Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate & Walnuts

Sharing the coziest autumn cookie today in the form of brown butter oatmeal cookies! They’re full of hearty oats, melted chocolate chunks, and deeply roasted walnuts. A mix of brown sugar and honey adds lots of rich flavor and creates a slightly caramelized exterior on the cookies. They’re the perfect cookies for fall! Of course you can eat them for dessert, but I’d say my favorite way is pairing them with a hot cup of coffee for an afternoon snack.

This recipe is sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill.

As October approaches, cookies are always on my mind! I crave the comfort of making cookies when the air turns cold and the nights turn dark. There’s truly nothing better to do than light some fall candles, put on an autumn playlist, get the mixer out, and whip up a batch of fresh homemade cookies.

And these are ones not to be missed – sweet, intoxicating flavors and the perfectly crispy + chewy texture.

brown butter oatmeal cookies – the details

I knew I wanted to make oatmeal cookies. Something about them screams fall to me, and Bob’s Red Mill’s Old Fashioned Rolled Oats add such wonderful texture and heartiness to any baked good. But, I didn’t just want any old oatmeal cookies. I wanted these to have deep flavor and something a little more interesting mixed in than classic raisins. 

You’ll start by roasting some walnuts. Definitely do not skip this step. Applying heat to any nut is the only way to extract all of its toasty, fragrant flavor. While those toast, you’ll get some butter browning.

If you’ve never browned butter, don’t be intimated. Follow the process closely and simply keep a close eye on it. It can go from perfectly golden to burnt quickly. So make sure to cut the heat at just the right moment. And again…SO worth it. The smell of brown butter is intoxicating enough. And running throughout the cookie? Too good.

Honey and brown butter is a favorite combination of mine, and I’ve actually never added honey to a cookie dough, so it sounded intriguing. It ended up adding a really beautiful, subtle flavor in the background that tastes so good. And the best part? I think it helped the cookies “caramelize” a bit on the edges.

The final touch? Some chocolate, of course! I tested these with both semi-sweet and dark chocolate, and I definitely would say the semi-sweet was my favorite. I also like using chocolate bars roughly chopped for cookies instead of chocolate chips. They melt better and add to the rustic look of the cookie.

And that just about covers it! These are absolutely delicious, and I hope you find a cozy night soon to bake them up!!

Brown Butter Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate & Walnuts

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cozy brown butter cookies full of oats, chocolate, toasted walnuts, and honey 

yield: approximately 14 cookies

Ingredients

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• 4 oz walnuts
• 2 sticks (½ lb) unsalted butter
• ¾ cup light brown sugar
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup honey
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
• 4 oz + 2 oz semi-sweet chocolate, roughly chopped
• flaky sea salt

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Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Add the walnuts to a skillet and roast for 8-10 minutes, or until browned and fragrant. Allow to fully cool. 
2. Meanwhile, add the butter to a 2 qt saucepan over medium heat. Let the butter melt. Turn the heat to medium-low and continue to cook until the butter is browned, swirling often, about 12 minutes (if the butter isn’t browning by then, turn the heat back up to medium and whisk often). Once golden brown (with amber speckles running throughout), turn off the heat and let the butter cool for a couple of minutes. 
3. Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, honey, and browned butter to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low speed to combine. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing on medium to incorporate. Mix in the vanilla extract. 
4. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda together. In two batches, mix the dry ingredients into the wet. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed to ensure all of the ingredients are incorporated well. 
5. Roughly chop the cooled walnuts. Add them, along with the oats and 4 ounces of chopped chocolate to the bowl. Mix on low just to combine. 
6. Use a 2-oz cookie scoop to scoop the dough onto a cookie sheet, spacing the cookies 2-3 inches apart (the cookies will spread a good amount, so use multiple sheets to allow for enough spacing). Distribute the remaining 2 ounces of chocolate onto the tops of the cookies, pressing gently. 
7. Bake the cookies for approximately 11 minutes on the middle rack of the oven, or until brown and crisp on the outside (the middle should look underdone). Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheets for about 8 minutes at room temperature. Use a metal spatula to carefully transfer them to a cooling rack. 
8. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Eat warm or cool completely.