These brown butter pecan cookies are made with toasted chopped pecans, brown butter, and chocolate chunks, and topped with flakey salt and a big pecan for decoration!
Thick, chewy from the inside, and crispy on the edges butter pecan cookies are simply amazing.
If you like making cookies, you should check out our double chocolate cookies, brown butter chocolate chunk cookies, small-batch chocolate chip cookies, and our M&M cookies!
These cookies are:
- Extremely easy to make.
- Made with browned butter that gives these cookies a nutty flavor.
- Bakery-style chocolate chip cookies.
- Filled with toasted pecans.
- Extra chewy and soft and filled with plenty of chocolate chunks.
- Easily satisfies your cookie craving.
- Fits perfectly in your cookies tray for Christmas.
- Made with simple ingredients!
- Don’t require an electric hand mixer, all you will need is a whisk.
What is brown butter?
Brown butter is a classic French sauce that is used in French cuisine and baking. Browning butter is melted butter that is browned on the stovetop.
Browning butter is a chemical process of melting the butter, letting it sizzle, foam up, and cook up to a delicious nutty brown butter sauce that is an amazing addition to baking. These brown butter chocolate chunk cookies are incredible.
Ingredients
Before you start to make these cookies, measure and prepare your ingredients so the cooking process will go smoothly and easily.
Butter- use unsalted butter for this recipe. Only butter will work for this recipe, no margarine, and no coconut oil. Margarine has a weird taste and can ruin the flavor of these delicious cookies.
Flour– we used all-purpose flour for this recipe. cake flour will work great as well.
Baking soda – baking soda helps the cookies rise and spread. Make sure that your baking soda isn’t expired. Don’t replace baking soda with baking powder!
Granulated sugar– we like to use granulated sugar, also the most common sugar used in baking. Caster sugar will work great as well.
Brown sugar- adds a caramelly flavor and chewy texture to the cookies. use either light brown sugar or dark brown sugar.
Eggs- you will need 3 large eggs for this recipe. Make sure that your egg is at room temperature.
Vanilla extract- adds extra flavor.
Cinnamon- we like adding extra flavor with cinnamon. It's totally optional though.
Kosher salt- you will need about ½ teaspoon of kosher salt for this recipe.
Pecans- we use pecans for both the cookie dough and one for the top of the cookies. We highly recommend toasting the pecans before using them. Toasting the pecans releases the amazing flavors they naturally have.
Chocolate- use the best quality semisweet or dark chocolate bars for the best flavor. You will need dark chocolate for the cookie dough, and more for topping the cookies.
Flaky salt- we like topping our cookies with flaky salt when they are finished. We like the contrast of the sweetness and the slight saltiness that it gives the cookies. you can skip this step, it’s a personal preference.
Instructions
Step 1: Start by browning the butter. In a medium-sized saucepan add the butter (which has been at room temperature for 20-30 minutes) and melt in on medium heat swirling the saucepan constantly.
Step 2: Once the butter has melted, the butter will start to sizzle up and a layer of foam will cover the entire pan. Once you cant see the butter, remove it from the heat and transfer the brown butter to a big mixing bowl to cool to room temperature.
Step 3: Add the brown sugar, sugar, eggs, salt, and vanilla extract to the bowl with the brown butter and mix with a whisk until well combined.
Step 4: Chop dark chocolate or semisweet chocolate bars into chunks and add toast pecans and chop them into small pieces. Add the chocolate chunks and the chopped pecans into the cookie dough mixture.
Step 5: Sift the flour and add the baking soda and gently fold the mixture with a spatula until just combined, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the dough rest in the fridge for at least an hour. We let the dough rest in the fridge overnight.
Step 6: Use a cookies scoop to scoop out the cookies or scoop the cookies with a regular tablespoon, 1 ½ tablespoon at a time.
Step 7: Place the cookie dough balls onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, and top with more chocolate chunks and bake for 9-11 minutes. Immediately top each cookie with pecan and let the cookies cool for 5 minutes, and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Step 8: Top each cookie with flaky salt and serve next to a cup of milk for the best experience!
Expert tips
- Use room temperature ingredients. It is important that you use room-temperature ingredients like eggs and butter. This step ensures that your mixture mixes into a homogenous mixture and bakes perfectly. you don’t want to place cold batter into the oven.
- Don’t overmix the batter, you don’t want to develop the gluten in the flour. This step ensures you have moist cookies and not dense and dry cookies.
- Make sure that your butter is at room temperature. 20-30 minutes before making these cookies, take the butter out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. The butter should be a bit softer to the touch and not freezingly cold. If your butter is too cold, the butter will melt unevenly when browning the butter.
- Use a light-colored pan when browning the butter, that way you will be able to see the golden specks or the brown butter on the bottom of the pan.
- We suggest using high-quality chocolate bars! use the best quality semisweet or dark chocolate bars for the best flavor. You will need dark chocolate for the cookie dough, and more for topping the cookies.
- Measure your flour correctly! When measuring your flour, avoid scooping it with a measuring cup. Instead, stir the flour with a spoon to create as many air pockets as possible, and spoon it into your measuring cup. Finally, level it with a back of a knife.
- Line your sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone mat! This step helps the cookies to bake evenly, and it makes sure that your brown butter chocolate chunk cookies release easily from the pan.
- Use a cookies scoop to scoop out the cookies, that way you will have even-sized cookies, plus it ensures that your cookies bake evenly.
- Before you start to make this recipe, measure and prepare your ingredients so the cooking process will go smoothly and easily.
- When browning the butter, keep an eye on the pan at all times. The butter can burn very easily and quickly. So when you brown the butter, mix it constantly, and don’t walk away!
- After your butter has browned, immediately remove it from the heat and pour the brown butter into a heat-safe mixing bowl to cool completely to room temperature. If you will remove the brown butter from the heat and not pour it into a heat-safe mixing bowl, it will keep cooking and will burn.
- Chill the dough! This step is crucial and prevents the cookies to spread out too much. After making the cookie dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean towel, and chill the dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
- Be patient! I know it’s extremely tempting to eat these cookies as they are pulled out of the oven, but let these cookies cool for at least 15 minutes so they will be more firm and won’t crumble up. We suggest letting these cookies cool for 5 minutes and then transferring them to a wire rack to cool for at least 10 more minutes. This step ensures that the bottom of your cookies will not be soggy from the steam.
Do I have to chill the cookie dough?
Yes! we baked these cookies plenty of times when we were in a rush and couldn’t wait for the cookie dough to chill, and they tasted good of course, but when they are chilled, they taste AMAZING! Here is why you should chill your cookie dough:
- The first and the most important reason to chill the cookie dough is to let it cool. This step stops the cookies from spreading too much in the oven. Cold dough results in thicker cookies.
- The second important reason to chill the cookie dough is to let all the amazing flavors come together and create a rich cookie flavor.
Faq's
It’s okay to store these cookies at room temperature. Make sure that you store them in an airtight container.
These brown butter pecan cookies will last for up to 5 days stored at room temperature in an airtight container.
Yes! it’s easy to make this recipe dairy-free. Simply replace the butter with vegan butter. Do not margarine! margarine has a bad flavor and it can ruin the flavor of these cookies.
We used regular unsalted butter for this recipe. If you want to use salted butter in this recipe, simply skip the salt and make the recipe as written.
We use all-purpose flour for these cookies. Cake flour will work great as well.
This usually means that there is too much flour in the dough. It is very important to measure your flour correctly.
When measuring your flour, avoid scooping it with a measuring cup. Instead, stir the flour with a spoon to create as many air pockets as possible, and spoon it into your measuring cup. Finally, level it with a back of a knife.
Yes. we like using chocolate chunks in our brown butter pecan cookies recipe because we find that chocolate bars are so much higher in quality and the taste of these cookies is immaculate.
If you want to replace the chocolate chunks with chocolate chips, simply add 1 ½ cups of chocolate chips into the cookie dough and follow the recipe according to the instructions.
Why are my cookies flat?
If your cookies come out flat, that may be from a few reasons:
- You didn’t chill the dough for long enough. It is very important to chill the dough for at least 30 minutes. This step is crucial and prevents the cookies to spread out too much. After making the cookie dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean towel, and chill the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- You didn’t add enough flour. One of the most common mistakes when making cooking is not adding enough flour or adding too much flour. This step is crucial and prevents the cookies to spread out too much. After making the cookie dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a clean towel, and chill the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Your baking soda may have expired. It is very important to make sure that you are using fresh ingredients when baking. So before starting to make any recipe, make sure that your ingredients are fresh and not expired.
Freezing
We love freezing cookie dough, and we do it all the time. Simply, follow the instructions as written and make the dough balls, then transfer the dough balls into a freezer-friendly airtight ziplock bag, and freeze the cookie dough ball for up to 3 months.
When ready to bake the cookies, bake them right away, no need to thaw. Add an extra minute or so for the baking time.
Is there a loss of moisture when browning butter?
Yes. During the browning process, the butter loses about 20-30% of moisture. This can cause dry and crumbly cookies and not soft and chewy cookies that we all know and love.
The solution for the moisture loss is either adding liquid like milk, or melted butter, or reducing the amount of flour. Before I knew how to make these brown butter chocolate chunks cookies, I had a few tests that were a total fail. Some were too dry and didn’t spread almost at all, and some were too flat.
We tested this recipe many times and got the perfect one for you today. Eventually, we decided to reduce the amount of flour in this recipe and it turned out perfect! I can’t wait for you to try these brown butter chocolate chunk cookies.
Tools in this recipe:
- Mixing bowl (set of 3)
- Whisk Set (pack of 3) to whisk the ingredients together
- Saucepan to brown the butter.
- Baking sheet and rack set (our fave)
- Cookies scoop set of 3 (the best cookie scoop we used)
More cookie recipes to try:
Brown butter chocolate chunk cookies- These brown butter chocolate chunk cookies are the most amazing cookies. They are filled with nutty brown butter, chocolate chunks, and topped with flaky salt.
Chewy chocolate chip cookies- These chewy chocolate chip cookies are soft and chewy and loaded with chocolate chips. This chewy chocolate chip cookies recipe is our dream dessert that we never get sick of.
M&M cookies- These m&m cookies are chewy, soft, crispy edges, and loaded with chocolate chunks and m&m’s. These are the perfect holiday cookies, you can make them big or small.
Chewy chocolate chip cookies- These chewy chocolate chip cookies are the best cookies we’ve ever had! These chewy chocolate chip cookies are soft and chewy and loaded with chocolate chips.
Chocolate crinkle cookies- Chocolate crinkle cookies are soft and fudgy chocolate cookies covered with crispy powder sugar outer layer.
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Brown Butter Pecan Cookies
Ingredients
- 230 g Butter soft
- 2 cups cups Flour (plus 2 tbsp)
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Egg yolk
- ½ cup Granulated sugar
- 1 cup Brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 ½ cups Chocolate chunks
- 1 teaspoon Baking soda
- 1 cup Pecans (chopped) plus extra for the top
Instructions
- Start by browning the butter. In a medium-sized saucepan add the butter (which has been at room temperature for 20-30 minutes) and melt in on medium heat swirling the saucepan constantly.
- Once the butter has melted, the butter will start to sizzle up and a layer of foam will cover the entire pan. Once you cant see the butter, remove it from the heat and transfer the brown butter to a big mixing bowl to cool to room temperature.
- Add the brown sugar, sugar, eggs, salt, and vanilla extract to the bowl with the brown butter and mix with a whisk until well combined.
- Chop dark chocolate or semisweet chocolate bars into chunks and add toast pecans and chop them into small pieces. Add the chocolate chunks and the chopped pecans into the cookie dough mixture.
- Sift the flour and add the baking soda and gently fold the mixture with a spatula until just combined, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let the dough rest in the fridge for at least an hour. We let the dough rest in the fridge overnight.
- Use a cookies scoop to scoop out the cookies or scoop the cookies with a regular tablespoon, 1 ½ tablespoon at a time.
- Place the cookie dough balls onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, and top with more chocolate chunks and bake for 9-11 minutes. Immediately top each cookie with pecan and let the cookies cool for 5 minutes, and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Top each cookie with flaky salt and serve next to a cup of milk for the best experience!
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