Pecan Whiskey Chocolate Center Brown Butter Cookies
Pecan Whiskey Chocolate Center Brown Butter Cookies
Brown butter, brown sugar a touch of whiskey and buttery pecans create thick, chewy cookies that you can really sink your teeth into. These big butterscotchy cookies are filled with delicious 70% dark chocolate and topped with more chocolate chunks, flaky salt and pecans. My family has named them the best chocolate chip cookies ever and I think you might too!
Maybe you don’t need another chocolate chip cookie recipe in your life but then you again you might need one so here is one with a dash of whiskey, buttery pecans and luscious dark chocolate.
Pecan Whiskey Chocolate Center Brown Butter Cookies
Serving: Makes 10 cookies
Ingredients:
Pecan Whiskey Chocolate Center Brown Butter Cookies
1 stick butter (113 grams)
1/2 cup bread flour (75 grams)
1/2 cup all purpose flour (76 grams)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons light brown sugar (125 grams)
1/4 cup white sugar (50 grams)
2 tablespoons of bread flour* (20grams)
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
1/4 teaspoon whiskey
1/2 cup of chopped pecans, 65 grams
1/2 cup good dark chocolate chunks, I chopped up some Tony’s 70% chocolate (75 grams)
Flaky sea salt
Method:
Melt butter on the stove in a medium sized pot until butter smells nutty and the color is a golden brown hue. Set aside to cool.
While the butter cools, in a separate bowl, combine 1/2 cup of bread flour, all purpose flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and whisk until incorporated. Set aside.
Once butter is cooled, add dark brown sugar, white sugar into the browned butter and whisk vigorously.
Add 2 tablespoons of bread flour to the sugar mixture. and whisk in to the mixture until it is thick and you no longer see any butter pooling to the sides.
Note: Adding a little flour during this step helps absorb some of that melted butter and helps develop chew and some lift to your cookies.
Crack one egg and one egg yolk, vanilla extract and whiskey into your sugar mixture and whisk until smooth and combined for a good minute or so.
Pour the flour mixture over the sugar mixture in batches and using your spatula or a wooden spoon, mix until just combined.
Place cookie dough in fridge to chill for at least two hours. No need to scoop just plop it in into a bowl with a lid.
Don’t skip this step, this is what lets your cookie dough develop flavor and firm up so it’s easy to scoop and give you nice thick chewy cookies.
Once the dough has chilled for at least two hours, preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare a baking sheet with parchment liner.
Measure out chocolate chips and peanut butter chips as well so you have them ready.
Take out the chilled dough and use a small cookie scoop to scoop out all of the dough. You should have about 20 balls of dough. Flatten the dough lightly 1 or 2 times so they are about half the height. Pair off the cookie dough into sets of two so that you’ll have 10 sets of cookie dough discs.
Take a set of cookie dough and place 3 to 4 chocolate chunks in between them. Seal the cookie dough edges together so no gaps remain. Roll the filled cookie dough ball so its nice and round. Repeat this step until you finish all the cookie dough.
Place 5 balls of dough on the baking tray, leaving about 2 inches or more of space between each. These cookies spread a lot!
Press in as many chocolate chunks and as many pecans as you can onto the tops of each cookie ball.
Note: Placing the pecans on the cookie dough right before baking helps prevent them from getting too soft and soggy.
Place cookies in oven for about 10 minutes or until they spread quite a bit, just golden and set at the edges. It’s okay if they look slightly under baked in the center, they will firm up as they cool.
Note: Pulling them out when they look under baked will help keep them chewy and soft after they cool.
Once cookies are finished baking pull them out. If any cookies seem wonky or spread into each other slightly, use a cookie cutter or small sharp edged bowl larger than the cookies and scoot the cookies so they are put back into shape and are separated from each other. A little trick I learned from the amazing Cloudy Kitchen ;)
Once you finish scooting the cookies, top the warm cookies more chocolate chunks and some more pecans. Fill in all those gaps!
Sprinkle a little bit of flaky salt on each cookie and eat them hot or let them cool and enjoy them later.
Notes:
* You can substitute the bread flour for all purpose flour if you are in a pinch and don’t have any but I highly recommend in buying some bread flour! They make your cookies divinely chewy!