Elevate your chocolate chip cookie game with this Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookie recipe. Brown butter delivers next-level flavor and adds a rich, nutty twist to the classic dough. Once baked these cookies boast golden brown crisp edges that give way to melt-in-your-mouth, chewy centers, all bursting with rich chocolate chunks and crunchy pecans. And the best part, the dough is made by hand, no mixer is required.
As a self-taught baker, I'm always testing recipes in the kitchen and trying to take my favorite recipes to the next level. Chocolate chip pecan cookies are a lifelong favorite and they were the first recipe my mom let me bake by myself.
When people ask me my favorite thing to make - chocolate chip cookies is always the answer. The combination of brown sugar, butter, and chocolate produces a classic taste and is instantly recognizable.
Over the years I've come up with variations on this classic recipe that include Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Easter Chocolate Chip Cookies. And if you love the combination of brown sugar and pecans then grab my Brown Sugar Pecan Cookie recipe.
Why You'll Love This Cookie Recipe
- Nutty Bliss: This classic recipe is elevated with brown butter, adding a rich, caramelized depth that complements the chocolate and pecans beautifully. It's a flavor game-changer and will leave people asking for more.
- Crispy-Chewy Dream: This recipe achieves the perfect combination of golden, crisp edges which give way to a soft, chewy center that melts in your mouth. It's the perfect balance of indulgence and satisfaction.
- Simple Ingredients: This recipe uses pantry staples you likely already have, making it an easy way to satisfy your cookie cravings.
Ingredients for Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies
- Bittersweet Chocolate: 60-62% bittersweet chocolate is perfect for this recipe. Use either chocolate chunks (whole chocolate bars chopped into chunks) or chocolate chips. You can also use semi-sweet chocolate.
- Granulated Sugar: Granulated sugar (aka white sugar) provides sweetness to the cookie, helps the cookies spread as they bake, and gives these cookies their signature crisp edges.
- Light Brown Sugar: Like granulated sugar, brown sugar provides sweetness and helps the cookie to spread as it bakes. The molasses in the brown sugar adds a chewy texture to the cookie. If you use dark brown sugar, the cookies may spread a little more because of the additional molasses in dark brown sugar and the cookie will be a little softer.
- Unsalted Butter: Butter ensures a moist, tender, and buttery cookie. Use room temperature butter so it mixes well with the other ingredients. If you like your cookies extra salty you can make these with salted butter, but I prefer to control the amount of salt by using unsalted butter.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: Vanilla extract elevates all the other flavors in the cookie. You can also use vanilla bean paste.
Full ingredients, measurements, and instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies
This recipe starts with making the brown butter. The brown butter needs time to cool before adding the other ingredients.
Step 1: Place the saucepan over high heat, then reduce it to low heat as soon as the butter begins to melt.
Step 2: Melt the butter until it turns golden brown and the milk solids drop to the bottom the pan and turn golden brown.
Step 3: Stir in the remaining tablespoon of butter and pour the brown butter into the mixing bowl and let it cool.
Baking Tip: The butter is melted on low heat to reduce the amount of evaporation and to reduce the chance of burning the butter.
If the milk solids turn black the brown butter is burnt and you'll need to start over.
Step 4: Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a mixing bowl.
Step 5: Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla, and corn syrup to the brown butter.
Step 6: Add the egg and whisk it in until the cookie dough is lighter in color and looks smooth.
Let the dough rest for 5 minutes. This will give the sugar time to dissolve.
Step 7: Add all the dry ingredients at once.
Step 8: Add the chopped chocolate and the toasted pecans. Refrigerate the dough.
Step 9: Remove the cookies from the refrigerator 30 minutes before you're ready to start baking. A softer cookie dough is easier to scoop.
Step 10: Use a #40 cookie scoop to 8 scoop portions of cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Step 11: Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are brown and set.
Every oven is different so your baking time may vary. After the first batch of cookies, taste one of the cookies (after they have cooled) and adjust the baking time based on whether the first batch tasted underbaked or overbaked.
Baking Tip: If you want perfectly round cookies take a cookie cutter or biscuit cutter slightly larger than the cookies, place it around the cookie, and rotate it around the cookie to create a perfectly round shape.
Step 12: Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Do I Need to Chill the Cookie Dough
Yes, for this recipe you need to chill the cookie dough because it's made with melted butter and the butter needs time to solidify. The recipe calls for chilling the dough for 24 hours for the best flavor, but it should be chilled for at least 2 hours if you want cookies sooner
Chilling the dough for at least 24 hours allows the ingredients in the cookie dough to meld together producing more flavor. This process is called retrogradation.
I love learning about food science and when I first learned about retrogradation, I was so excited to learn about the process that makes food taste better the next day. Think about some of your favorites including stew, and spaghetti.
Retrogradation is the reorganization of the starch molecules in the dough. As the cookie dough chills a crystalline structure forms. These crystalline structures act as a cage, trapping the flavor molecules of the other ingredients, such as butter and sugar.
Trapping the flavor molecules leads to an even distribution of flavor (aka the melding of flavors). Trapping the sugar also prevents the sugar from dissolving too quickly as the cookie bakes and the cookie maintains its chewiness.
Pro Tips for Making This Recipe
- Use a kitchen scale to weigh the flour and the unsalted butter. Too much flour and the cookies will be a little dry. Too little flour and the cookies will spread too much.
- A cookie scoop is a helpful tool to ensure all your cookie balls are the same size and bake evenly.
- Let the baking sheets cool in between batches of cookies. Placing the cookie dough on a warm baking sheet will cause the cookies to spread too much when baked.
- To maximize chocolate flavor, top the unbaked cookies with chunks of chocolate right before placing them in the oven.
- Under baking the cookies will ensure a chewy center after the cookie has cooled.
If you make these amazing chocolate chip pecan cookies please leave a rating and a comment below.
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Crisp and Chewy Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies
Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl
Ingredients
- 9 tablespoons (127 grams) unsalted butter divided
- 1-1/4 cups (150 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons (41 grams) corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 large (50 grams) egg
- 7 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate chips or chocolate bars cut into chunks divided
- 3/4 cup (86 grams) toasted pecans roughly chopped
Instructions
Make the Brown Butter
- Place 8 tablespoons (113 grams) of butter, cut into 8 pieces in a saucepan. Use a light-colored saucepan so you can see the milk solids as they brown. Place the saucepan over high heat. As soon as the butter starts to melt, reduce the heat to low. The heat is reduced to low to minimize evaporation and reduce the chance that you will burn the butter.
- As the butter melts, it will pop, and sizzle, and the milk solids will begin to separate from the butter fat. Initially, the milk solids will sit on top of the butter fat. As the butter continues to cook, the milk solids will drop to the bottom of the pan and turn brown.
- Once the amount of milk solid foam begins to lessen start to look for brown pieces on the bottom of the pan. Occasionally stir it so you can clearly see the bottom of the pan.
- The butter will change to a golden brown and the milk solids on the bottom of the pan will be brown. Watch the color of the milk solids - they should be a dark golden brown or russet color. If they are black, then you have burnt the butter and will need to start over. Don't use the burnt butter, it will give the cookies a bitter taste.
- Once the butter reaches the right color remove the pan from the heat and stir in the remaining tablespoon of butter. Scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen the brown bits and pour the brown butter into a large mixing bowl. Cool the butter until it is about 85-90°F.
Make the Cookie Dough
- While the butter is cooling measure the flour into a medium-sized bowl. Add the baking soda and the salt and whisk the ingredients together for 30 seconds.
- Once the butter has cooled, add the brown sugar, the granulated sugar, corn syrup, and the vanilla extract. Whisk the ingredients together for about 1 minute. Add the egg and whisk until the egg is incorporated and the dough becomes a very light brown and looks smooth. Let the batter sit for about 5 minutes, then whisk it again.
- Add the flour mixture and fold it into the dough with a spatula. Next add 2/3 (5 ounces) of the chocolate chunks and all of the pecans. Fold them into the dough.
- Place the dough into a smaller container covered with plastic wrap or a lid and chill for 24 hours. If you want to make the cookies sooner, let the dough chill for at least 2 hours before baking to solidify the butter.
Baking the Cookies
- Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator about 30 minutes before you’re ready to start baking.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. If you only have 1 baking sheet let it completely cool before baking the next batch of cookies.
- Use a #40 cookie scoop to portion the dough into 1 ounce portions, about 2 tablespoons. Place about 8 scoops on a cookie sheet in a 2-1-2-1 pattern. This will give the cookies enough room to spread without running into each other.
- Place 2 or 3 pieces of reserved pieces of chopped chocolate on top of each ball of cookie dough.
- Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until the edges are browned and the center is still looks pale and slightly underdone.
- Remove the cookies from the oven. If the cookies have spread into wonky shapes and you want perfectly round cookies, as soon as the cookies come out of the oven place a large round cookie cutter around each cookie and mold the edges of the cookie from uneven to perfectly round, using a swirling motion.
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then move them to a wire rack and let them cool completely.
Storing the Cookies
- Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days. The addition of the corn syrup helps the cookies to stay softer for longer.
tanyaott says
I'm gonna' have to try these this weekend! Some people think that once you've found a recipe for Chocolate Chip cookies that you like, you should just stick with it but I'm all about the recipe testing!
Cheryl says
Let me know what you think. And I agree about trying other recipes, you never know what you'll discover.
Janet says
Your chocolate chippers are simply the BEST! I am delighted to see if I can make them. Close your eyes on Sunday at about 3 pm and send me some "Brown Sugar Baking Karma" !!
Cheryl says
I'll be thinking about you on Sunday. Let me know how they turn out.
Janet says
These are delicious! I found that baking them on my stoneware cookie sheet worked great with adding about 1 minute to the baking time. Of course, I could not wait overnight to chill the dough... so I put the bowl with the dough in the freezer for a short while and it firmed up nicely and the cookies held their shape. Thanks 🙂
Cheryl Norris says
Janet, I'm glad they turned out and that you liked them.
Susan says
Hi Cheryl. I had a bit of trouble with the bake temperature - at 350 the cookies did not spread much. All ingredients weighed. Gold Medal flour. I turned the oven down to 335/340 and played around with the times to get a good result. I also made larger cookies - 45 gram as one ounce (28 grams or so) seemed so petite especially if you want to add the extra pieces of chocolate after scooping. They baked to a 3" finished cookie. Finally, I sprinkled them with Maldon sea salt which it looks like you did as well in the photos but not in the recipe. Very nice balanced cookie and not too sweet! Thanks!