How would a bakery secretly get a caramel flavor into their chocolate chip cookies?

[Anonymous]

The cookies look like traditional dark chocolate chip cookies with a little sea salt on top. They have perfect chew with a slightly crispy exterior. I know they use good butter. There is zero visible caramel in them but they seem to have a slight clean caramel aftertaste. I think this is what makes them so distinct. Is this just from using brown sugar and no white sugar? Could they be swirling caramel in the mix and mixing well so you can't see it? Brown butter? I don't think it's brown butter because I make brown butter cookies and these taste particularly caramel-ish.

[Anonymous]

Cooking brown sugar in butter or even white sugar until it caramelizes? Melted caramel or butterscotch chips?

[Anonymous]

Browning their butter?

[Anonymous]

If you REALLY brown unsalted butter for a long time, it can make cc cookies taste that way - Cooks Illustrated has a recipe that does this. They are really good but very rich.

[Anonymous]

Brown sugar and extra vanilla

[Anonymous]

I think King Arthur also has a brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe.

[Anonymous]

Letting the dough rest overnight (or longer) in the fridge gives the cookies a toffee-like flavor that you might interpret as caramel

https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-best-chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe

[Anonymous]

I use Muscovado sugar - really moist, almost black sugar.

[Anonymous]

Make toffee, let it cool, and then put in blender or spice grinder to pulverize. Use as part or all of the sugar in the recipe.

I've done this to amp up the caramel/toffee flavor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Letting the dough rest overnight (or longer) in the fridge gives the cookies a toffee-like flavor that you might interpret as caramel

https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-best-chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe

Toffee might be the better word! Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Letting the dough rest overnight (or longer) in the fridge gives the cookies a toffee-like flavor that you might interpret as caramel

https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-best-chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe

Interesting. What's the difference between toffee and caramel in this regard?

[Anonymous]

My cookie recipe calls for melted butter, not softened. If I add it to the sugar (combo of brown and white) while still too hot, it caramelizes and tastes a bit like toffee.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, they probably put flavor extract in it. Something like this. https://www.amazon.com/Watkins-Caramel-Flavor-Natural-Flavors/dp/B0041RGD0E

[Anonymous]

Brown butter! I also put a little Fra Angelico in cookies that gives a sort of carmelly notes

[Anonymous]

try this recipe: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/cooks-illustrated-chocolate-chip-cookies-50075826/amp