Brown Butter Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies
Published 5/8/2023 • Updated 11/5/2024
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These incredibly delicious Brown Butter Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies are flourless and topped with flakey sea salt for sweet and salty goodness.
Ultimate Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies
IMO, there is nothing better than a good, hearty oatmeal cookie. I eat them for dessert, I eat them for breakfast, and I eat them for snacks. Heck, I always have a bag of cookies in my freezer for emergencies.
These butterscotch oatmeal cookies are made with brown butter and there is no flour involved! These are a spin-off of our famous peanut butter oatmeal cookies but are made with a milder nut butter –> almond butter.
Why you’ll love it!
Flourless
Elevated with brown butter
A perfect freezer cookie
Featured Ingredients
This oatmeal butterscotch cookie recipe is made with basic ingredients that you probably already have!
- Quick-cooking oats: no flour is needed in these cookies! Make sure to buy quick oats instead of rolled.
- Brown butter: we’re taking things up a notch by browning our butter for a hint of toffee flavor.
- Brown sugar and maple syrup: sugars required for these cookies include light brown sugar and maple syrup.
- Almond butter: since there is no flour in this recipe, almond butter really helps bind the dough together. Feel free to wap for cashew or peanut.
- Butterscotch chips: what would butterscotch oatmeal cookies be without the butterscotch chips?
Top Tips for Perfect Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies
Use quick-cooking oats: while we’ve tested this recipe with both quick cooking and rolled oats, we recommend quick-cooking oats as your dough will stay together better.
Chill the dough: chilling the dough will prevent the cookies from spreading too much while baking.
Slightly pat down cookies: we suggest slightly patting down the cookie dough balls to prevent the dough from doming.
Let cool completely: we recommend letting the cookies cool completely, before handling/eating so that they don’t break apart. Remember, they are flourless so they need the cool time to set.
Variations
- Use a different chip: not a butterscotch fan? Try using chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, or even peanut butter chips.
- Use a different nut butter: try this recipe with cashew butter or peanut butter.
- Use a different extract: mix things up a bit and try almond or coconut extract!
Storage
Counter: store these cookies in an airtight container on the counter for up to 3-5 days.
Freezer: store these cookies in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Brown Butter Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup melted, unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup all-natural, creamy almond butter (drippy)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2.5 cups quick-cooking oats, gluten-free, if desired*
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup butterscotch chips
- flakey sea salt, for topping
Instructions
- First, preheat the oven to 350ºF and spray a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.
- Next, make the brown butter. Place butter in a small saucepan. Turn the heat to medium/high to fully melt the butter. When the butter begins to caramelize, turn the heat off and let sit in the pan until all butter has browned.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the brown butter and brown sugar until there are no lumps. Then, add maple syrup, egg, almond butter, and vanilla and mix again.
- Add the salt, quick-cooking oats, and baking soda and mix until everything is combined. Add in the butterscotch chips and mix again.
- Refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes to set.
- Scoop 2 heaping tablespoons of cookie dough into your hands and form it into a ball. Place it onto the cookie sheet and slightly press down to form a cookie shape. The batter will feel a bit wet, but it will be so soft and chewy when done baking!*
- Repeat the process above until you’ve fit 6 cookies on your baking sheet.
- Bake cookies at 350ºF for 9-11 minutes or until they begin to turn golden brown.
- Remove cookies and let cool for a couple of minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to continue cooling for at least 20 minutes to firm up.
Tips & Notes
- Cookie dough – the cookies will spread just a little bit when baking. If you don’t press them down, you will get dome-shaped cookies.
- If you use less than 2 tablespoons of dough, consider reducing your bake time by 1-2 minutes as your cookies will be smaller.
- It might help to slightly moisten your hands before rolling the cookie dough and washing your hand’s in-between balls because the dough is pretty sticky.
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Photography: photos taken in this post are by Ashley McGlaughlin from The Edible Perspective.
I really like this cake. Thank you for sharing this recipe. I will try to make this cake according to your recipe
LOVE THESE COOKIES! Perfectly chewy.