Brown Butter Hazelnut Chunk Cookies

These Brown Butter Hazelnut Chunk Cookies will make you forget everything you thought you knew and loved about classic chocolate chip cookies. These cookies have crisp edges, soft centers, deep flavor from the brown butter, melty pockets of chocolate, and the most incredible candied hazelnut crunch. The extra effort is 100% worth it for these gourmet quality cookies!

If Oregon were a cookie, I think it would be this one. When I took a poll about what dessert might best represent the state of Oregon for my These United Desserts series over on Instagram, I expected most people to suggest marionberry pie or even a Voodoo donut. But by far the majority opinion was that it should be something featuring hazelnuts (or filberts as they are called in Oregon).

99% of the hazelnuts grown in the United States come from Oregon, so I thought it was fitting to make something inspired by the state rather than claiming some long-established “official” Oregon dessert. But these were so over-the-top incredible that I think we should petition the state to adopt this cookie as its official state dessert!

I built these cookies around the rich, toasty, buttery flavor of hazelnuts and brown butter. Then I added chopped chocolate, candied hazelnuts, and flaky salt to make them feel just a little extra special.

Even using chunks of chocolate as opposed to chocolate chips was a choice inspired by everyone’s favorite character from “The Goonies”. Nobody can resist Chunk! It felt like the perfect way to create a dessert that’s inspired by Oregon in more than one way.

Ingredient Notes

Here are the key ingredients that make these cookies special:

• Butter: You’ll brown the butter first, which gives the cookies a deeper, nuttier, more caramelized flavor than a standard cookie dough.
• Hazelnuts: Look for whole, skin-on hazelnuts (aka filberts), which are best for roasting. You can sometimes purchase pre-roasted hazelnuts from the store and use those instead, but you will get better results if you toast them yourself at home to draw out their natural nuttiness.
• Chocolate: Get a good bar of chocolate and chop it into chunks yourself. I like the pound plus dark chocolate or semisweet bars from Trader Joe’s for both quality and value, but milk chocolate would be excellent in these cookies as well. Chopped chocolate works best here because it gives you larger, more dramatic chocolate pockets than regular chocolate chips.
• Sugar: You’ll use sugar in both the cookie dough and the candied hazelnuts. A mix of dark brown sugar and granulated sugar add depth to the cookie dough base.
• Eggs: A combination of whole eggs and egg yolks adds richness and chewiness to the cookies.
• Flour: Regular all-purpose flour works great for most cookie recipes, including this one.
• Baking powder, baking soda, and salt: This trio is in most baking recipes for leavening and flavoring.
• Corn Syrup: Helps prevent the caramelized sugar from crystallizing when making the candied hazelnuts so they stay glossy and crisp.
• Flaky Salt: This finishes the cookies beautifully and helps balance all the sweetness. There is also some regular salt in the dough itself.

How to Brown Butter for Cookies

Brown butter is one of my favorite ways to add instant depth to a cookie recipe.

Start by melting the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. As it cooks, it will foam and sputter a bit before the milk solids settle and begin to toast. Keep stirring or swirling the pan so nothing burns on the bottom.

You’re looking for:

• golden brown bits at the bottom
• a nutty, warm aroma
• a rich amber color

Once it smells amazing and looks golden brown, take it off the heat right away. Brown butter can go from perfect to burnt surprisingly fast. Pour it from the pan to a heat-safe mixing bowl and let it cool a bit before adding the rest of the cookie ingredients.

How to Toast Hazelnuts

Toasting hazelnuts is worth the extra step because it brings out the natural oils, which gives the cookies a much stronger hazelnut flavor. Plus, it also loosens the skins which can add a bitter taste (although they are perfectly edible and you might not even notice if you want to skip removing the skins).

To toast them, spread your hazelnuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, or until fragrant. This can also be done in a dry pan over medium heat. Once they come out of the oven, transfer the nuts to a clean dish towel and rub them together to remove most of the skins.

Don’t worry if a few stubborn bits stay on. They do not need to be perfectly skin-free.

How to Make Candied Hazelnuts

After toasting, I like to go the extra mile by making candied hazelnuts. They are one of the best parts of this recipe because they add a crisp, sweet crunch that contrasts so well with the soft cookie.

To make them, you just cook sugar, corn syrup, and water together until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins bubbling. Once it turns a light amber color, remove it from the heat and stir in the toasted hazelnuts to coat them thoroughly, then immediately spread them out on a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat or parchment paper. They will want to clump together but try to push them down flat into an even layer as much as you can.

Once cool, chop them into pieces (I still like a few good chunks – this is mostly to break them up) and fold them into the dough or press them into the tops of the cookies as desired. Or just snack on them because they are so yummy!

How to Make Brown Butter Hazelnut Chunk Cookies

1. Brown the butter. Cook the butter until golden and nutty, then let it cool.
2. Toast the hazelnuts. Bake the hazelnuts until fragrant, then rub off most of the skins.
3. Candy the hazelnuts. Cook the sugar, corn syrup, and water together, then coat the toasted hazelnuts and let them cool completely.
4. Combine the wet ingredients. Combine the brown butter with the sugars, eggs, and vanilla.

5. Mix in the dry ingredients. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. This dough is soft enough that you can stir these in by hand.
6. Add the mix-ins. Stir in the chopped hazelnuts and chocolate chunks.

7. Scoop first, then chill. This is my preferred method. Scoop the dough into balls and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet, then cover and chill for 2 hours. You could even freeze the balls of dough at this point and bake them straight from frozen later.

8. Bake. Bake until the edges are set and lightly golden while the centers still look a little soft. The cookies will continue to set up on the hot pan.
9. Finish with flaky salt. Sprinkle the cookies with flaky salt right after baking while they are still warm.

Troubleshooting

• My brown butter burned? It likely stayed on the heat too long. Watch it carefully once the milk solids begin to brown.
• My hazelnuts still have skins on them? That’s okay. You only need to remove most of them.
• My candied hazelnuts are sticky? They may not have cooked quite long enough, or they didn’t cool spread out. This isn’t a huge problem since you can just chop them up and throw them in the cookie dough anyway.
• My cookies spread too much? The dough probably wasn’t chilled long enough, or the butter was too warm when the dough was mixed.
• My dough is too hard to scoop? That’s why I recommend scooping before chilling instead of refrigerating one big bowl of dough. You can let the dough sit out on the counter for 10-20 minutes and it should soften enough to be scoopable.

Storage Tips

Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for several days.

You can also refrigerate or freeze the dough balls and bake them later, which makes this a great make-ahead cookie recipe. Or freeze the baked cookies and let them thaw on the counter at room temperature before enjoying.

More Cookie Recipes

• Levain Copycat Caramel Coconut Cookies
• Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Marrietta’s Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Kitchen Sink Cookies