Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies – the name says it all. Soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies made with brown butter for a richer, nutty flavor with the addition of chopped pecans thrown into the mix. This is one heck of a chocolate chip cookie.

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before in past ramblings but I am a sucker for chocolate chip cookies. To me, there is nothing better than a warm, soft, chewy, chocolate-ly, buttery – brown sugary chocolate chip cookie. Clearly, I have a problem. The struggle is real and I’m not complaining 😉

I think the brown butter steals the show with this ingredient line up. The base of these cookies are just like typical chocolate chips cookies; butter, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, all purpose flour, yada, yada, yada. Except this time around instead of using room temperature butter, we’re using brown butter. Brown butter is rich in aroma and flavor. It really adds something divine to baked goods. When I first made this batch of cookies I made them minus the chopped pecans so they were just brown butter chocolate chip cookies at that point. They came out amazing, great texture; thick, soft, chewy and great flavor; rich, buttery, slightly nutty & loaded with chocolate chips. I knew I had a winner. Kyle (my fiancé) is the genius that suggested adding pecans in to the mix. So, for round two, I added a cup of chopped pecans. Total game changer. Chopped pecans are the icing on the cake for these cookies. Brown butter + chopped pecans + chocolate chips =  one hell of a cookie. Thanks babe.

I usually recommend slightly underbaking cookies because I like them as soft and tender as possible. Stiff, dry, crunchy cookies just aren’t my thing. Usually I bake cookies for about 9 or 10 minutes because they will continue to bake for a minutes of so after you pull them out of the oven. With these cookies, I broke the underbaking barrier and found that these cookies come out best when baked for about 10-12 minutes. No fear of underbaked cookies here!

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Thick, soft chocolate chips cookies made with brown butter for a rich, nuttier flavor and chopped pecans.

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Prep Time: 22 hours 50 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Total Time: 22 hours 50 minutes

Servings: 24

Author: Kimberly

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted browned butter
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar packed
• 1/2 dark brown sugar packed
• 1/2 granulated sugar
• 1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk (both at room temperature)
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup chopped pecans optional: plus a little extra to garnish on top of cookies
• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

• Place a small sauce pan over medium heat on the stove top. Allow pan to warm up for a few minutes before adding the butter (I like to assemble the rest of my ingredients while I wait). Once pan is warm, add in 2 sticks (1 cup) of unsalted butter and allow it to melt completely. After a few minutes butter will start to mildly bubble and you may hear some popping and crackling noises. After about 5 minutes or so the butter will really start to foam and bubble, watch it closely. You'll start to smell a rich, nutty aroma coming from the butter. As soon as the butter turns brown (like caramel brown) stir it around for just a moment and then pull the sauce pan from the heat. Browned butter is time sensitive and can burn very quickly. Very carefully pour the brown butter into a heat safe bowl with a fine mesh strainer over the top to catch the browned bits that form at the bottom of the pan. Be very careful, the butter will be piping hot. Set bowl with browned butter aside and allow it to cool for about 15 minutes.
• Once the butter has cooled slightly (it'll still be hot after 15 minutes) you can began to make your cookie dough. In a food processor pulse 1 cup of pecans just so they are broken down into smaller chunks, place in a small bowl and set aside. In a large mixing bowl combine light brown sugar, dark brown sugar and white sugar. Mix sugars together on low speed for a few minutes, just to get them mixed together. Slowly and carefully (butter is still hot) pour browned butter into the sugar mixture. Continue mixing on medium speed. Slowly add in both the egg & egg yolk, and vanilla extract. Continue mixing until thoroughly combined. Dough will be dark brown in color and have a slick, wet texture.
• Add in your dry ingredients; flour, baking soda & salt and continue mixing until the dough forms. Add in chocolate chips and chopped pecans and continue mixing until chips and pecans are thoroughly distributed throughout the dough.
• Using a cookie dough scoop (or spoon) roll cookie dough balls about 1.5 to 2 tablespoons in size. Add a few more chocolate chips or pecans to the top of each cookie if you'd like. Freeze cookie dough balls for at least 2 hours before baking or up to overnight.
• When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cookie dough balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, about 1 inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Notes

• 2 hours & 45 minutes total time indicated above includes making the browned butter, making the cookies dough, allowing at least 2 hours of freezing time and baking time.