The Best Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies
Looking for the best recipe for pecan chocolate chip cookies? You've found it. This recipe havs brown butter, toasty pecans, and semisweet chocolate puddles for soft, chewy, and unforgettable cookies. They're one of my favorites to make for casual parties, holidays, and get-togethers with friends!
Ingredients
- 226 grams unsalted butter (1 cup)
- 90 grams pecan halves, plus more for decoration (1 cup)
- 270 grams all purpose flour (2 1/4 cups)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 266 grams dark brown sugar (1 1/4 cups, packed)
- 67 grams white sugar (1/3 cup)
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 15 milliliters pure vanilla extract (1 Tablespoon)
- 180 grams semi-sweet chocolate wafers, plus more for decoration (1 cup)
- Flaky salt, for serving (optional)
Equipment
- Hand mixer or stand mixer
- #40 cookie scoop (2 Tablespoons)
- Parchment paper
Instructions
Brown the butter
- To brown the butter, melt the unsalted butter in a shallow, light-colored pan over medium-low heat. Cook, swirling the pan often, for 5-7 minutes. At first the butter will foam up and get bubbly, but eventually, you will start to see small brown bits on the bottom of the pan.
- Once the butter is golden-brown and smells nutty, immediately remove the butter from the heat and pour it into a large heat-proof mixing bowl. Cool the brown butter until it's room temperature, about 15-20 minutes.
Toast the pecans
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Evenly spread the pecans halves in a single layer on a small sheet pan.
- Bake the pecans for 6-8 minutes, tossing halfway through, until they are toasted and smell nutty. Keep a close eye on the pecans so they don't burn.
- Let the pecans cool for a few minutes. Once they're cool enough to touch, roughly chop the pecans. Set aside to cool completely.
Make the cookie dough
- While the butter and pecans cool, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and Kosher salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Then, add the dark brown sugar and white sugar to the brown butter. Using a stand mixer or electric hand mixer, beat the butter and sugars together until it’s well-combined, 1-2 minutes. Next, add the eggs one at a time until they're completely incorporated. Mix in the vanilla extract.
- Stir half of the flour mixture to the sugar-butter mixture until combined. Then, add the remaining flour mixture, beating just until the dough forms (a few streaks of flour is ok). Using a rubber spatula, fold the pecans and chocolate wafers into the cookie dough until they're evenly distributed and there are no more streaks of flour. The dough will be a bit loose, but it will thicken once it's chilled.
- Cover the bowl with a reusable bowl cover or plastic wrap. Then, chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Bake the cookies
- Once the dough is chilled and you're ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Using a #40 cookie scoop (2 Tablespoons), scoop the cookie dough and roll them into balls with the palms of your hands. Place the cookie dough balls 3 inches apart on the parchment-lined sheet pans (they will spread quite a bit). Add 2-3 chocolate wafers to the tops of each cookie dough ball if you want the 'chocolate puddle' look.
- Bake the cookies for about 6 minutes, until the cookies are puffy in the center. Using oven mitts, grip the sides of the sheet pan and give the sheet pan a few firm taps against the oven rack until the edges are wrinkly and the centers of the cookies fall and flatten. Flip the pan and bake the cookies for another 2-3 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and the centers are just slightly underdone.
- Remove the cookies from the oven, and give them another tap against a counter or another firm surface to make the edges a little more crinkly. Immediately press 2-3 toasted pecans into the surface of each cookie for decoration, if desired. Sprinkle the cookies with flaky salt.
- Let the cookies cool on the sheet pan for about 5 minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat the above steps with the rest of the cookie dough. Enjoy!
Notes
It's super important to properly measure the flour! It's the difference between chewy cookies and dry, crunchy cookies. I highly recommend using a scale and weighing your ingredients. If you don't have a scale, measure the flour by fluffing it with a whisk. Then, scoop the flour into a measuring cup and level it off without packing the flour into the cup.
I use Morton's Kosher salt. Feel free to use Diamond if you prefer a less coarse salt. Just make sure to adjust the salt accordingly! (1 tsp Morton's is about 1 1/2 tsp Diamond).
If you can't find chocolate wafers, fèves, chocolate chips, or even a chopped chocolate bar will all work! I like semisweet but milk or dark chocolate is great too.
Let the brown butter cool a bit before mixing up the batter. This is a loose dough in general, but letting the butter cool a bit will keep it from being runny.
Don't skip chilling the dough! Not only will it give the dough time for the flavors to meld, but you want the butter to firm up so the cookies don't spread too much.
If the dough is too stiff out of the fridge, let it warm up for 30-60 minutes. This usually only happens if the dough is chilled overnight. If it’s only been chilling for 1-2 hours, it should be fine to scoop right away.
Underbake the cookies a bit so they stay nice and chewy. They should be set on the edges but still a bit underdone in the centers. Don't worry, they'll finish baking on the pan!
Serving: 1cookie, Calories: 229kcal, Carbohydrates: 27.9g, Protein: 2.4g, Fat: 12.7g, Saturated Fat: 5.8g, Cholesterol: 36mg, Sodium: 237mg, Potassium: 58mg, Fiber: 0.9g, Sugar: 16.7g, Calcium: 19mg, Iron: 1mg
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