A mini single-serve brown butter cookie cake that’s soft, flavorful, loaded with chocolate chips & topped with a brown butter frosting.
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single serve brown butter cookie cake
Hello hello! ☺︎ Today I have for you a super simple, super delicious cookie cake for one. Cookie cakes from the grocery store are a classic, but homemade cookie cake is truly so simple to make and is way better than the store. This one’s made with brown butter in the dough and in the frosting, so you get a super flavorful and toasty dough and frosting – and it’s loaded with chocolate chips. So let’s get into it!
expert baking tips
Weigh your ingredients:
My recipes are all written in grams because it is the most accurate way to bake. When you use a kitchen scale, you ensure that your baked goods turn out as close to the written recipe as possible. Plus, the cleanup is way easier when using a scale! I will provide standard cup measurements but please note that I have not tested the recipe using cup measurements and therefore can not guarantee your recipe will come out how mine did. Here is my favorite kitchen scale.
Mix the dough carefully:
When adding in the flour, only fold the mixture just until no flour streaks remain. Over mixing the dough leads to more gluten formation, which can make the cookie more tough and chewy.
Under bake for perfect cookies:
Cookies continue baking after they have been taken out of the oven. Once the edges turn slightly golden brown, and the cookie slightly moves in the center when you tilt the pan, it’s ready to come out. Let the cookie cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes before flipping it out to finish cooling.
A note on oven temperature:
Ovens vary and fluctuate in temperature and might not always actually be at the temperature they claim to be at. If you love to bake like I do, I highly recommend getting an oven thermometer. They are super helpful for letting you know when your oven might be lying to you! I use this one.
single serve brown butter cookie cake ingredients –
brown butter cookie cake:
- All purpose flour: for structure.
- Baking powder & baking soda: for helping the cookie cake rise.
- Salt: to help balance and bring out the sweetness of the cookies
- Unsalted butter: for tenderness and flavor. We will brown the butter for extra flavor. You can use salted butter in place of the unsalted, just be sure to omit the extra salt from the dough.
- Light brown sugar & granulated sugar: a combination of both helps to add moisture and flavor, and lock in moisture as well.
- Egg yolk: for binding and for richness.
- Milk: we will add just a little bit of milk to help bring back some of that moisture that was lost from browning the butter. I used whole milk but you can use 1%, 2%, or your favorite non-dairy milk here!
- Vanilla: for flavor – vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste will work here.
- Chocolate chips: I used Guittard semi-sweet super cookie chips in the dough but you can use your favorite chocolate chips, a chopped baking bar, or a combination of both!
brown butter buttercream:
- Unsalted butter: the base of the buttercream and all of it’s flavor. You can use salted butter in place of unsalted, just be sure to omit the extra salt from the buttercream.
- Salt: to help balance and bring out the sweetness and flavor of the buttercream.
- Powdered sugar: sweetens and thickens up the buttercream.
- Heavy cream: to help thin out the buttercream so it’s able to be piped. You can also use your favorite milk here in place of the heavy cream.
- Vanilla: for flavor – vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste will work here.
how to make a mini brown butter cookie cake
Here’s a little look into the process of making this single serve cookie cake. The full recipe is at the end of this blog post!
- Brown the butter, let it cool, then whisk in both sugars, the egg, and the vanilla.
- Then mix in the dry ingredients and the chocolate chips.
- Bake the cookie cake.
- Make the brown butter buttercream. Once the cookie cake has fully cooled to room temperature, frost it, then slice, serve, and enjoy!
single serve brown butter cookie cake
recipe q&a
What is brown butter?
Brown butter is super simple to make so don’t worry! It’s just regular butter that is cooked on the stove until some of the moisture evaporates, allowing the milk solids in the butter to be toasted. The result is this butter with an amber hue and little speckles that has a toasted and slightly nutty aroma.
Can I double this brown butter cookie cake recipe?
Definitely! Simply double all of the ingredients and distribute the dough evenly between two 6″ pans, or bake it as one bigger cookie cake in a 9″ pan. I even more strongly recommend measuring by weight if you are going to double the recipe for the best results.
Can I make this cookie cake recipe ahead of time?
Definitely! Cookie dough only gets better with time. You can keep the cookie dough tightly covered in the fridge for up to 2 days before baking. Alternatively, you can bake and frost this cookie cake one day in advance. I wouldn’t recommend any further in advance than that just for optimal freshness.
You can make the buttercream and keep it stored in the fridge for up to 1 week before serving the cake. You’ll want to let the buttercream come to room temperature and whip it up a little bit before piping it on to the cake.
How to store cookie cake
This cake will hold up in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
tools and ingredients:
You can find all my favorite tools and ingredients that I use on my Amazon Storefront page, here!
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did you make this recipe?
I’d love to see and know your thoughts! please leave a comment and review below, and tag me on instagram @freshbeanbakery. #freshbeanbakery
Single Serve Brown Butter Cookie Cake
Ingredients
Brown Butter
- 155 g unsalted butter (½ c. + 3 tbsp.)
Brown Butter Cookie Cake
- 45 g brown butter (3 tbsp + ½ tsp.)
- 50 g light brown sugar (¼ c.)
- 25 g granulated sugar (2 tbsp.)
- 1 egg yolk room temperature
- 2 tsp. whole milk
- ½ tsp. vanilla
- 80 g all purpose flour (⅔ c.)
- ¼ tsp. baking powder
- ¼ tsp. baking soda
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 65 g semi sweet chocolate chips + extra for putting on top (¼ c. + 2 tbsp.)
Brown Butter Buttercream
- 80 g brown butter (5 tbsp. + 2 tsp.) solidified
- ⅛ tsp. salt
- 140 g powdered sugar (1 c. + 2 tbsp.)
- 1 tbsp. heavy whipping cream
- ½ tsp. vanilla
Instructions
Brown Butter
- In a medium sized saucepan set over medium heat, brown the butter. Stir the butter occasionally until it turns amber in color and develops little brown specks. Once you see the specks, immediately remove the butter from the heat.
- You should be left with ~125g of butter. If you have a tiny bit less that's okay. Transfer out 45g of brown butter into a small mixing bowl and place it in the fridge to chill for 5 minutes. Transfer the remaining brown butter into another small mixing bowl and set it aside at room temperature.
Brown Butter Cookie Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C. Coat a 6" cake pan with butter and sugar.
- Remove the butter from the fridge. Add in the brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg yolk, milk, and vanilla and whisk until well combined.
- Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Use a rubber spatula to fold the cookie dough until a few flour streaks remain. Then, fold in your chocolate chips just until no flour streaks remain.
- Pat the dough down into your prepared cake pan. Top with additional chocolate chips if desired. Bake the cake for 20-25 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown and the center only slightly moves when you tilt the pan.
- Let the cookie cake rest in the pan for at least 20 minutes before transferring it out to fully cool.
Brown Butter Buttercream
- Once the cake has fully cooled to room temperature, make the buttercream. If your butter hasn't solidified at this point, you can place it into the freezer, stirring often until it solidifies.
- Using a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and salt for 1-2 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Slowly beat in the powdered sugar until all of it has been used. Add in the heavy cream and vanilla, then beat for an additional 2 minutes.
- Once the cake has cooled to room temperature, transfer the buttercream to a piping bag. Frost the cake, serve, and enjoy!
This was fantastic, the brown butter icing took it over the top. I made one with AP flour and a 2nd one with GF flour and both were great. Thank you for the recipe!
This looks amazing ! Can I check though, after making the brown butter and dividing it between 2 bowls, are both supposed to go into the fridge to solidify? The instructions for the brown butter say to leave the 80 g for the cookie to cool at room temp, but then the instructions for the cookie itself say to take the butter out of the fridge, so I’m a little confused
Thank you so much Steph! Only the 45g needs to go in the fridge to chill, which is the butter that gets used in the cookie dough. The remaining 80g you leave at room temp is for the frosting, sorry for any confusion!
Hi Erin, thanks so much for confirming! Can’t wait to give this a try 🙂
Great recipe! Very brown buttery, which I’m a big fan of, and I underbaked it a little (between 20-25 minutes) so the middle turned out chewy.
Thank you so much Alessandra, I’m so happy you liked it! 🙂
Hi! Thank you for share with us this amazing recipe. My question is… Can I stack two cookie cakes? I mean, for a birthday cake, I want to do this recipe, double. I want to put one cookie cake, one layer of buttercream and another cookie cake… 🙂 Thank you for your answer
Hi, I don’t see why that shouldn’t work – and it sounds amazing!