Hojicha Brown Butter Cookies (Printable)

Rich cookies featuring brown butter and roasted hojicha with crispy edges and chewy centers.

# What You'll Need:

→ Dry Ingredients

01 - 2 cups all-purpose flour
02 - 2 tablespoons hojicha powder
03 - 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
04 - 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

→ Wet Ingredients

05 - 3/4 cup unsalted butter
06 - 1 cup packed brown sugar
07 - 1/4 cup granulated sugar
08 - 1 large egg, at room temperature
09 - 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
10 - 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

# How to Make It:

01 - Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
02 - Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking and stirring frequently until foaming and golden brown with nutty aroma, approximately 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes.
03 - Whisk together flour, hojicha powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
04 - Combine browned butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in a large bowl. Whisk until smooth. Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract, mixing until fully incorporated.
05 - Add dry ingredients to wet mixture. Stir until just combined, avoiding overmixing.
06 - Scoop tablespoon-sized mounds of dough onto prepared baking sheets, spacing approximately 2 inches apart.
07 - Bake for 10-12 minutes until edges are golden and centers remain soft.
08 - Cool cookies on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack for complete cooling.

# Expert Tips:

01 -
  • The brown butter gives you that nutty, almost caramel richness without needing brown sugar alone—it's a flavor trick that feels luxurious but costs almost nothing.
  • Hojicha transforms a simple butter cookie into something that tastes like you spent hours sourcing fancy ingredients, when really you just needed one special tea powder.
  • They stay soft in the center and crispy at the edges for days, which means you can actually make them ahead without them turning into hockey pucks.
02 -
  • The brown butter absolutely must cool before you add the eggs, or you'll end up with scrambled cookie dough—10 minutes is not arbitrary, it's essential.
  • Don't be tempted to bake them longer just because you think they look soft; they firm up as they cool and the hojicha flavor actually deepens in the first 24 hours, so day-old cookies taste even better.
03 -
  • Weighing your flour makes these cookies consistent every single time—if you don't have a scale, spoon the flour into your measuring cup and level it off rather than scooping directly from the bag.
  • The cookies will look slightly underdone when you pull them from the oven, but that's exactly what you want; they continue to cook from residual heat and set up perfectly with a chewy center.
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