I Want to Marry You Cookies (Marry Me Cookies)

The perfect saucepan brown butter chocolate chip cookie with oatmeal, chocolate chips, and white chocolate chips. These Marry Me Cookies were the most popular recipe on the Cooking Channel in 2012!

Marry Me Cookies

Oh, these blessed cookies. Before I get to the story behind the name, “I Want to Marry You Cookies,” my experience on the Cooking Channel and filming in Food Network Studios (keep reading until the end), and how they eventually became the top recipe on the Cooking Channel in 2012 (which still shocks me to this day), let’s talk about what is IN these insanely good cookies made in a saucepan!

Marry Me Cookie Ingredients:

This brown butter chocolate chip cookie a rich toffee cookie with browned butter, 3 kinds of chocolate, and a touch of oats – plus everything is done in one saucepan. That’s it! You don’t need to pull out your mixer because you do everything by hand. Your arm is going to get a workout but it makes clean up so easy.

• Butter
• Dark Brown Sugar: This makes the cookie flavor much deeper, richer, and a more tender texture but you can also use light brown sugar instead.
• Sugar
• Egg + Egg Yolk
• Vanilla Extract
• Flour
• Rolled Oats: I suggest using rolled oats in this recipe.
• Baking Soda
• Salt
• Chocolate Chips: Use semi-sweet or milk chocolate or a mix of both.
• White Chocolate Chips
• Cinnamon (optional)

This is the perfect recipe for people who want a perfect chocolate chip cookie but don’t have a big heavy-duty mixer. All you need is a saucepan and you are good to go! My daughter, who is heading up to college soon, will be making these in her apartment often because they are so easy!

I updated the photos and recipe card on 6/14/2025. The photos below were shot before this time. Scroll below to read more about how these cookies landed me on the Cooking Channel!

How to make Brown Butter “I Want to Marry You” Cookies:

You start by browning your butter to a light golden color. Oh my heavenly goodness. It’s what makes the biggest difference in these cookies. You are adding a toffee element to the cookies without even trying. The dough is like eating a See’s Bordeaux Chocolate, I kid you not. Go ahead and eat that dough!

Adding dark brown sugar gives it the extra depth of rich flavor. This is where you need those muscles, stirring it until the browned butter and sugars become one (let’s get em married). Then let it cool before adding the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. You DO NOT want scrambled eggs!

Stir them together and add the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. This is the fun part. The sky is the limit on what you can add. The base of these cookies is so darn good that you can add whatever you please.

Our favorite is milk chocolate chunks, semi-sweet chocolate, white chocolate and nuts. The nuts are a great addition to cut the richness. You can use M & M’s, all different kinds of chocolate chips, chopped up chocolate bars, and nuts.

The story behind how “I Want to Marry You Cookies” came to be:

I’ve been watching Food Network for as long as I can remember! I would sit on the couch for hours, salivating at their food concoctions and dreaming of cooking in the Food Network Studio someday. I wrote it on my bucket list and tucked it away.

It was the spring of 2011 when I came across a new contest that Food Network was advertising for their new sister channel, The Cooking Channel. They were looking for the ultimate PERFECT dishes from around the globe in different categories, and I knew I had to enter. The grand prize winner would win a trip to NYC to film a segment in Food Network Studios for a show called “The Perfect 3.

I couldn’t submit this cookie fast enough! It was a cookie – a browned butter cookie that I had been working on perfecting for years. I wrote a little story about it, put a name to them, and sent it off, hoping I would receive good news. I had to write a little background on how the cookie came to be, and this is what I sent to the Cooking Channel as I crossed my fingers:

“These cookies are the surefire way to get someone to fall in love with you…or at the very least gain a serious addiction to cookies. By giving these cookies away, you may need to be prepared for a marriage proposal on the spot. I have been baking since I was a little one. I was the only girl in a house full of brothers (five, to be exact), so I quickly found my spot in the kitchen. My love affair with baking started with cookies, and it is how I won dates in high school by delivering them every Sunday night to my ‘friends.’ Love would usually ensue. Now I find joy in baking them for my own four little ones, who are my ultimate taste testers in the quest for the perfect cookie. They say we got it years ago, so it is about time to share it.

Everyone can make a chocolate chip cookie, and it usually involves some type of creaming of the butter and sugars. This is what makes mine unique (and ridiculously sinful). Everything is done in one glorious pan – the saucepan. You melt the butter completely and then add the sugars. The aroma that comes from the sugars as they dissolve into the butter is heavenly. It adds a rich, toffee flavor to the cookies that you don’t get from creaming and creates a smooth, melt-in-your-mouth texture.”

Then, I WAITED.

I will never forget where I was when the email came through telling me I was a top 3 finalist. I screamed and jumped around like a lunatic! I couldn’t believe that it could really be happening.

I had to make a demo video of me making the cookies for the Cooking Channel. The pressure was on! But to quote the very insightful and wise (haha) Eminem, “You only get one shot, do not miss your chance, this opportunity comes once in a lifetime.” I had his lyrics going through my head, and I knew I had one shot to get to NYC.

The video was edited and turned in, the votes were tallied, and we waited. It seemed like forever, but I finally received word… I was the winner of the Perfect 3 Cookie Contest!

We were going to New York City to film on my actual birthday! It doesn’t get any better than that in my book. My husband and I landed in NYC and checked into our hotel. I will never forget walking into the room and seeing an envelope from the Food Network with my name on it. It all seemed surreal.

The next day we were filming the show in the afternoon, so we had the morning to take a long bike ride through the city.

When we got back, I had no idea that production had been trying to get a hold of me. The day before we left, I made the mistake of putting my phone in my backpack with a water bottle, so my phone was now sitting in a bag of rice (anyone else feel my pain?). Because I had no phone, the producers resorted to calling me on the hotel phone.

Once I answered, they told me they were ready for me earlier than expected. I was sitting there with wet hair and half of my makeup on. I rushed like a madwoman to get ready and hurried to the studios.

We were taken to a special elevator with access to the studios. We arrived, walked down a long hallway with all of the Food Network stars’ photos, and ended in the green room. We met the production team and Kelsey Nixon, who is charismatic, sweet, and beautiful all wrapped into one. We chatted about attending the same college, discovered how we knew so many of the same people, and I felt immediately at ease and comfortable in her presence.

I quickly had my hair and makeup done and was whisked away to the studios. It was a whirlwind as the production crew gave me a huge list of directions. Just as we were getting ready to shoot, they asked me to take off my high-heeled shoes, so I was completely barefoot during the set. I had to walk to the freezer, reach down, and pull out my cookie dough…all the time wondering how in the world they were going to edit out my bare feet.

Happily, they did…it was TV magic! It was a one-take deal, and then it was done. I cringe when I watch it because I would have liked three or four more takes to get it perfect, but I wouldn’t change a thing. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I felt blessed every single second I was there.

“I Want to Marry You Cookies” ended up becoming the MOST POPULAR RECIPE on Cooking Channel in 2012. You can find the recipe online here as well – https://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/i-want-to-marry-you-cookies-1961297 and on Food Network — https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/i-want-to-marry-you-cookies-1961297.

I was grateful to check that off my bucket list. It was one of the best days of my life!

Give these “I Want to Marry You Cookies” to someone you really, really love, and they are sure to love you tenfold in return.

Happy Baking!

More Cookie Recipes:

Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Crush Cookies

Cowboy Cookies

Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Bakery Style Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies