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Thin, crispy butterscotch cookies can be incredibly delicious, as long as they are made right – chocolate chips aren’t the only way to go for amazingly tasty cookies!
If you prefer chewy cookie recipes, try my chewy butterscotch cookies.
And if you’re not a butterscotch lover and want crispy cookies, you have to make Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe! Those are my very favorite cookies!
Crispy Butterscotch Cookies
People love cookies in all sorts of different ways. From chewy and thick to doughy and gooey, cookies are surprisingly varied in all of the different ways they can be made.
This recipe produces some of the crispiest cookies you could ever imagine, both as a result of pressing them flat and because of their butterscotch chips.
Another reason why these cookies turn out so crisp is because of their sugar ratio – the different ratios of white and brown sugar in many different recipes help to create differently textured cookies. The larger amount of white sugar used here will get you thin, crispy, and sweet cookies, with still a little bit of that molasses-y brown sugar flavor.
Crispy Butterscotch Cookies Ingredients
Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.
• Flour
• Baking soda
• Salt (if using unsalted butter)
• Butter
• White sugar
• Brown sugar
• Vanilla extract
• Egg
• Butterscotch baking chips
How To Avoid Making Hard &Tough Cookies
One of the biggest issues when making cookies, and something that pretty much every baker the world over struggles with, is the tendency for cookies to become tough.
Cookies should be light, airy and delicious, and either chewy or crispy.
Toughness in cookies is actually the result of gluten formation in the flour. As the flour gets wet from being incorporated into the cookie batter, it hydrates and begins to form gluten strands. Once baked, these gluten strands get tough and bready, which not only feels horrible but tastes bad as well.
To avoid this, you want to mix the flour as little as possible. The best trick to achieve this is to make sure everything else is fully combined and mixed through before adding your flour.
Then, once you add the flour, fold it in using a rubber spatula, stopping when you can still see a few streaks of flour throughout the dough. That flour will get hydrated over time, and you can avoid the heinous sin of ending up with tough cookies really easily.
To really go the extra mile, add the butterscotch baking chips once you are only halfway through folding in the flour. The chips will slowly fold in with the flour, and by the time you’re done, everything will be incorporated, but still not too tough.
How To Easily Flatten The Cookies
These cookies need to be flat because otherwise, they won’t become deliciously crispy.
If you just roll these cookies out into balls, they won’t go crispy, but instead, go slightly chewy. While some people actually really prefer chewiness in their cookies, it is crispiness that we’re striving for in this recipe.
The best way to get thin, crispy cookies is to flatten them out before baking.
To make this easy, make sure you space out your cookie dough balls so that they have plenty of space between them.
Then, take a regular drinking glass and wet the bottom of it slightly. The water will help to prevent the cookie from sticking to the glass and won’t really change the texture of the cookie; in fact, it will probably help promote better browning.
After pressing down each individual cookie with the glass, lift the glass in one fluid motion and move on to the next one. Bake them right away and enjoy the crispiest cookies of your life!
Looking for more delicious Cookies recipes? Try these out:
• The Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Thick & Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Walnut Loaded Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookies
Enjoy! These are so good they made it into my first cookbook!
Love,
Karlynn
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Crispy Butterscotch Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups of butterscotch baking chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 °F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Cream together your butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy. Add in the egg and vanilla, mixing thoroughly. Beat in the flour, baking soda and salt until just combined.
- When that is done, fold in the two cups of butterscotch baking chips by hand.
- Roll a heaping tablespoon of cookie dough into a ball, 12 per cookie sheet.
- Take a glass and using the bottom, flatten out each cookie. If the cookie sticks, start wetting the bottom of the glass with water, they will come right off.
- Flatten each of them as much as you can. This is a dry dough , no sticky chewiness going on here- but it’s just wet enough to make perfect little flat cookie patties.
- Bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on the sheets until firm then remove and cool on a wire rack completely.
Anita Hull says
The dough is really dry. I would add less flour to make a softer dough then use a fork dipped in flour to flatten. (Like you do with a peanut butter cookie) Tasty enough but won’t make again.
Brenda says
Made these to rave reviews from co-workers, family, and my son’s friends. At first I thought they were way too sweet—nope! Just addictive.
judy says
These are the best butterscotch cookies ever! I always made the toll house version which I thought was very good but your balance of white to brown sugar ratio and more flour and less egg was spot on! My family only eats crispy cookies so I was happy to try this recipe. Next I will try your other crispy cookies on your site…thank you! Instead of using a glass to flatten the cookies I use the palm of my hand which is easier
Stella says
holy crap, I just made these and they’re everything my 32-week-pregnant miserable butt was hoping and dreaming for. perfectly crisp, buttery, amazing! THANK YOU!!
Karlynn Johnston says
Awesome! So glad that you loved them!
Daria Hofmann says
last instruction says “chocolate” heaven. Did you leave out the chocolate?
Christopher51 says
This is an absolutely wonderful recipe and almost exactly
the same recipe that was taught to me by my mom and grandmother back in the 50’s.
Back then, we had to make our own chips. And as I learned early on that you had
to be Superman to pipe them. So, I’d spread the mixture, ¼” thick, on a
parchment lined baking ship, then cut them ¼”x1/4”. Opening a bag is so much
easier.
Thank you for this wonderful recipe. God bless.
Rambling Tart says
When I’m able to start baking “real” foods again, I want to make these delish babies. 🙂
thekitchenmagpie says
@Rambling Tart They are a good one!