious, and are the perfect summer cookie recipe.
Butterscotch Cookies with Brown Butter
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter
- 1 ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk room temperature
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon sour cream
- 2 cups butterscotch chips
- Sea salt for topping, optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°.
- In a frying pan, brown butter over medium heat, stirring constantly until butter turns an amber color. Remove from heat as soon as the butter starts to brown.
- Pour browned butter into a medium bowl and set aside to cool for 10-15 minutes.
- Add the brown sugar and sugar into the brown butter stir until combined.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and sour cream to the brown butter mixture until combined.
- In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda and salt together. Gradually add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and beat on low speed until combined.
- Stir butterscotch chips into cookie dough.
- Using a 1 inch cookie scoop, roll cookie dough and place on ungreased baking sheet(s).
- Bake for 10-11 minutes or until edges start to brown.
- Remove from the oven, sprinkle a bit of sea salt on each cookie, let sit on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then remove and place on a wire rack to cool.
Notes
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