These brown butter espresso chocolate chip cookies are soft, chewy, and every coffee lovers dream! They're similar to my classic brown butter chocolate chip cookies but with a rich, coffee flavor from the espresso powder. Perfect for when you want a cookie to go with your morning coffee!
You might also like these mini chocolate chip cookies or these espresso donuts!
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Ingredient Notes
You only need 10 ingredients to make these brown butter espresso chocolate chip cookies!
Brown Butter - My favorite ingredient of all time is brown butter!! Brown butter is just unsalted butter that has been melted and gently cooked to bring out a toasty, nutty flavor. Best of all, brown butter pairs beautifully with the dark chocolate and espresso. If you've never made brown butter before, you can check out this post with all my tips for how to make brown butter!
Espresso Powder - You can't have espresso cookies without espresso powder! King Arthur is my favorite brand of high quality espresso powder! Note: espresso powder is NOT the same as instant espresso!! Espresso powder is much more flavorful and more finely ground, making it more suitable for baking.
Chocolate Wafers - For giant melty chocolate pools, I recommend using chocolate wafers instead of chocolate chips! I love these dark chocolate wafers from Guittard. However, chocolate chips work just fine too! My favorite are the Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate baking chips.
Flaky Sea Salt - There's nothing better than a little sprinkle of flaky sea salt on top of warm chocolate chip cookies!
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
How to Make Perfect Cookies
Browning the butter is technically optional but the extra time is SO worth it! The biggest problem I see people run into when using brown butter in cookies, is not letting the butter cool completely to room temperature before adding it to the dough. So I highly recommend browning the butter the night before you want to make these espresso cookies.
Using a stand or hand mixer, cream together the brown butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until smooth and creamy.
Then add in the espresso powder and cream into the butter and sugar for 1-2 minutes until fully combined.
Add in the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until the texture is light and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes, it should look much paler than before).
Stir in the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until thoroughly combined. The dough should be wet and sticky.
Using a spoon or spatula, gently fold in the dark chocolate wafers.
Spoon a generous 3 tablespoons of dough and roll into balls. If desired, press extra chocolate wafers into the tops of the dough balls.
Cover the dough and chill in the fridge overnight (minimum of 2 hours if you just can't wait).
Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a light colored baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place dough balls at least 2-3 inches apart on the baking sheet (they will spread, I usually only do 6 cookies on a half sheet pan).
Bake cookies for 9-11 minute or until the edges are set and the centers are still soft. Remove from the oven and let rest on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Sprinkle the espresso chocolate chip cookies with flaky sea salt and enjoy!
Why Do I Have to Chill the Dough?
Chilling the dough is super important for a few reasons!
First, letting the dough rest gives the flour time to hydrate. Eggs are the only liquid in these espresso chocolate chip cookies and it takes flour a long time to absorb that moisture. When the flour is hydrated it helps contain the spread of the cookie so that you get a nice set edge and soft, chewy center.
Similarly, the brown butter needs to be as cold as possible before baking so that the cookies don't spread too much.
But don't we want the cookies to spread? Yes, we do and they will. We just don't want them to spread too much because then you get a flat, dry cookie instead of one with a soft, chewy center.
Tips for Perfect Cookies
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, crumbly cookies that don't spread.
Make sure your oven is the proper temperature! Use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is exactly 350°F. If the oven is too cold, the cookies will spread too much and if it's too hot they centers won't bake all the way through. For example, my oven is about 20 degrees off. So I have to set the oven to 370°F in order to get it to bake at 350°F.
Use a lightweight, light colored baking sheet for best results! Believe it or not, a lighter pan makes the cookies bake more slowly than a dark pan, which helps keep them from spreading too much. My favorite pans for baking cookies are:
You also want to use either parchment paper or silicone mats on your cookie sheet to help keep the cookies from spreading.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time, on the center rack. This will ensure all your cookies cook evenly and the bottoms don't burn. Then let the cookie sheet cool completely between batches. This ensures the cookies cook evenly and don't spread too much by being put on a hot pan.
Always under-bake the cookies! If you slightly under-bake the cookies (so the centers are still soft when you remove them from the oven), they'll stay soft and chewy for days!
Do the cookie scoot! In order to get perfectly round cookies, use a large cookie cutter to gently scoot them around as soon as they come out of the oven!
Recipe FAQ's
Store the baked espresso chocolate chip cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. You can also store the dough in the fridge for up to a week and bake a few cookies at a time, as desired.
Yes! Freeze the pre-rolled cookie dough balls on a baking sheet, once frozen transfer to an airtight container and freeze for up to 6 weeks. The frozen cookie dough can go straight from the freezer to the oven, just add 2-3 minutes to the cooking time.
Nope! You can regular unsalted butter if you prefer! I just love the way the brown butter pairs with the espresso powder.
Technically yes, but I don't recommend it. Instant coffee isn't as strong as espresso powder and it also typically has a harsher flavor that doesn't taste as good in the cookies.
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
Brown Butter Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted brown butter, room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons espresso powder
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup dark chocolate wafers, or chocolate chips
- flaky sea salt, optional
Instructions
- Browning the butter is technically optional but the extra time is SO worth it! The biggest problem I see people run into when using brown butter in cookies, is not letting the butter cool completely to room temperature before adding it to the dough. So I highly recommend browning the butter the night before you want to make these espresso cookies.
- Using a stand or hand mixer, cream together the brown butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until smooth and creamy.
- Then add in the espresso powder and cream into the butter and sugar for 1-2 minutes until fully combined.
- Add in the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until the texture is light and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes, it should look much paler than before).
- Stir in the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until thoroughly combined. The dough should be wet and sticky.
- Using a spoon or spatula, gently fold in the dark chocolate wafers.
- Spoon a generous 3 tablespoons of dough and roll into balls. If desired, press extra chocolate wafers into the tops of the dough balls.
- Cover the dough and chill in the fridge overnight (minimum of 2 hours if you just can't wait).
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and line a light colored baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place dough balls at least 2-3 inches apart on the baking sheet (they will spread, I usually only do 6 cookies on a half sheet pan).
- Bake cookies for 9-11 minute or until the edges are set and the centers are still soft. Remove from the oven and let rest on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
- Sprinkle with flaky sea salt and enjoy!
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.
MrsYee says
I made these cookies again today using 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips and about 3/4 of a cup of the caramel bits. The addition of the caramel takes them to another level. I have very large cookie sheets, so put 9 cookies on one sheet. BIG mistake. These cookies were massive and I'd yielded 20 cookies to chill when the recipe said 14! I already had the next tray prepped to bake with 9 cookies, so I cut each of them in half. I'm fine getting a lot more smaller cookies. This recipe is AMAZING! I made the brown butter, as directed. It was easy and so very good.
Kari says
I’ve probably made this recipe 20 times over the past year or so, that’s how good this is! The only tweaks I make to the recipe is that I only add 1 TB of espresso powder because I want the coffee flavor to be subtle. You can’t tell that there’s coffee in it, it just gives it extra depth. I also put a whole 10oz bag of dark chocolate wafers or chips or chopped dark chocolate bar rather than measuring out 1c.
To speed things up, I put the browned butter in the freezer for 30 minutes then make the dough. Then I immediately drop the cookies onto cookie sheets and stick them in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking. It works perfectly and I don’t have to wait hours for butter to cool and dough to chill.
These are phenomenal and my family begs me to make them frequently!
MrsYee says
Made these yesterday. Only had semi-sweet chocolate chips. Will probably add another 1/2 cup of them next time. This is probably one of the best cookies I've ever made. Followed the brown butter recipe to a tee. It's amazing how much flavor the butter takes on!! Impatient as I was and knowing the cookie dough had to chill for a while, I put the bowl with the melted brown butter inside a bowl full of ice water to speed up the cooling process. It got hard pretty fast so I did have to mix it up a lot to get it back to a soft, smooth consistency. My husband bought the Cafe Bustelo Espresso Instant Coffee single serve packets. They worked well. I don't get a whole lot of coffee flavor, but the cookies are so good, I don't know if I want to change anything. Maybe I'll try a different type of espresso powder next time. Regardless, I want to thank Kyleigh for the very descriptive process. Normally, I like to jump to the recipe and move on. I'm so very glad I didn't because it was important to follow the steps she provided. Looking back now, I realize I forgot to do the "cookie scoot", but it's all good. Cannot recommend these enough! These will be sharing the cookie jar with the Gingerdoodle cookies we make. Life is good!!
https://www.dixiecrystals.com/recipes/gingerdoodle-cookies
Taylor says
These are the best cookies I’ve ever made. I pretty much followed instructions exactly, used King Arthur’s espresso powder, browned the butter earlier in the day and let it sit to room temp. Let the dough refrigerate overnight.
Soooo good!!!
Courtney says
Rich flavor, defintely an adult cookie
Rupali says
The brown butter gave these cookies a wonderfully deep nutty flavor. Definitely making these again!