Brown Butter Hojicha Earl Grey Cookies (Printable)

Nutty brown butter meets roasted hojicha and Earl Grey for aromatic, chewy cookies with white chocolate.

# What You'll Need:

→ Brown Butter

01 - 3/4 cup unsalted butter

→ Dry Ingredients

02 - 2 cups all-purpose flour
03 - 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
04 - 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
05 - 1 tablespoon hojicha powder
06 - 2 teaspoons finely ground Earl Grey tea leaves

→ Wet Ingredients

07 - 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
08 - 1/4 cup granulated sugar
09 - 1 large egg
10 - 1 large egg yolk
11 - 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

→ Optional Add-ins

12 - 2/3 cup white chocolate chips or chopped white chocolate

# How to Make It:

01 - In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the butter foams and turns golden brown with a nutty aroma, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for 10 minutes.
02 - In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, hojicha powder, and ground Earl Grey tea leaves until evenly combined.
03 - In a large mixing bowl, combine the cooled brown butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. Beat until well combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract, mixing until smooth.
04 - Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing just until incorporated. If using, fold in white chocolate chips.
05 - Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour, or up to overnight, for optimal flavor development and texture.
06 - Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
07 - Scoop dough into 2-tablespoon mounds, spacing them 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets.
08 - Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the edges are set and the centers remain slightly soft.
09 - Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

# Expert Tips:

01 -
  • The brown butter creates a warm, toasty depth that makes you taste every single element without any one flavor drowning out the others.
  • These cookies stay soft in the center even after cooling, which means you can sneak one hours later and it still tastes like you just pulled it from the oven.
  • The hojicha and Earl Grey combination feels fancy enough to impress but tastes so naturally balanced that people can't quite pinpoint what makes them different.
02 -
  • Brown butter continues to darken slightly as it cools, so pull it off the heat when it's just barely golden—if it looks brown in the pan, it's actually overcooked and will taste burnt rather than nutty.
  • Grinding your own Earl Grey leaves makes an enormous difference in flavor intensity because pre-ground tea loses its potency quickly once the leaves are broken, so invest two minutes in crushing whole tea bags with a mortar and pestle.
  • Chilling the dough truly does change everything—skipping this step results in thin, crispy cookies, while proper chilling gives you thick, chewy centers with crispy edges, which is what you actually want here.
03 -
  • If your brown butter seems too cool and has started to solidify before you finish mixing, warm it very gently over low heat for 30 seconds rather than melting it completely, which would undo all your careful browning work.
  • The dough can be frozen in portion-sized balls for up to three months, so you can bake fresh cookies on demand without starting from scratch—just add an extra minute or two to the baking time since they'll go straight from freezer to oven.
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