Oatmeal Cookies with Toffee and White Chocolate
This recipe was a happy little accident. With the holidays fast approaching and cookie baking time at hand, I started gathering my baking ingredients. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find one: butterscotch baking chips. No matter where I looked, I could only find brands that carried warnings about containing traces of peanuts and tree nuts. That made them unsafe and off limits here at the farmhouse.
So, I started looking for good substitutes. I couldn’t find any. Then I made a half batch without the butterscotch chips in the hopes that they might be different, but equally delicious. They were not.
The batch without the butterscotch didn’t have that brown sugar, caramel flavor that I love in an oatmeal cookie. It was a bit flat and not at all what I had been hoping for.
So, the search continued for a suitable replacement. While I searched, I started baking the other cookies on our favorites list. In the midst of my cookie baking, I also made a batch of toffee. While I often dip the pieces of toffee in chocolate, I decided to reserve about half of the batch and leave it untouched by chocolate for an oatmeal cookie baking experiment.
I hoped that the toffee would add those brown sugar notes to the baked oatmeal cookie. There was only one way to find out, so I crushed enough of the plain toffee to fill a measuring cup and added it to the oats and white chocolate chips I usually add to the dough. I preheated the oven and waited as the first batch baked. I could hardly stand the anticipation as I waited to taste test a warm cookie.
It only took a few bites for me to decide that this cookie was every bit as delicious as the oatmeal cookie that inspired it. It had that lovely brown sugar and oatmeal flavor I was hoping for. After a second cookie, I was left to wonder if I might like this toffee version even more than the first.
I’m not sure if I have a favorite, but I am glad to have more than one option when it comes to baking an oatmeal cookie with the flavors we love and ingredients that are safe for our family. As a bonus, I now have a reason to make my homemade toffee a lot more often.
This cookie was inspired by our Chewy Oatmeal Cookie recipe and includes crushed pieces of homemade Butter Toffee.
Oatmeal Cookies with Toffee and White Chocolate
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter , room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs , room temperature
- 2 ½ cups All-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- 1 cup quick oats
- 1 cup toffee , crushed into bite sized pieces
- ½ cup white chocolate chips
Instructions
- Place the butter, sugars, and vanilla extract in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle or dough beaters. Mix on medium speed until the mixture is completely smooth, approximately 3-4 minutes.
- Add the eggs to the bowl and beat on low for 30 seconds, just until combined. The batter may break up a bit, but don’t worry. It will come together when the dry ingredients are worked into the mix. Scrape down the bowl and beaters if necessary to gather the batter together before continuing.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Use a dry whisk to mix the dry ingredients and break up any small lumps. You can sift the dry ingredients if you prefer.
- Add the dry ingredients in one addition to the mixer bowl. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients have completely integrated into the dough. This should only take 30-60 seconds depending on the strength of your mixer. Take great care not to overmix the dough as it will encourage the dough to strengthen the gluten in the flour and become tough.
- Add the oats, toffee, and white chocolate chips to the dough and mix on low speed just until combined and well distributed.
- At this point, the batter can be baked, chilled in the refrigerator for baking in a few hours, or portioned and frozen for baking at a later date. I often make a batch of dough and keep it in the refrigerator, baking a single evening’s cookies each night. Portioned balls of dough can also be frozen on a small tray and then transferred to a freezer bag for long term storage. Frozen dough can be baked straight from the freezer by simply adding about two minutes to the baking time.
- When you are ready to bake cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and position the oven racks to the top and bottom third of your oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment or a Silpat style reusable baking liner.
- Create balls of dough by using two tablespoons of the chilled dough and rolling into a ball. Flatten the ball slightly to help encourage even baking and place four to six balls on each baking sheet, spacing evenly to prevent the cookies from merging as they bake.
- Bake for 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through the baking time to help to ensure that the cookies are evenly baked. The cookies should bake up to an even thickness and dry ever so slightly on top. They may appear to be under baked, but they will firm up upon cooling to room temperature.
- Remove the cookies from the oven, allowing them to cool for 5-10 minutes to set up. As with any cookie, these are even more delicious when eaten while still warm with a cup of coffee or tea or with a cold glass of milk.