Dark Chocolate Brown Butter Pecan Cookies
Dark Chocolate Brown Butter Pecan Cookies are with puddles of good dark chocolate almost wanting to melt into your hands, with mildly crispy edges and gooey centers.
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Ingredients
- 1 cup, 230g, 16 Tbsp Unsalted butter
- 1 cup, 200g Light or dark brown sugar, packed I used light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup, 100g White sugar
- 2 Large eggs @ room temperature
- 2 tsp Pure vanilla extract
- 2 and 1/2 cups, 313 gms Plain flour (spoon & leveled)
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- 1 tsp Ground cinnamon I didnt use cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 and 1/2 cups, 226 gms Semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate bars, chopped refer notes
- 1 cup, 130g Roughly chopped pecans refer notes
Instructions
- Brown the butter: Set out a medium heat-proof bowl because you’ll need it at the end of this step. Slice the butter into Tablespoon-size pieces and place in a light-colored skillet or large pot. Light colored helps you determine when the butter begins browning. Melt the butter over medium heat and stir or whisk constantly. Once melted, the butter will begin to foam. Keep stirring/whisking. After 5-7 minutes, the butter will begin browning and you’ll notice lightly browned specks begin to form at the bottom of the pan. It will have a nutty aroma. Once browned, remove from heat immediately and pour into the bowl, including any solids that have formed on the bottom of the pan. (You want those solids for flavor.) Cool brown butter for 5 minutes. Don’t cool longer than that because the butter will begin to thicken and, as a result, the cookie dough will be difficult to mix and its texture will be very crumbly.
- Whisk the brown sugar and granulated sugar into the brown butter and then whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract. Set aside. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon (if using), and salt together. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, add the chopped chocolate and pecans, then stir together with a large spoon or rubber spatula. Dough will be greasy, thick, and even slightly crumbly.
- Cover cookie dough and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours (refer notes) and up to 3 days before baking. (You can also freeze the dough balls, see Freezing Instructions below.) If chilling for longer than 2 hours, allow the dough to sit at room temperature for at least 20-30 minutes before rolling and baking in the next step. The cookie dough is quite firm otherwise.
- Towards the end of chill time, preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Roll or scoop the dough into balls, 1.5 Tablespoons of dough each. I recommend a medium cookie scoop. Place 3 inches apart on the baking sheets and bake for 13-14 minutes or until the edges appear set. (Tip: If cookies aren’t spreading by the 10 minute mark, remove pan from the oven, carefully bang it on the counter to help induce some spreading, and then return it to the oven to finish baking.)
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
I made only half the qty of the above recipe and got around 16 cookies.
I refrigerated the dough for 2 hours and it became quite firm. I had to leave it at room temp for almost half an hour to roll out the cookies. I suggest you check the dough after 1 hour of refrigerating (if planning to bake on the same day itself) and if it's firmed up, go ahead with the recipe.
I used a combination of dark and milk chocolate (75% dark and 25 % milk, since Jose prefers milk chocolate). I used couverture chocolate to make this. I've also used Lindt dark chocolates before.
You can use walnuts or almonds instead of pecans or you can skip the nuts completely. I used raw pecans (not roasted).
For freezing the cookie dough: Shape the cookies and spread them on a parchment-lined tray and freeze it, till it firms up completely. Remove from the parchment and store the dough balls in a ziplock bag. You can bake them straight from the freezer without thawing, increase the baking time by a minute or so. You can freeze the cookie dough balls up to three months.
