These Vegan Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies are everything you love about chocolate chip cookies with a little coffee-caramel twist! They are the perfect combination of salty and sweet. Let's learn how to make them!
This recipe is based on Tasty's Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies and it is completely vegan!
These cookies are insanely rich and totally indulgent. They utilize the base recipe of our vegan chocolate chip cookies and taken them to a completely different level!
Check out our post on how to make vegan cookies to ensure your cookies come out as perfectly as they possibly can.
Ingredients you'll need for your cookies:
Toffee ingredients:
- vegan butter: provides the fat needed to create a rich, buttery toffee flavor and helps achieve a smooth texture.
- light brown sugar: adds sweetness and caramel-like depth.
- sea salt: enhances the flavor by balancing the sweetness and adds salty contrast.
- water: Helps dissolve the sugar and butter, allowing the toffee to reach the right consistency and prevent burning.
Cookie ingredients:
- vegan butter: adds moisture, richness, and helps create a soft, chewy texture.
- dark brown sugar: provides deep molasses flavor and chewiness, helping to keep the cookies moist and flavorful.
- granulated sugar: contributes to the crispiness of the cookies and balances the molasses flavor.
- instant espresso powder: enhances the chocolate flavor, adding depth and complexity to the cookies.
- baking soda: acts as a leavening agent, helping the cookies rise and spread properly.
- cornstarch: helps create a tender and chewy texture by softening the protein in the flour.
- sea salt: balances the sweetness of the cookies and enhances the overall flavors.
- water: adds moisture to the dough, helping the ingredients combine smoothly.
- vanilla extract: adds warmth and enhances the flavors of the chocolate and toffee.
- all-purpose flour: provides structure and stability to the cookies, giving them the right balance of chewiness and crispiness.
- dark chocolate: provides rich, slightly bitter chocolate chunks that melt into the cookies, pairing beautifully with the other flavors.
Why you'll love these cookies:
- Grownup Cookie Flavor: The combination of rich, buttery toffee, dark chocolate, and a touch of sea salt creates the perfect balance of sweetness and a hint of savory goodness.
- Crispy Edges with a Chewy Center: These cookies have the ideal texture—crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside.
- Rich, Deep Chocolate Flavor: With chunks of dark chocolate and a hint of espresso powder, these cookies deliver a bold, decadent chocolate experience.
- Completely Dairy-Free & Vegan: Enjoy all the indulgence without any animal products—perfect for those following a vegan lifestyle or with dairy allergies.
Steps to make vegan toffee chocolate chip cookies (with pictures!):
Please see the recipe card at the bottom of the page for full instructions and ingredient measurements.
Begin by making the caramel-toffee. Add the vegan butter, brown sugar and salt to a small saucepan. Melt together on the stove. Add a splash of water and continue whisking until the caramel begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
Pour the caramel onto a sheet of parchment paper, spread out with a rubber spatula and freeze for at least 30 minutes.
Cream together the vegan butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add the espresso powder, baking soda, cornstarch, salt, water and vanilla extract. Mix until ingredients are evenly distributed.
Fold the flour into the wet ingredients until cookie dough comes together.
Remove the toffee from the freezer and break it apart with your hands into small chunks. Fold into the cookie dough along with the chopped dark chocolate. Chill the cookie dough overnight.
Place 2-3 tablespoon balls of cookie dough 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Bake for 12-14 minutes.
Allow cookies to sit on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack lined with parchment to cool completely.
Additional tips and tricks:
- Get Ahead: You can prepare the caramel toffee hours or even several days before you prepare the cookie dough. This will allow it to set and harden completely in the freezer.
- Use Softened Vegan Butter: Make sure your vegan butter is softened (not melted) to achieve the perfect consistency when mixing with the sugars for the dough. This creates the correct texture in the cookies. Use a high quality vegan butter - like Earth Balance from the tub!
- Don’t Over-mix the Dough: Mix the ingredients until just combined to avoid over-developing the gluten, which can lead to dense cookies instead of soft and chewy ones.
- Roughly Chop the Chocolate: Use a mix of smaller and larger chunks of dark chocolate to create pockets of melted chocolate throughout the cookies for an indulgent bite.
- Leave Space Between Cookies: Leave enough room between each cookie to allow for spreading while baking. These cookies can get a little oozy so better safe than sorry.
- Make Circular: Due to the toffee-caramel, these cookies can come out a little oozy and misshapen. Gently swirl a large, circular cookie cutter or a wide mouth mug around each cookie right when they come out of the oven.
Using dark chocolate in chocolate chip cookies:
People often wonder what kind of chocolate is best for cookies. By using dark chocolate in chocolate chip cookies, you elevate their flavor, texture, and overall amazingness. Here are some additional benefits:
- Richer, More Intense Flavor: Dark chocolate has a deep, robust cocoa flavor that enhances the overall taste of the cookies, providing a more complex and satisfying chocolate experience.
- Perfect Balance of Sweetness: The slight bitterness of dark chocolate helps balance the sweetness of the cookie dough, preventing the cookies from becoming overly sweet.
- Melty, Gooey Texture: Higher cocoa content in dark chocolate allows it to melt beautifully, creating luxurious, gooey chocolate pockets in each bite.
- Pairs Well with Other Ingredients: Dark chocolate complements the flavors of nuts, toffee, and espresso, enhancing the overall complexity of the cookie.
- Elevates the Cookie Experience: Using dark chocolate gives the cookies a gourmet touch, making them feel more indulgent and special.
Frequently asked questions:
Chilling the dough overnight before baking helps control spreading. Ensure the toffee is fully set and frozen before adding to the dough. Also, ensure your vegan butter for the cookie dough is softened, not melted.
Absolutely! If you're short on time, pre-made vegan toffee can be chopped and added to the dough for convenience.
Yes, cornstarch helps create a tender, chewy texture by softening the flour proteins and adding structure to the cookies.
Use high-quality vegan dark chocolate with 50%-70% cocoa content for a rich flavor. Roughly chopping a chocolate bar creates melty pools of chocolate throughout the cookies.
Yes! Chopped pecans, walnuts, or almonds pair well with the toffee and chocolate, adding extra crunch and flavor.
Yes, you can freeze the dough in portioned scoops for up to three months. When ready to bake, simply place the frozen dough balls on a baking sheet and bake, adding a couple of extra minutes to the baking time.
Storage:
Vegan toffee chocolate chip cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days or can be frozen for up to one month.
As always, cookies are best eaten as soon as possible - the fresher the better!
Please remember if you make this recipe to snap a pic and share with @censoredbaker on instagram!
PrintVegan Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
Delicious, chewy vegan chocolate chip cookies loaded with coffee-caramel flavor - totally "grownup" chocolate chip cookies!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Bake Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 42 minutes
- Yield: 30 3-inch Cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
For the Toffee
2 tablespoons vegan butter
¼ cup light brown sugar, loosely packed
¼ tsp sea salt
splash of water
For the Cookies
1 cup vegan butter, softened*
1 cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
1 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all purpose flour
6 oz 50%-70% dark chocolate, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Toffee: Set out a sheet of parchment paper on the counter and keep it handy. Add vegan butter, light brown sugar and salt to a small saucepan. Melt on stove over medium-low heat whisking continuously. As ingredients melt together you will notice the separation of butter and sugar. Add in a splash of water to bring the ingredients together. Reduce heat to low and continue whisking until mixture thickens and starts to pull away from the sides on the pan. Immediately poor the thickened toffee mixture onto the prepared sheet of parchment paper. Quickly spread out in a thin layer. This does not have to be perfect. Place sheet flat in the freezer to set for at least 30 minutes.
- Cookie Dough: In a large mixing bowl cream together the vegan butter and dark and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the espresso powder, baking soda, cornstarch, salt, water and vanilla extract and beat until all ingredients are well combined. Fold the flour into the mixture one cup at a time using a rubber spatula.
- Mix-ins: Remove toffee from the freezer and break into small pieces using your hands. Add broken toffee pieces to the cookie dough along with the chopped chocolate. Fold into the dough.
- Chill: Using a two or three inch cookie scoop, scoop the cookie dough out onto a baking sheet one cookie at a time. Pack the cookies close together. Cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill overnight.
- Bake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place chilled scoops of cookie dough on the baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Allow cookies to sit on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring cookies to a wire cooling rack covered in parchment paper to cool completely.
Notes
*Baked cookies will keep in an airtight container stored at room temperature for 2-3 days or frozen for up to 1 month.
*Earth Balance vegan butter from the tub works best for this recipe.
*Do not skip the chilling! This recipe (for flavor and texture reasons) needs to be refrigerated overnight.
*Some oozing may occur around the edges of the cookies during the baking process. Swirl a large circle cookie cutter around each cookie right when they come out of the oven to make cookies perfectly circular.
*Recipe adapted from Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies by Alvin Zhou of Tasty
*In the video below the caramel looks much thinner than it should as we rushed the cooking process. Whisk caramel on the stove until it is thick and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. This will allow the caramel to harden properly in the freezer!
More indulgent chocolate recipes:
- Vegan Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes
- Vegan Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Double Chocolate Cookies
- Vegan Double Chocolate Muffins
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