These soft and chewy, sweet and salty Butterscotch Cookies are addicting. Use my tips for getting perfect cookies every time. You will love these!
These Salted Butterscotch Cookies are gold. If you love the combo of sweet and salty (Hi, that’s me!) you will go crazy for these. Soft and chewy cookies loaded with creamy butterscotch chips and finished with a sprinkling of flaky sea salt. It’s like the butterscotch cookies of our childhood elevated to a level of maximum deliciousness.
Why you’ll love this recipe
Ease: This cookie dough comes together in under 10 minutes. No fancy techniques or equipment. This is the same base cookie dough as my Kitchen Sink Cookies (one of our faves!).
Texture: Crisp edges, soft centers, and chewiness throughout. The perfect cookie texture.
Flavor: The delicious flavor combination of butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and butterscotch with hints of sea salt.
Freezer friendly: Freeze leftover baked cookies or freeze unbaked cookie dough balls to make freshly baked cookies any time.
Recipe tips:
- Butter should be softened to cool room temperature. It should be soft but still cool to the touch. If the butter is over-softened (or beginning to melt) the cookies will spread too much in the oven.
- Optional chill time. You can bake these cookies immediately after preparing the dough, but I prefer to chill the dough in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. I find that the texture of the cookies improves from this short chill/resting time.
- Line your baking sheets with parchment paper. This helps the cookies bake evenly and prevents them from spreading too much. Bonus: it also makes cleanup a breeze!
- Use a cookie scoop for evenly sized cookies.
- Under bake the cookies. You should remove these cookies from the oven when they are just starting to turn light golden brown but they are still undercooked. They should be so soft that you cannot pick them up off the baking sheet without them falling apart. They will firm up as they cool on the baking sheet.
- Add a few extra butterscotch chips on top of the cookies right after baking. This makes the cookies a bit more pretty and makes the butterscotch chips more visible. I don’t recommend adding them to the dough balls before baking because the exposed butterscotch chips might burn in the oven.
Serving and storage
Serving: Serve at room temperature or slightly warm.
Storage: Store tightly covered at room temperature for several days or store in the freezer. Baked cookies can be stored in the freezer for up to 3 months and cookie dough balls can be frozen for up to 2 months.
Baking frozen cookie dough: If possible, allow the dough balls to thaw in the refrigerator overnight, then bake from the fridge, adding a minute or two to the bake time. If baking straight from the freezer, add 2-4 minutes to the bake time and give the frozen dough balls a little smoosh down before baking to encourage spreading.
Recipe
Salted Butterscotch Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour*
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened but still cool to the touch**
- ½ cup brown sugar (light or dark), packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup butterscotch chips
- flaky finishing salt (like Maldon), for topping
- additional butterscotch chips, for topping cookies (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a small bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat butter and both sugars for 2 minutes, scraping the bowl as needed. Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined, scraping the bowl and beater(s) as needed. Add the flour mixture, beating until just combined. Add 1 cup butterscotch chips and stir by hand until combined. Place the dough in the refrigerator to chill for 15 minutes.
- Scoop 1½ tablespoon portions of dough and place the dough balls a couple inches apart on the baking sheets. Sprinkle the top of each dough ball with flaky finishing salt. Bake the cookies for 9-11 minutes, until the edges are beginning to turn golden brown and the center is still slightly underdone. Rotate the baking sheets halfway through cooking time, so that the cookies brown evenly. Make sure not to over bake; the cookies should be soft enough that you cannot pick them up off the baking sheet when they are fresh out of the oven (they will firm up as they cool). Place the baking sheets on wire racks to cool completely. If desired, you can gently place a few extra butterscotch chips onto the top of each cookie when they are fresh out of the oven.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Information is an estimate based on third-party calculations and may vary based on products used and serving sizes.
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment and rating below!
Noelle Simpson
Wow! The flavors in these were unreal, loved them! Added extra butterscotch chips on top of that, delicious!
Allison
I’m glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Kim
Oh my! Thank you for the recipe. Melt in your mouth good!
Elmo
Amazing cookies! Everyone loves them. Thanks for the recipe:) I doubled it and now I’m in heaven.
Allison
Thanks for the kind review. I’m glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Allison
Oh wow, these were amazing! I didn’t have enough butterscotch chips (only had half a cup) so I did 1/2 a cup of butterscotch chips and 1/2 a cup of chopped pecans. I also didn’t have finishing salt, so I used crushed pretzels instead. The cookies turned out amazing – perfectly chewy and the pecans and pretzels added a nice touch. I normally am not a huge fan of butterscotch but with these modifications I managed to enjoy them. My family also thought they were a huge hit!
Allison
That sounds delicious! I’m glad you enjoyed them. 🙂
FF
Hello! Thank you for the recipe!
Is it okay to use normal salt if I don’t have sea salt?
Allison
That should be fine. You might not need the finishing salt added on top. Enjoy!