These crispy, chocolate chip pecan cookies combine semi-sweet chocolate morsels, crunchy pecans and savory flavors of brown butter and sea salt. They’re the perfect Christmas cookie or easy after-school snack!
I can’t speak for everyone, but I sure do love a thin and crispy cookie. Know what else I love? The flavors of Southern butter pecan. After you make these cookies, I urge you to also check out my recipe for key lime pie with a butter pecan crust!
This post is sponsored by Bob’s Red Mill. I highly recommend Bob’s Red Mill Unbleached White All-Purpose Flour when I bake because I get perfect results with their product every time!
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❤️ Why you’ll love this recipe
- They’re deliciously sweet, but also buttery and salty. The sweetness comes from the obvious ingredients (chocolate and sugar) and the savory element comes from the brown-butter and sea salt.
- If you prefer light and crispy over chewy and dense cookies, you’ve come to the right place! The best part about these cookies is that they’re firm and crunchy, but don’t become hard, as long as you store them in an airtight container.
- If you do happen to like chewier cookies, please don’t go! I give tips on how to soften your cookies under the ‘tips and tricks’ heading below.
- Unlike with most chocolate chip recipes, there’s no need to chill the dough! This means cookies in your mouth faster. Unless a recipe calls for it, I hardly ever chill my cookie dough. In fact, I recommend that you don’t chill the dough for this recipe because it will harden the melted butter, which is what creates ‘spread’ (i.e. flattens the cookie so it’s thin and crispy).
📋 Ingredient notes
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips are what I use because they’re not overly sweet. They’re pretty much standard for chocolate chip cookies but I provide substitutions below.
- Pecans – chopped pecans are what I use but you can also use halved pecans.
- Combination of white and brown sugars – it really doesn’t matter if you use light or dark brown sugar, but it’s important to also use white sugar because it makes the cookie crispy.
- Baking soda and baking powder are used in this recipe to achieve height and spread on the cookies. Make sure they are fresh (unexpired).
- Brown butter is an important base ingredient which is made by melting and browning unsalted butter in a saucepan. You don’t have to brown the butter, but it’s important to do if you want your cookies to have a crinkly appearance and an even nuttier flavor.
See recipe card at the bottom of this post for exact measurements and quantities.
Recipe substitutions
- Salted butter can be used if you don’t have unsalted butter. I would just omit the salt from the dry ingredient mixture, and use your own discretion as to whether you want to top the cookies with sea salt.
- Regular melted butter or softened butter can work in place of brown butter. Cookies made with regular melted butter contain more moisture so they spread out more while baking. Cookies made with softened butter are slightly thicker because they won’t spread as much. None of these are wrong, just depends on your preference.
- For chewier cookies, omit the granulated sugar and replace it with all brown sugar. You can use light or dark brown sugar for this recipe. You can also add an extra egg yolk to the recipe to make the cookies softer and denser.
- Add-ins: feel free to get creative and play around with different add-ins. You can use caramel or butterscotch chips, chocolate chunks, pretzels, toffee or you can substitute walnuts.
🍪 Step-by-step instructions
Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350°F. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl, set the bowl aside.
Step 2: Cut the stick of butter in half or into cubes and place them in a small saucepan. Melt the butter over medium heat for 5-8 minutes, stirring the butter around as it melts. Turn the burner off and let the butter cool down.
Tip: The butter will turn amber in color with brown specks after 5 minutes of heating/stirring. For darker brown butter you can go as long as 8 minutes.
Step 3: While the butter cools, whisk together both sugars, egg and vanilla extract in a clean mixing bowl. Whisk quickly as you pour in the melted brown butter. The sugar mixture should be wet and smooth.
Step 4: Add the flour mixture to the bowl with the wet mixture and combine with a rubber spatula to form the cookie dough. There should be no visible streaks of flour in the dough.
Step 5: Add the chocolate chips and pecans to the bowl and use your spatula to combine them with the dough until the chocolate chips and pecans are evenly disbursed.
Step 6: Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and scoop the dough into 1.5 tablespoon-sized balls. Arrange 12 scoops of dough on each baking sheet, leaving 2 inches of space between them.
Tip: Make sure you also leave 2 inches of space between each cookie and the sides of the baking sheet.
Step 7: Top each scoop of dough with a light sprinkle of coarse sea salt. Bake the cookies for 14 minutes.
Step 8: Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer them to a metal cooling rack. The cookies will become firm as they cool.
💭 Tips and Tricks
- For an even nuttier flavor, toast the pecans at 350°F on a baking sheet for 5 minutes before adding them to the dough.
- Refer to ‘recipe substitutions’ above for tips on achieving soft and chewy cookies.
- For flatter cookies: add 1-2 tablespoons of milk or replace the baking powder with an additional ½ teaspoon of baking soda to help the cookies spread out more. You may need to leave additional space between each cookie to allow for the extra spread.
- Sprinkling sea salt on the cookies right before baking will help the salt adhere to the cookies.
❓Recipe FAQ’s
Chocolate chip cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days. They can also be frozen for up to 3 months, just bring them back to room temperature before eating them.
For best results with this recipe, I recommend baking the dough the same day because the butter hardens in the freezer. If you do refrigerate or freeze the dough, just it come up to room temperature before baking.
Ingredients play a major role. Brown butter is what gives these cookies their crispy, cracked appearance. You can use softened butter for smoother, softer cookies.
Granulated sugar is another ingredient that gives these cookies their crispy texture. For chewier cookies, use all brown sugar and add an extra egg yolk to the batter.
⭐ Other recipes you’ll love
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below & consider scrolling down and leaving me a review if you REALLY liked it. Thanks!
Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies
Equipment
- 1 small cookie scoop size #50
Ingredients
- 1 and ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 1 stick unsalted butter (8 tablespoons)
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl, set aside.
- Cut the stick of butter in half or into cubes and place them in a small saucepan. Melt the butter over medium heat, stirring the butter around as it melts. After 5 minutes, the butter will develop an amber color with butter with brown specks. For dark brown butter, you can go as long as 8 minutes. Turn the flame off and let the butter cool down.
- While the butter cools, whisk together both sugars, egg, and vanilla extract in a clean mixing bowl. Whisk quickly as you pour in the melted brown butter. The sugar mixture should be wet and smooth.
- Add flour mixture to the bowl with the wet mixture and combine with a rubber spatula to form the cookie dough. You'll know the dough is fully combined once there are no visible streaks of flour.
- Add the chocolate chops and pecans to the bowl with the cookie dough and use your spatula to combine them with the dough. The chocolate chips and pecans should be evenly disbursed.
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and scoop the dough into 1.5 tablespoon-sized balls. Place 12 scoops on each baking sheet, leaving 2 inches of space between them. Top each ball of dough with a light sprinkle of coarse sea salt if desired.
- Bake the cookies for 14 minutes. Remove them from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a metal cooling rack. The cookies will become firm as they cool.
Notes
- For an even nuttier flavor, toast the pecans at 350°F on a baking sheet for 5 minutes before adding them to the dough.
- For softer, chewier cookies, refer to ‘recipe substitutions’ in the body of the post.
- For flatter cookies: add 1-2 tablespoons of milk or replace the baking powder with an additional ½ teaspoon of baking soda to help the cookies spread out more. You may need to leave additional space between each cookie to allow for the extra spread.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days.
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