Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Making Brown Butter Pecan Chocolate chip cookies is one of the easiest and most delicious ways to celebrate the Fall flavors we all love! These cookies are chewy on the outside and gooey on the inside with deep chocolate and nutty flavors, a must-try during Fall or even Thanksgiving!

Best pecan chocolate chip cookie recipe

These pecan chocolate chip cookies are so luxurious with an irresistibly gooey, fudgey center. Chocolate chip cookies loaded with pecans, cinnamon, brown butter, and brown sugar are wonderfully rich yet very well-balanced in sweetness with added sea salt.

What's more, they are so quick and easy to make. It is hard to find a more delicious recipe with such minimal effort! Even beginner bakers can do it! I give you step-by-step directions that are easy to follow, plus all of my pro tips.

The intense chocolate and nutty taste comes from a combination of good quality dark, sweet chocolate chips, toasted pecans, and a hint of cinnamon & sea salt. It will blow your mind and is sure to become a family favorite Fall dessert or even a Thanksgiving dessert.

I also share pro baking tips on how to load your cookies with even more goodies halfway through baking, keep on reading!

Katalin's key take on why use brown butter in this pecan chocolate chip cookies recipe

Making brown butter (beurre noisette) is a classic French technique that just makes everything better! It involves heating the butter until the milk solids caramelize, and while it adds an extra step, it gives a deep, nutty, complex flavor. I really recommend you try it!

Use brown butter in chocolate chip cookies, madeleines, or financiers to add such an amazing, toasty depth of flavor. You can even use it on savory dishes like on top of grilled salmon or pasta. It's one of those baking hacks you simply have to taste. Once you've had brown butter chocolate chip cookies, you'll never go back!

How to brown butter (buerre noisette)

Brown butter by heating it in a saucepan over medium heat until it melts and then starts to foam. White bits (milk solids) will appear on the pan's bottom. It helps to use a pale-colored pan so that you can see this process start to happen.

The brown butter is ready when the white milk solids turn a golden brown color and develop a lovely nutty smell. It can burn quickly, so make sure you watch it constantly and don't leave it unattended.

Immediately pour the brown butter into a cold, heatproof container so it will cool down as soon as possible before you use it in this recipe.

Let´s make these cookies

Use an electric hand mixer to cream the soft but not hot browned butter and both types of sugar (granulated white sugar and light brown sugar) together for a few minutes.

Then, slowly add the room-temperature egg and continue to whisk just until it is all combined.

Sift the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, and baking soda) together in a separate mixing bowl.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture by hand using a rubber spatula until combined. Do not overmix; it will only take around 30 seconds.

Finally, fold in chopped pecans and dark chocolate chips, withholding a few to place on top of the cookies just before baking and some more halfway through baking.

Divide the cookie batter into 10-12 equal cookie dough balls (weigh with a digital scale) and place them onto 2 baking trays lined with parchment paper. Leave enough space between them to spread. I recommend a maximum of 5-6 per tray.

Press more chocolate chips and pecans on the surface and chill the cookie dough balls for 1 hour in the fridge or 20 minutes in the freezer. Chilling the cookie dough before baking helps to stop it from spreading too much in the oven.

How to bake

Preheat the oven to 175°C / 347°F (no fan).

Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, then remove them from the oven and sprinkle with more pecans and chocolate chips if you like.

Return the cookies to the oven for another 5 minutes. The cookies are ready when the edges look baked and the middle is slightly gooey but not raw. We want to keep the cookies soft on the inside!

When the cookies are baked, take a round cookie cutter and make circular movements around the pecan chocolate chip cookies to give them a perfectly round shape.

Wait for 5 minutes before moving the cookies to a wire cooling rack, then sprinkle with flaky sea salt.

Storage and freezing

These cookies are best eaten fresh out of the oven, and trust me, they usually disappear fast! However, you can store them for 1-2 days at room temperature stored in an airtight container. I love to warm them up in the microwave before serving to get the chocolate nice and gooey.

You can also easily freeze pecan chocolate chip cookies either before baking (after you divide them into balls) or after baking. To freeze the cookie dough balls, first freeze them on a tray and then transfer them to ziplock bags.

Freeze baked cookies in layers in an airtight container or foil parcel, separated by sheets of parchment paper.

I have an entire tutorial about how to freeze and bake frozen cookie dough.

Flavor Variations

Give these cookies more of a festive edge by adding a pinch of ground pumpkin spice to the dry cookie ingredients. I also sometimes add a teaspoon of grated orange zest and a little vanilla extract.

And why not drizzle the cookies with a spoonful of delicious homemade pecan butter after baking? It makes a delicous dessert, especially when served with vanilla ice cream.

You can also try other nuts, such as pistachios or walnuts, instead of pecans. Read my guide on pecans vs walnuts for more tips.

Ingredient substitutions

Baking is a science, which means making substitutions can be difficult.

If you substitute ingredients in these pecan and chocolate chip cookies, you will also need to adjust the quantities and ratios of the other ingredients in the recipe. Unfortunately, I cannot provide instructions to accommodate every diet.

You could try one of these egg substitutes to make this recipe egg-free (or try one of these egg free desserts next). You can try to use dairy-free butter, but note that you cannot brown the butter in this case.

Adding some bread flour (a high-protein flour) gives a delicious chewiness; however, feel free to use just all-purpose flour instead.

See my list of baking guides to learn more about the possible substitutions and how they may affect this chocolate chip with pecan cookies recipe.

Expert tips to make pecan chocolate chip cookies

1. Make sure your ingredients are all at room temperature before you begin for proper emulsification. This might mean taking your eggs out of the fridge ahead of time to bring them up to room temperature.
2. Use high-quality semi-sweet chocolate chips, e.g., Callebaut, that melt well and bring a deep cocoa taste, not just sweetness. Lesser quality chocolate can go greasy when it melts, so try to get the best quality ingredients that you can.
3. Preheat the oven to 20C / 68F higher than the specified temperature to compensate for the drop in temperature when you open the door to put the cookies in. Then turn it down to the correct temperature to bake the chocolate chip pecan cookies.
4. Avoid over-mixing and over-baking your cookie batter, as that can result in a crumbly texture. Mix only until the dough is combined, and don't leave them in the oven for too long. It is better to underbake these cookies than to overbake them.
5. Salt is an essential ingredient in most dessert recipes. It balances flavor and enhances the flavor of the other ingredients, so do not leave it out.

If, for some reason, you forget your cookies in the oven, check my How to Fix Burnt Cookies guide. If your cookies spread too much, check out my guide on why the cookies came out flat and how to fix them.

What equipment to use

Always weigh ingredients by the gram with a digital scale for precision. 

I whisk the ingredients using an electric hand whisk and then switch to a rubber spatula.

Always use a digital oven thermometer to avoid over-baked, crumbly, or under-baked cookies. Most baking errors come from baking at the wrong temperature.

I get the best results when baking these cookies on parchment paper or a perforated baking mat on the baking sheet. I find they might get wet from the bottom if baked on a silicone mat.

Cool the baked cookies on a wire cooling rack.

Try some of my other Fall dessert recipes

If you love chocolate chip cookies with pecans, try some of these other Fall recipes next.

Have you tried this recipe?

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