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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Pecan Bourbon Cookies


 

Good morning!

These cookies are inspired by the super awesome bakery on Main Street in St. Charles, Missouri – Sweetie Pie’s Bakery.  She started decorating cakes at 14 years old and started her own business shortly after.  Now at age 21, she has her own bakery and I love supporting the local shops that employ our community members.  I have tried the lemon oatmeal cookie, the brown butter bourbon pecan chocolate chunk cookie, the macarons, the raspberry bars and cannot wait to try a cinnamon roll next time!  Everything I tried has been amazing and I’m picky when it comes to high calorie foods 🙂  They better be worth the exercise.

My sisters and I agree – you can’t have just one of these cookies.  They have a depth of flavor that is unsurpassed in the chocolate chip category contributed by the buttered pecans and browned butter – not to mention the bourbon!  My favorite kind of chocolate chip cookie is soft and chewy, so right out of the oven these are slightly crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside with melty chocolate chips galore.  The next day (if they make it that long) the cookies are still chewy and delicious!

The dough is freezable and passed the freezer test.  I freeze my balls of cookie dough on a large cookie sheet for 1-2 hours, then I take them out and will place them in a ziplock freezer bag until we are ready to bake them.  I find that freezing all drop cookies helps keep them from spreading which helps keep them chewy and gooey as well.  If you want them to stay “pretty” cookies like these with the pecan on top, I place those on a paper plate first and insert the paper plate into a ziplock freezer bag.   This is how you can have FRESH baked cookies pretty much every single day.

 

I might mention that these cookies taste AMAZING with a scoop of vanilla ice cream to make a sandwich or even better – a scoop of bourbon vanilla ice cream.  Turkey Hill ice cream makes a bourbon version which is weird all by itself… but tastes out of this world with brownies or chocolate anything.

 

Read through all of the directions!  These take a little time because you need to make brown butter first – but it is well worth it and really not a lot of work time.  Just waiting for the butter to cook, then cool.  They are worth it!

 

Bourbon- our grocery store sells tiny bottles of bourbon and other liquor near the check out area and in the liquor aisle.  So, try those first before buying an entire bottle of bourbon if you do not drink bourbon.  The tiny bottles contain about 4 Tablespoons which is enough to make this recipe twice.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Pecan Bourbon Cookies

Crazy amount of deliciously deep flavor in a cookie - you can't eat just one!

Ingredients
  

  • 1 and 1/2 cups pecan halves
  • 17 T butter, unsalted divided
  • 2 and 1/3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 t salt
  • 1 t baking soda
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar you can sub light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 t vanilla extract
  • 2 T bourbon
  • 2 large eggs room temperature
  • 12 ounces chocolate chunks or chips, semi-sweet or dark chopped if in chunks

Instructions
 

  • For the pecans: on MEDIUM heat in a large skillet or dutch oven or stainless steel pot (I would recommend one with a light colored bottom) - add just ONE tablespoon of butter. Once melted, add the pecan halves. Coat and toast until they smell nice - about 4 minutes. Remove the buttered pecans. Place a on plate to cool and set aside. Chop all but 24 pecan halves. The chopped pecans will go in the cookies and the halves will sit on top of the cookies.
  • For the brown butter: in the same skillet or pot you used for the pecan, put the remaining 16 Tb (2 sticks) of butter. Keep the heat on medium and melt completely. Then keep stirring until the butter turns brown at the bottom. Watch VERY carefully. Stir and stir - it will lose the yellow color and turn brown in 5-8 minutes. You can't tell it is turning color unless your pot has a light colored bottom which is why this is mentioned in step 1. Once the butter is browned, remove from heat. Allow it to cool a little and then let it sit for several hours until soft but not melted - or place in a heat proof container and place in the fridge until soft (about 1 hour). If the butter gets too hard, just cut it up in small pieces and allow to warm up to room temperature for about 20 minutes.
  • For the cookies: In a great big mixing bowl, add all of the brown butter and sugars. Mix on medium to medium high for 1-2 minutes. Add the bourbon and eggs. Beat until mixed in.
  • In a medium bowl: whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Add this slowly to the wet sugar/butter mixture. Mix until just combined. Fold or stir in the chocolate and chopped pecans.
  • On a large cookie sheet with silicone or parchment: drop cookie dough balls onto the sheet. I used a medium cookie scoop that holds about 2 Tb. of dough. You could use that or a large muffin/quarter cup scoop. Place the reserved pecans halves on top of each cookie (if you kept them. This is optional)
  • At this point you can bake them at 350 degrees right now - make sure they have room to spread. They will bake in 7-9 minutes or when the edges turn golden brown. Or....
  • Or you can freeze the cookie dough balls in the freezer for 1-2 hours. Bake them or store them. Baking them - you want 350 degrees for 8-11 minutes from frozen. The edges will be light brown and the middle will be not liquid looking.
  • Cool and enjoy!

Notes

Recipe was adapted from Ashley Manila

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