These Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies will be your new favorite obsession! Made with brown butter and instant espresso powder, they're rich and filled with deep flavors and melty chocolate chips! A coffee lover's dream!
I have made it very clear all over my blog that my two obsessions are brown butter & espresso. It's probably no surprise this Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies recipe has made it to my blog. The real surprise is that I didn't start the blog with these cookies. But perfection takes time, right? They're made using brown butter, a combination of brown sugar and granulated sugar, and loads of espresso powder, for the best flavors a cookie could ever need!
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Brown Butter: Need I say more? Brown butter as the base of a cookie is pure heaven. The nutty and deep flavors it lends to cookies is just unmatched!
- Espresso Powder: One of my FAVORITE ingredients in baking is espresso and these cookies are SO GOOD because of it! If you're a coffee fan, these coffee cookies are for you!
- No Chill Cookie: Don't we all love a no-chill cookie? These Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies turn out perfectly bursting with flavor in less than an hour! There's an option to chill for deeper flavor, if you have the time.
Jump to:
Ingredients You'll Need
- Butter: Using brown butter in this recipe gives the cookies an even greater nutty flavor. It really takes a chocolate chip cookie to new heights when you take that extra step and brown the butter!
- Espresso Powder: The STAR of this recipe is a ton of instant espresso powder. My favorites to use are Delallo or King Arthur Baking. Both have excellent flavors.
- Flour: Best to use all purpose flour. Make sure to properly measure.
- Baking soda: An essential part of a cookie!
- Salt: To add flavor and balance.
- Sugar: Both brown sugar and granulated sugar are used, and an equal amount.
- Egg: 1 egg and 1 egg yolk to add a little extra chew to the cookies.
- Vanilla extract: Use as much as you like. More flavor, the better.
- Chocolate: For this recipe I really like using chocolate chips, but chopped chocolate works great also.
See recipe card for quantities.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies
Steps to make brown butter
- Melt butter in a medium sauce pan on medium heat. Stir the butter to make sure it melts evenly. Once the butter is completely melted, it will start to foam up. Continue stirring the butter. As it cooks, it will start to change into a deeper color. This could take 6-8 minutes.
- You’ll start to notice a nutty aroma and the butter will begin to have brown specs at the bottom of the pan.
- The entire process of browning butter from start to finish should not take more than 10 minutes on medium heat.
- Once butter is browned, pour it into a heat proof bowl, add the espresso powder and mix, then set it aside to cool for about 5 or 10 minutes.
Steps to Make Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies
Dry Ingredients: In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt and mix and set aside.
Wet Ingredients: Once brown butter is slightly cooled, add the sugars (both brown and granulated) into the bowl of the brown butter, and mix with a spatula. Add the egg + egg yolk and vanilla extract and stir until combined.
Combine dry & wet: Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the chocolate and mix.
Scoop & Bake: Scoop cookie dough using a large cookie scoop. Place cookie balls on baking sheet, making sure to spread them apart at least 2″. Bake for 10 minutes.
Substitutions
- Brown Sugar: I've used both dark and light brown sugar and both work great. So use whatever you have on hand.
- Chocolate: These cookies work really well with dark or semi-sweet chocolate, but if you'd like to mix in some milk chocolate, that would work. Use chocolate chips, chocolate wafers, or chopped chocolate bars!
Variations
- Nuts: Add your favorite type of nut to the cookies for an extra crunch. You can check out my Brown Butter Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies.
- Toffee: Adding some chopped toffee pieces would make this cookie even better!
- Milk & White Chocolate: Mix and match the chocolate!
Storage
- Room Temperature: You can store these Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies at room temperature in an airtight container or ziploc bag for 4-5 days.
- Freezer: If you'd like to freeze the cookies, After scooping them into balls, you can place them (separated) in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes, then place them all in a ziploc bag. When you’re ready to bake one up, set the oven to 325 degrees and bake for a few minutes longer than the recipe calls for. Just keep an eye out on the edges. Once they’re crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, pull them out of the oven. Tessa from Handle The Heat has a wonderful blog post all about freezing and baking your frozen cookie dough.
Pro Tips
Measure Flour Correctly: As always, with any recipe, use a kitchen scale, as it is the best form of measuring your ingredients. If you don't have a kitchen scale, fluff your flour, scoop flour with a spoon into a measuring cup and level off.
Don't burn the brown butter: Once the brown butter starts to pop, foam, and form specs at the bottom of the pan, remove it. Otherwise you could burn it and it will end up tasting bitter.
Don't over mix: Using a spatula instead of a hand mixer reduces the chances of overmixing, but once your ingredients come together, stop mixing.
Don't over bake: Start checking the cookies at 10 minutes to ensure you don't over bake.
High quality chocolate: I like using Ghirardelli, Lindt, or Guittard because I know they all taste wonderful in recipes. Here's more info on baking with the right chocolate.
Use Large Eggs: Make sure your eggs are large, because that could change the consistency of the batter.
Chill cookie dough: If you'd like to achieve deeper flavor, chill your cookie dough for at least 30 minutes and up to 72 hours.
FAQ
Brown butter instead of regular or melted butter creates a deep and nutty flavor that gives off notes of caramel.
To get round cookies, immediately after removing them from the oven, take a spoon and push the edges into a perfect circle. You can also use a large circle cookie cutter to create a perfectly shaped cookie
YES! Absolutely. After scooping them into balls, you can place them (separated) in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes, then place them all in a ziploc bag.
When you’re ready to bake one up, set the oven to 325 degrees and bake for a few minutes longer than the recipe calls for. Just keep an eye out on the edges. Once they’re crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, pull them out of the oven. Tessa from Handle The Heat has a wonderful blog post all about freezing and baking your frozen cookie dough.
I would not suggest that you do. Instant coffee is different than espresso powder and tends to have larger granules. It's best to stick with espresso powder for best results and flavor.
Other Recipes to Try:
- Biscoff Blondies
- Brown Butter Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Espresso Brownies with Espresso Cream Cheese Frosting
- Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Blondies
📖 Recipe
Chocolate Chip Espresso Cookies
Ingredients
- 10 tablespoon (141g) unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon Instant espresso powder I've used up to 1½ tablespoon (you can use more or less)
- 1⅔ cup (200g) all purpose flour see note
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup (100g) dark brown sugar
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
- 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips you can use chopped chocolate as well
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
For the Brown Butter
- Melt butter in a medium sauce pan on medium heat. Stir the butter to make sure it melts evenly. Once the butter is completely melted, it will start to foam up. Continue stirring the butter. As it cooks, it will start to change into a deeper color. This could take 6-8 minutes.
- You'll start to notice a nutty aroma and the butter will begin to have brown specs at the bottom of the pan. Continue stirring and remove from the heat and pour into a heat-proof bowl, then stir in the espresso powder, and let cool slightly before continuing with recipe. The entire process of browning butter from start to finish should not take more than 10 minutes on medium heat.
For the Cookies
- In a separate bowl, Add flour, salt, and baking soda, whisk then set aside.
- Once brown butter is slightly cooled, add the sugars (both brown and granulated) into the bowl of the brown butter, and mix with a spatula. Add the egg + egg yolk and vanilla extract and stir until combined.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the chocolate mix.
- Scoop cookie dough using a large cookie scoop (I use 3 tablespoon cookie scoop). Place on baking sheet, making sure to spread them apart at least 2".
- Optional: Chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes (up to 72 hours)- this will help develop more flavor, and reduce spreading.
- Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven. Let cool for a few minutes on baking sheet and then transfer to cooling rack.
- Sprinkle with sea salt and enjoy.
Notes
- If you don't have a scale to measure your flour, instead you can use the fluff and scoop method. Fluff the flour with a spoon, then spoon the flour into a measuring cup, then using a butter knife, level off the flour. This way you won't over measure.
- If you happen to over measure your flour, and once you've added all your ingredients, you find that the mixture is too crumbly, dry and not coming together like cookie dough, just add one tablespoon of milk at a time until the dough is a perfect soft and pliable texture and easily scoopable.
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