Nutty brown butter oatmeal cookies laced with coffee grounds. Perfectly crisp on the outside while still soft and chewy in the middle.
The Ingredients:
These ingredients are pretty standard, but there are a few twists and twists. Here’s what to grab from your pantry.
- Butter: Half of the butter is softened, the other half is browned. As much as I love brown butter in order for cookies to have the structure and crumb they need, half of it needs to be softened.
- Brown Sugar: So many people under-measure brown sugar. Be sure to complete pack it into your measuring cup. In order to get the most reliable measurement, a kitchen scale is a great investment.
- Granulated Sugar: This recipe uses majority brown sugar but for a cookie with a crisper outside like these, granulated sugar is necessary for the structure and crystallization.
- Egg: Nothing fancy here. I made these cookies with my egg straight from the fridge.
- Vanilla Extract: Nielsen Massey vanilla extract is my absolute favorite. Be sure to measure it, under-vanillaing makes a bigger difference then you think.
- Coffee Grounds: You don’t need expensive or the highest quality coffee grounds, I make this recipe with the Safeway store brand medium roast grounds. The coffee flavor isn’t super pronounced but it brings out great notes of the chocolate.
- Flour: Spoon flour into your measuring cup to get the most accurate amount!
- Baking Soda: This recipe uses baking soda instead of baking powder to make a spread out and caramelized cookie.
- Salt: Salt and chocolate chunk cookies go perfectly together, add salt into the dough and sprinkle some flaky salt on top before baking for an extra kick.
- Rolled Oats: Be sure to use rolled or old-fashioned oats over quick cooking oats (they’ll turn your cookies into porridge).
- Chopped Chocolate: You CAN use chocolate chips if that’s all you have, but they won’t get all melty and ooey gooey as cookies with chopped chocolate.
My Favorite Tools (affiliate link):
The Process:
Start by browning butter. Melt and continue to heat 4 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan until it turns amber. It will snap, crackle, pop, but don’t worry. I go more in depth into browned butter in this post.
https://dishingwithdelaney.com/brown-butter-carrot-cake-scones/
While the butter cools, mix together your dry ingredients and coffee grounds. Once the brown butter has cooled combine it with the softened butter and sugars and beat on medium high with an electric or stand mixer until the mixture is airy and pale. This gives the cookie its crunchy outside, but chewy center. Then add in the egg and vanilla and mix on medium until no streaks of egg remain. Dump in the drys and mix together on low until just combined, overmixing will result a tough cookie. Finally fold in the oats and chocolate, the dough is now complete.
Scoop the dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet into 3 tablespoon sized balls, cover with plastic wrap or aluminum and let them chill in the fridge for 45 minutes. Chilling the cookies helps to give them the perfect spread in the oven and allows the brown butter flavor to absorb into the cookies. Then bake the cookies in an oven preheated to 350ºF for 12-14 minutes until the tops are just golden. Let them cool on their baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Enjoy these brown butter oatmeal cookies with coffee ice cream or just on their own!
FAQs/Tips and Tricks:
I promise I wouldn’t put chilling time in this if it wasn’t completely necessary. Because half of the butter in this recipe is melted, it must have the time to re-firm up in the fridge. Chilling also prevents over spreading in the oven and lets the brown butter and coffee flavors truly become pronounced.
Just omit it! I promise they will still be delicious no matter what. I prefer the extra nuttiness from the coffee grounds, but if that’s not your thing it’s okay.
I would usually recommend using the Cloudy Kitchen cookie scooting method which involves using a cookie cutter to spin outside the cookie. But I’ve found these cookies are super fragile when they first come out of the oven and scooting them breaks them. Instead, try to make super even balls before baking and you should get something circular.
If you made these cookies, don’t forget to leave a review and tag me on Instagram with your finished product. I love seeing what you create in the kitchen!
Print
Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Chill Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 9 large cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Nutty brown butter oatmeal cookies laced with coffee grounds. Perfectly crisp on the outside while still soft and chewy in the middle.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter chilled
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar (150g)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar (50g)
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp coffee grounds
- 1 cup flour (120g)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1.5 cups rolled oats (not quick cooking)
- 1 cup chopped chocolate
Instructions
1) To make the brown butter, melt 4 tablespoons of the chilled butter in a saucepan stirring frequently for 5 minutes until deep amber and dark brown bits have developed at the bottom. Pour into a heatproof bowl and let cool to room temperature.
2) While the brown butter cools, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and coffee grounds in a small bowl. Whisk together until the coffee grounds are easily dispersed.
3) Once the brown butter has cooled, combine the softened butter, browned butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together in the bowl of a stand with a paddle attachment or electric mixer. Beat these ingredients together for 5 minutes until light, fluffy, and very pale in color.
4) Then add in the egg and vanilla and beat for another minute until no streaks of egg are visible. The consistency will be batter like.
5) Dump in the dry ingredients and mix on low just until the flour fully combines. Then fold in the oats and chopped chocolate.
6) Scoop the dough into scant 1/4 cup sized balls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cover with plastic wrap and let chill in the fridge for 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
7) Once chilled, place the cookie dough in the preheated oven and bakes for 12-14 minutes until they are lightly golden on the top. Let fully cool and enjoy!
Notes
These cookies should be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 342
- Sugar: 30.6g
- Sodium: 223.3mg
- Fat: 13.2g
- Carbohydrates: 44.4mg
- Protein: 4.8g
- Cholesterol: 51.2g
Keywords: brown butter, cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip cookies, coffee cookies
Was so excited to make these and they did not disappoint! Love the combo of coffee, chocolate and oats!!!
★★★★★
I found these to be overly sweet. I will try them again, but eliminate the white sugar, and perhaps add 1/4 cup of almond flour.
★★★
I’m sorry these turned out too sweet. Almond flour could be a good fix, these cookies are also pretty caramelized so I do think you could reduce the brown sugar by 1/4 cup and they would still be structurally fine. You could also use darker chocolate blend if that’s up your alley.