Rich, buttery, savoury, sweet and salty... this all describes these dang delicious cookies!
If you like thick, caramel-y chocolate chip cookies, then this recipe is for you!
These are a little different than your average chocolate chip cookie because they have enhanced butterscotch/toffee undertones. The addition of walnuts (you can leave them out but I love them in this recipe!) adds an element of earthy savoury flavour that complements the buttery cookie dough.
One thing - you must use dark chocolate! No milk chocolate belongs here because the rich sweetness of the cookie dough needs the hint of bitterness that dark chocolate brings. In fact I prefer bittersweet chocolate chips for this recipe.
How to make the best chocolate chip cookies:
The salted butter is really key to make these stand out! You can use unsalted butter and then just add more salt, but when butter is salted itself, it actually has a richer flavour that carries through the entire dough.
These chocolate chip cookies create their own crunchy toffee edges which makes them completely and utterly irresistible!
How to make crunchy chocolate chip cookies?
It's all about the right proportion of butter to sugar as well as the type of sugar.
You may think that to create the toffee flavour, that we should use all brown sugar, but in fact we need some granulated sugar. That's because granulated sugar is more likely to caramelize and will create that CRUNCH factor. When it bakes up with the butter it will become toffee.
The approximate ratio of 1:2 for butter:sugar creates the toffee effect in this recipe. Don't mess with that!
They're crunchy on the outside and still soft in the middle, so basically they're PERFECT.
Do you need to chill cookie dough?
You do not need to refrigerate the cookie dough before baking, but you can!
If you bake them right away they will look like what I've made in these photographs. If you refrigerate the dough for about 1 hour, the cookies will be even thicker and the flavour slightly richer.
Why do you refrigerate cookie dough?
Refrigerating cookie dough serves several purposes:
- it allows the butter to firm up so the cookies spread less during baking
- it gives time for the flour to fully hydrate for chewier cookies that keep for longer
- it allows the baking soda to fully hydrate and absorb into the dough so the cookies will bake more evenly and colour more quickly.
If you really don't like walnuts, I would suggest pecans or another soft nut such as macadamia nuts as a great substitute.
Just don't skimp on the chocolate -- use the good stuff. Here I used a mix of bittersweet chocolate disks and semi-sweet chocolate chips.
For more delicious chewy cookie recipes, check out my other recipes below!
Cookies and Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies
The BEST Chewy Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chewy Reese's Peanut Butter White Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies
Flourless Fudgy Chocolate Brownie Cookies (Small Batch, Gluten-Free)
Small Batch Chewy Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Leave a Commenton Chewy Chocolate Peanut Butter Chunk Cookies
Chewy Chocolate Peanut Butter Chunk Cookies
Caramelized Ripple Chocolate Chip Cookies
Toffee Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup plus 1 tbsp 125g soft unsalted butter
- ½ cup 110g packed dark brown sugar
- ½ cup 100g granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups 215g all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup 113g bittersweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup 60g chopped walnuts
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
- Beat butter with both sugars and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed for 2 minutes until creamy and lightened a bit but more like a thick paste. You can also mix by hand in a large bowl with a sturdy rubber spatula. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl halfway through mixing.
- Beat in egg until well incorporated and creamy. Mix in baking soda and salt. Add flour and chocolate chunks and mix on low until mostly combined, then finish mixing by hand. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours if you desire extra thick cookies.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Use a 1.5-oz trigger or quick-release ice cream scoop to portion mounds of dough and place them onto prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2.5 inches apart. Or roll portions of dough into balls. Flatten them slightly with the palm of your hand and bake for 9-11 minutes until golden around the edges. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for a minute before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
K. Lewis
Made these today but they spread a little more than I prefer and I even refrigerated for 1.5 hours as recommended. Still delicious though! I'll try to 'mound' them more vertically next time :-). I didn't see a specific inclusion of walnuts in the instructions (just the ingredients) so I added them in when I added the chocolate chunks. I used a #50 scoop and ended up with 24 cookies which was the perfect amount for sharing.
christina.marsigliese
Thanks K. Lewis! Glad you enjoyed the cookies.
Vera
Hi! May I use sunflower seeds instead of walnuts? Do they taste almost the same? Would you know? Thank you!!
christina.marsigliese
Hi Vera! I have never tried sunflower seeds and they taste very different to walnuts in my opinion, but I'm sure it would still taste good!
Hillary
Love this recipe! They have such a nice rich caramel flavour.
christina.marsigliese
They're so delicious right? Thanks Hillary!
Rebecca
These are so good! I make them on repeat.
christina.marsigliese
Woohoo!!
candy crush
thank you!