These brown butter chocolate chip cookie dough cupcakes are one of my favorite creations! They have a moist brown butter cupcake base, then they're stuffed with edible chocolate chip cookie dough, and topped with brown butter cookie dough buttercream and mini chocolate chip cookies!
It might sound like a lot of brown butter....and that's because it is. But it is worth it!
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Why You'll Love These Cupcakes!
- Perfect birthday cupcakes - If you have a chocolate chip cookie lover in your life, these cookie dough cupcakes are the best way to say happy birthday!
- Edible cookie dough filling - These cupcakes are filled with creamy, edible cookie dough! What's not to love??
- Cookie dough buttercream - This brown butter frosting is made with brown sugar and heat treated flour, so that it takes just like cookie dough!
- Super easy to make and decorate - These cupcakes are incredibly easy to make and are garnished with mini chocolate chip cookies!
If you love chocolate and cookie dough as much as I do, you might also like these black forest cupcakes or these chocolate chip cookie dough macarons!
Ingredient Notes
Cake Flour - I always use cake flour in my cupcakes because it makes them super soft and tender, but all purpose flour also works great!
Heat Treated Flour - You need regular all purpose flour for the frosting and cookie dough, but the key is we're going to heat treat it first! You could also heat treat more cake flour instead!
Mini Chocolate Chips - You could use regular chocolate chips, but mini chips just feel right for this cookie dough! My favorite are the Ghirardelli semi-sweet mini chips, but you can use whatever brand you prefer!
Brown Butter - Brown butter makes everything better! But you can use regular unsalted butter if you prefer.
Edible Cookie Dough - You can't have cookie dough cupcakes without cookie dough!
Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies - I love topping these cupcakes with mini brown butter chocolate chip cookies! They're the most adorable little garnish!
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
How to Make Brown Butter
If you've never made brown butter before, I have a whole post all about it with all my tips and tricks! It also includes step by step photos so you can see exactly what the butter should look like. Click here to learn how to make brown butter!
Since every component of this recipe calls for brown butter, I find it easier to just make one large batch and then weigh out the difference using a kitchen scale (½ cup of butter weighs about 113 grams). However, if you don't have a scale you can just make three separate batches of brown butter!
I also highly recommend just going ahead and making all of the brown butter the night before. You can store in an airtight container and keep it at room temperature overnight.
How to Make Edible Cookie Dough
I have a full post with all my tips and tricks for making this edible chocolate chip cookie dough but I'll also include the recipe and brief instructions in the recipe card below!
In order to make this cookie dough safe to consume raw, we just have to make a few small changes. Something you might not know is that flour isn't supposed to be eaten raw. There is a slight possibility of e-coli being found in raw flour, so it needs to be heat treated in the oven to kill off any possible bacteria before consuming. And of course let’s skip the eggs.
Note: Do not bake this cookie dough!! Since this cookie dough doesn't have egg or leavening (baking soda/powder), the cookies would turn into one giant, flat, burnt cookie.
How to Heat Treat Flour
This recipe calls for heat treated flour in both the edible cookie dough and the buttercream (1 ½ cups total) but you can go ahead and heat treat extra just to have on hand! Once the flour is cool, it can be stored in an airtight container!
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread 1 cup of all purpose flour on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake for 5-7 minutes or until the flour registers at least 160°F on an instant read thermometer.
Let cool completely before using.
Sometimes heat treated flour will get clumpy, so be sure to sift it before using!
How to Make Cookie Dough Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 12 cup cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
Whisk the cake flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk the brown butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla together until combined.
Stir in about half of the flour mixture. Then stir in the milk and the rest of the flour mixture and mix until fully combined.
The batter will be thin.
Pour about ¼ cup of batter into each cupcake liner (they should be about halfway full).
Bake at 350°F for 18-22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack. Let the cupcakes cool completely before decorating.
Use a cupcake corer to remove the center of each cupcake, then fill with a tablespoon of edible cookie dough.
Frost cooled cupcakes with the cookie dough buttercream and garnish with mini chocolate chip cookies! If desired, garnish with extra mini chocolate chips.
Cupcake Decorating Tips
Make sure you let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting!!
Use a cupcake corer to easily remove the center of your cupcakes before filling with edible cookie dough.
For these big beautiful frosting swirls on these brown butter cookie dough cupcakes, I use the large round tip from this decorating kit. The tips are much larger than standard sizes and so fun for decorating cupcakes!
Garnish with mini brown butter chocolate chip cookies!
Tips for the Best Baked Goods
Use room temperature ingredients! Always make sure ingredients like butter, eggs, milk, yogurt, etc. are at room temperature before baking (unless the recipe indicates otherwise)! This ensures they'll incorporate into the batter more easily and leads to overall better texture. Remove all ingredients from the fridge 30 minutes to an hour before baking for best results.
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, dense baked goods. [Measure cocoa powder the same way!]
Use an oven thermometer! Just because your oven says it's 350, doesn't mean it is! If you oven hasn't been calibrated recently, it can be as much as 30 degrees off, which will negatively affect all baked goods from cakes to macarons! An oven thermometer is the easiest/cheapest way to ensure your oven is always at the proper temperature.
Make sure you baking powder is fresh! Baking powder is important for helping baked goods rise properly, but it has a relatively short shelf life once opened, so it's one of the few items I never buy in bulk! To test if your baking powder is still fresh, add a small amount to boiling water. If it bubbles it's still good to use, but if not it's time to toss it!
Recipe FAQ's
These cupcakes will last in the fridge for up to 3 days. However, they taste best when served at room temperature! I like to let them sit at room temperature for about an hour before serving.
Of course not! You can absolutely substitute regular unsalted butter. I just love the extra flavor that brown butter adds.
No! Store-bought cookie dough is meant to be baked so it isn't safe to eat raw.
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
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Recipe Card
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes
Ingredients
Edible Cookie Dough
- 1 cup all purpose flour, heat treated
- ½ cup unsalted brown butter, room temperature
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons milk
- ½ cup mini chocolate chips
Cupcakes
- ½ cup unsalted brown butter, melted
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups cake flour , substitute all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup whole milk
Cookie Dough Buttercream
- 1 cup unsalted brown butter, room temperature
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ½ cup all purpose flour, heat treated
- 1-2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- I highly recommend making brown butter and heat treated flour the night before so they have time to fully cool! See notes.
Edible Cookie Dough
- Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or a large bowl and hand mixer, cream together the room temperature brown butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, and vanilla until light and fluffy (3-4 minutes).
- Add in the flour and milk and mix until just combined. If the dough is too dry, you can add in more milk 1 teaspoon at a time until the dough comes together.
- Fold in the chocolate chips and then let chill in the fridge until ready to use.
Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 12 cup cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
- Whisk the cake flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the brown butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla together until combined.
- Stir in about half of the flour mixture. Then stir in the milk and the rest of the flour mixture and mix until fully combined. The batter will be thin.
- Pour about ¼ cup of batter into each cupcake liner (they should be about halfway full).
- Bake at 350°F for 18-22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack. Let the cupcakes cool completely before decorating.
- Use a cupcake corer to remove the center of each cupcake, then fill with a tablespoon of edible cookie dough.
Cookie Dough Buttercream
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter, brown sugar, and vanilla together until smooth.
- Add in the powdered sugar and heat treated flour, and mix until fully combined. Beat the frosting on high for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add in milk 1 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.
- Frost cooled cupcakes and garnish with mini chocolate chip cookies!
- These cupcakes will last in the fridge for up to 3 days. However, they taste best when served at room temperature! I like to let them sit at room temperature for about an hour before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Caitlyn says
Made these for work and everyone absolutely loved them!
Diamond says
Made the cupcakes and buttercream!! Soo amazing! Seriously such a great recipe and I'm So glad I didn't skip out on browning the butter it made the cupcake just shine. My sister said these were the best cookie dough cupcakes she's ever had. Everyone didn't take a breath while eating them haha!
zhiming says
looks great
Andrea says
Tasty! I added mini chocolate chips to the batter and buttercream and I feel like it elevated it!
Elise says
Can I ask, where did you get your backdrop?
Kyleigh Sage says
Hi! So this backdrop is from an Etsy shop that has now closed (I’m very upset about it). But I have some more of my favorites linked in my blog resources!
Magali says
Such a great recipe! Simple , effective and sooo yummy! I will be making it today:)
Debra says
All the good stuff in one cupcake! Brava!!
Elizabeth says
These are so fun and absolutely delicious! Great recipe!
Marcellina says
Yes, please! I could eat a few of these! Interesting note about heat treating the flour - I didn't know! Thanks!
Andréa Janssen says
Yummie, cookie dough, and a delicious cupcake in one treat. Ideal for those days when you can't choose between them. Really delicious!
Linda says
Oh my....these cupcakes are what I want now. Brown butter...chocolate...cooking dough...cupcake, definitely a party in my mouth!
Alexandra says
These cupcakes are so delicious! Such a fun flavour, and so beautifully presented.