If you’re ready to elevate your cookie game, this is the recipe you need. These are not just chewy hazelnut cookies; they are built on the incredible, complex foundation of beurre noisette (brown butter).
The simple act of cooking the butter until the milk solids caramelise releases a profound, nutty aroma and a deep, toasted caramel flavour that permeates every single bite. Paired with crunchy, roasted hazelnuts, the result is a cookie with gloriously crisp edges, a wonderfully chewy, fudgy centre, and an unparalleled depth of flavour. They are elegant enough for a dessert plate yet comforting enough for an afternoon coffee break.
Ingredients
The Key Ingredients for Beurre Noisette Hazelnut Cookies
These ingredients are carefully selected to achieve the perfect balance of chewy texture and deep, complex flavour:
-
- Browned Butter (Beurre Noisette): The defining ingredient. Unsalted butter is cooked until the milk solids caramelise, lending a deep, nutty aroma and a rich, toasted caramel flavour that infuses the entire dough, providing sophisticated complexity.
- Light Brown Sugar: Crucial for moisture and chewiness. The molasses in the brown sugar is acidic and water-retaining, which yields a cookie with a fudgy, soft centre and a warm, subtle toffee flavour.
- Caster Sugar: Used alongside brown sugar to help control the spread. Its finer texture incorporates air into the dough, which aids in structure, while the granulated crystals ensure the cookies achieve crisp, golden edges.
- Whole Egg: Acts as a binder and adds richness. The egg provides structure to hold the dough together and contributes moisture, which is key to maintaining a tender crumb during baking.
- Plain Flour: The main dry binding component. Using plain flour (rather than bread flour) ensures the dough remains tender, preventing the cookies from becoming overly tough or cakey.
- Baking Powder: Provides initial lift and volume. This fast-acting leavening agent ensures the cookies rise slightly when first exposed to heat, contributing to their final soft texture.
- Bicarbonate of Soda: The secondary leavening agent. It reacts with the molasses in the brown sugar to promote spread and contributes to the desirable chewy texture and golden brown colour.
- Roasted Hazelnuts: Provides essential flavour and crunch. Roasting intensifies the hazelnut’s earthy, buttery flavour, offering a satisfying, substantial crunch that perfectly complements the soft, fudgy cookie centre.
- Dark Chocolate Chips: Provides a sharp, rich contrast to the sweetness of the dough. Using dark chocolate ensures the intense cacao flavour cuts through the brown butter and hazelnut notes for a balanced indulgence.
- Sea Salt: An essential flavour enhancer. A touch of high-quality sea salt balances the sweetness of the sugar and helps amplify the complex, nutty notes of the beurre noisette.
- Vanilla Paste: Adds an intense, concentrated vanilla flavour and visual specks of vanilla bean. Paste offers a much deeper, richer aroma than extract, complementing the depth of the brown butter.
All The Equipment You Will Need
- Stand Mixer or Electric Whisk
- Greaseproof Paper (Parchment)
- Mixing Bowl
- Digital scale
- Fine Mesh Sieve
- Silicone Spatula
- Micro Digital Scale
- Baking Trays
- Heavy Bottom Saucepan
The Magic of Beurre Noisette: A Guide to Perfect Brown Butter
The first time you transform butter into the coveted beurre noisette – brown butter – it feels like kitchen magic. This classic French technique is simpler than you might think, starting with gently melting unsalted butter and allowing the water to evaporate. The magic happens next: the little milk solids suspended in the fat start to caramelise. As the butter begins to foam, this is your crucial moment to guide the flavour. By stirring constantly and letting the butter darken, you’re developing an increasingly richer profile. I find that a pale golden brown gives a delicate caramel and subtle nutty flavour, which is lovely for lighter dishes. For that intense, complex depth, aim for a deep golden brown; this will give you a truly rich, intense nutty caramel flavour. Now, a word of warning: watch it like a hawk. If it goes too dark, turning to a dark brown/black, it’s gone too far and will be tragically bitter.
For the very best results, you simply have to start with high-quality butter. Trust me on this. At my previous job, we exclusively used premium French butters like Lescure or Isigny Sainte-Mère—you won’t often find those in the supermarket, although I have seen Isigny Sainte-Mère at Costco here in the UK sometimes! If you’re shopping on the high street, I personally recommend going for Kerrygold Irish butter or Président French butter, and always, always choose unsalted. This gives you complete control over the final seasoning of your dish, which is essential for professional-tasting results.
One of my favourite things about brown butter is that you can make it in large batches and have it ready to go. It keeps beautifully, which makes life so much easier! It will keep for up to a month or more in the fridge, it solidifies into a lovely rich block that you can scoop or slice, or you can keep it at ambient temperature for up to 2 weeks. Having a jar of this liquid gold ready in the kitchen means you’re just a minute away from elevating everything from simple steamed vegetables to cookies and delicate French pastries.
Storing The Cookies
Baked cookies will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge or up to a week.
You can also prepare the cookie dough and freeze it raw, wrapped in cling film (plastic wrap) for up to 3 months. I would recommend rolling the cookie dough into a log for easier storage in the freezer, also it make it easier to bake later. Simple cut 2-3cm wide disks and place onto a baking tray and bake, you may need to add 2-3 minutes extra to the bake time.
Buerre Noisette Hazeltnut Cookies
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- First, start by browning the butter. Add unsalted butter into a saucepan over a medium heat and bring it to a boil, giving it a stir every so often. Let the butter continue to boil until it beings to foam.2
- Give the butter a final stir to release any of the milk solids stuck to the bottom of the pan and strain into a mixing bowl or container through a fine mesh sieve. Place into the fridge to set firm to the consistency of room temperature butter.
- Sift flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a mixing bowl and set aside.
- With an electric whisk or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the cooled browned butter, light brown sugar, caster sugar and egg until pale and fluffy. Scraping the the bowl a couple times in-between.
- Add half the dry ingredients to the creamed butter mixture and gentle fold in. Once the flour and completely incorporated, add in the remainder and mix until it just comes together.
- Next, fold in the chopped hazelnuts3 and chocolate chips until evenly distributed through the cookie dough.
- Either with an ice cream scoop or by hand portion the cookie dough into 50-75g balls and set onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, then into the fridge for 30-60 minutes to set firm.
- In the mean time, preheat the oven to 160℃ (320℉).
- Onto pre-lined baking trays separate the cookies leaving plenty of space between them, and into the oven for 10 minutes.
- Leave to cool for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before enjoying!
Notes
- To make 150g of Buerre Noisette you will need approximately 200g of unsalted butter, cubed.
- Find advanced tips on brown butter flavour, advance prep, and storage further up the page.
- If you only have blanched hazelnuts, place them onto a tray and bake at 180℃ (356℉) for 5-10 minutes, you will see the natural oils release from the nuts and being to colour. Once they start to brown remove them from the oven and allow the nuts to cool down completely before chopping.