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These Brown Butter Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chunk Cookies are crunchy, chewy, and SO flavorful! The perfect holiday cookie recipe. And a must try for bourbon lovers!
Brown Butter Bourbon Cookies
Yesterday I made a batch of blueberry bourbon hand pies and realized upon cleaning up that our bottle of bourbon was almost empty. It had less than 3 tablespoons left… so instead of putting it back on the bar cart, I decided to test a cookie recipe I’ve been dreaming about for a while now. Brown Butter Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chunk Cookies! I figured I’d play around with the recipe and then share them sometime in the Fall, because let’s be honest… these beauties are holiday baking material! But the results turned out SO epic that I knew I couldn’t keep them from you all Summer.
Because cookies this good wait for no season! So without further ado, I present you with brown butter bourbon chocolate chunk pecan cookies!
Each bite is crunchy, chewy, flavorful, and lightly spiked with bourbon! And don’t worry… you’re not going to get a buzz from these beauties. But the bourbon does add a special flavor that really shines through! Everyone will want to know what the “secret ingredient” is!
Tips and Tricks for Recipe Success:
- First of all, let me ask you a question: do you know how to brown butter? If you do, feel free to skip this lecture. But if you don’t, I’ve got you covered! Browning butter is insanely simple and I’m going to walk you through each step! To brown butter you’ll need a skillet or saute pan, butter, and a little patience. You’ll melt the butter as normal, then continue to cook it over medium heat – stirring occasionally – until it reaches a golden brown color. Watch your butter closely as it browns, because it can burn easily! Once it’s nice and golden brown, remove it from the heat and pour it into a heatproof bowl – being sure to scrape all of the golden bits off the bottom of the pan. And that’s it! Easy, right?
- You can use any brand of bourbon you want. We use bulleit because it’s what we usually have on our bar cart.
- Make sure you finely chop your pecans before toasting them.
- For decoration, you can press a pecan on top of the cookie dough before they bake. You can also sprinkle the cookies with a little sea salt right when they come out of the oven for a sweet and salty flavor combo.
- Finally, be sure you don’t over bake these cookies! They only need about 12 minutes in the oven, and will firm up quite a bit as they cool. Over baked cookies will be dry and crumbly… not chewy like we want!
Sweet, salty, crunchy, gooey, and BOOZY… who says you can’t have it all!?
More Cookie Recipes:
- Bourbon Molasses Cookies
- Brown Butter Bourbon Butter Pecan Chocolate Chunk Blondies
- Butter Pecan Cookies
More Pecan Recipes:
- No Corn Syrup Pecan Pie
- Bourbon Pecan Brownies
- 6-Ingredient Butter Pecan Fudge
- Overnight Pecan Pie French Toast
Brown Butter Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
For the Buttered Pecans:
- 1 and 1/2 cups (170 grams) pecan halves, finely chopped
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoons (24 grams) unsalted butter
For the Brown Butter Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chunk Cookies:
- 2 sticks (226 grams) unsalted butter, melted until browned
- 2 and 1/2 cups (300 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon (5 grams) salt
- 1/2 teaspoon (1 gram) ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup (213 grams) dark brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cup (99 grams) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons (8 grams) vanilla extract
- 3 Tablespoons (42 grams) bourbon
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 8 ounces semi-sweet OR dark chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks
- 24 pecan halves, for decoration, optional
- 1 Tablespoon flaky sea salt, optional
Instructions
For the Buttered Pecans:
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add in chopped pecans and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 to 5 minutes, or until lightly toasted. Set aside until needed.
For the Brown Butter:
- In a saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Continue to cook the butter. swirling the pan occasionally. Keep a close eye here. The top of the butter should become foamy. And you should hear tiny popping noises. The butter will develop into a rich amber color, with tiny brown bits at the bottom. And it will have a slightly nutty aroma. Once the butter reaches this stage, remove from heat immediately and pour into a large mixing bowl.
For the Brown Butter Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chunk Cookies:
- In a large bowl combine flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder; whisk well to combine then set aside until needed.
- In a large bowl using a handheld electric mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine melted browned butter and both sugars and beat on medium-speed until well combined; about 1 minutes.
- Add in the vanilla and bourbon and beat until combined.
- Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating for 15 seconds after each addition. Turn mixer off. Using a wooden spoon or sturdy rubber spatula, gently fold in the flour, stirring only until the flour begins to disappear. Fold in the chocolate chunks and buttered pecans.
- Cover bowl and refrigerate for 4 hours.
To Bake:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (F). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Using a large cookie scoop, divide the dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls and place onto prepared baking sheets, leaving about 3 inches between each ball of dough for spreading.
- Firmly press a pecan half on top of each ball of cookie dough.
- Bake, one tray at a time, in a preheated oven for 12 minutes, or until golden brown. If any edges spread out while baking, use a spatula and gently press them back in as soon as you remove the cookies from the oven.
- Press extra chocolate chunks and pecans pieces on top of warm cookies. Then sprinkle with sea salt.
- Allow cookies to cool on the pan for 15 minutes, then carefully transfer to a cooling rack.
I measured my flour this way and my cookies turned out like hers. Thick and unspread with no chips or nuts showing aside from the pecan half. In addition, I used 2 TBSP acoop and yielded 31 cookies.
I made this cookies and they were AMAZING!!! I was wondering if there was a recipe without the pecans. I have a friend that is allergic but I want her to experience everything else about the cookie lol. I thought I saw a link at one point but I can’t find it now. Thanks!!
What kind Bourbon to use??
When I made these I used jack Daniels bourbon. Also I eliminated the cinnamon and used espresso powder(a tsp) it. Enhances the flavor in the recipe Otherwise I followed the recipe to the t They were fantAttic thank you for this great recipe
Four Roses Small Batch.
(Jack Daniels isn’t bourbon. It’s whiskey.)
Can I use pecans instead, have a bag of them?
This recipe calls for pecans, so yes 🙂
I live in high altitude. Are there any adjustments I should make for these?
Is there a way to have the same nutty flavor of the brown butter using something like earth balance, dairy allergy
Hi Shayna. Unfortunately I don’t know how to recreate that nutty flavor without the brown butter.
Is there a nutty infused oil perhaps out there to be substituted? Just a thought.
Maybe try almond extract? But I have no idea the amount and melt the earth balance and use that with the almond extract! Wont be exactly but will be close! The nutty taste comes from the browned milk solids in butter! Now I have a dairy allergy but butter does not effect me, nor does harder cheeses and ice cream for some reason
Have you ever tried using ghee which is clarified butter with the milk solids removed? It may not brown but the butter flavor would be there.
Try vanilla nut butter flavor
Wonder if you could use almond butter or some other nut butter?
Try sesame seed oil. It has a nutty flavor to it.
Try using pecan oil 🙂
How about brown butter ghee? That would be mostly dairy free and I bet it is yummy!
Carie,
Yes you can use earth balance butter and brown it like normal butter. My boys are lactose intolerant so I have to use dairy alternatives for everything. It will work great. Happy baking.
Try toasting your flour in a 300 degree oven for about 5 minutes till it’s very lightly browned.
I read in another chocolate chip cookie recipe that they experimented using a bit of maple extract (like 3/4 tsp I think) to sub for the flavor of the browned butter. The said you don’t taste the maple, but that it mimics the flavor you get with browned butter.
Made these and they were great, but they were so big and did not spread out. I used all new ingredients. So after the 1 st batch, I decided to just make them smaller and they were still great. Will be making them again. Thanks again.
Hi Michelle. Glad you enjoyed them! How do you measure your flour? It sounds like the batter may have been a bit too thick, which can often be caused by “packed flour”. If you don’t already do this, I would suggest fluffing up your flour before scooping, then lightly spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling off the top with the back of a knife. Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with 🙂
I always weigh my flour. 125 grams = 1 cup. No worries about “heavy” or “light” cups! My little kitchen scale is one of the best investments I’ve made.
Xx a
I have a scale! Should have read ALL the comments before measuring, but I did reduce the flour to 2 1/4 cups and I did fluff my flour. Thanks for the tip!
Yes ! Yes! Yes! Measure!!!
Would you mind adding the dry weight of the flour you use, since the volume of flour can vary wildly depending on many factors? That would really really help me thank you!
Hi Billie Jean, you can convert the cups into oz. weight with this nifty conversion calculator. https://www.inchcalculator.com/convert/cup-flour-to-ounce-flour/
Make sure your oven temp is accurate before baking!
For some reason, mine didn’t spread out like the one’s in the pic & they weren’t chewy. They didn’t look anything like in the picture. Mine were pretty thick when i took them out of the oven & a little dry. I didn’t over bake them, they just never spread out. Tasted pretty good, but next time, ill flatten them out a little before baking.
Hi Andrea! Sorry you ran into these issues – I know how frustrating that can be! May I ask how you measure your flour? It sounds like the batter may have been a bit too thick, which can often be caused by “packed flour”. If you don’t already do this, I would suggest fluffing up your flour before scooping, then lightly spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling off the top with the back of a knife. Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with 🙂
try sifting your flour before you measure it and be sure to level it off with a straight edge.
Did you use LARGE eggs?
Mine did the same thing. I didn’t pack the flour but I didn’t sift it either. would have to try that. Would the flour being too packed cause them not to flatten out? Thanks.
You may have packed the flour. If you put flour packed maybe try taking out a couple Tbsp flour before you add it in mix.
Y’all tell me not to pack the flour like I don’t know! I felt like the dough was too dry before I even was finished adding the sifted, unpacked flour in the mixture. Next time I’m reducing the flour to 2 1/4 and should work perfectly.
Other than that, very happy with these.
Can I use salted butter instead of unsalted?
Try weighing the flour, all purpose flour weighs about 125 grams per cup.
Made these today and OMG they are the best!
I made these cookies this week. They were amazing. I love the soft chewy texture. I am not normally a fan of nuts in cookies. But the flavors of brown butter paired with buttered nuts nestled among the chocolate chunks was dynamite
How do you think these would taste with rum? I don’t have any bourbon, but I do have a bit of rum.
Is there a way to make these Keto using Almond flour? And is there s good substitute for brown sugar?
These are amazing! I made them for a party and they were gone within minutes! Do you suppose they would freeze well?
Thanks so much!
I work for a group home I’m not a Baker but I would love to have some of these for the holiday party. Will someone make them I’ll pay. They look sooo good
I literally just started a business doing just that! Cooking, baking, small event planning, meal and menu plans, and shopping. If you’re in the Boston area, i’ve got you covered. Email [email protected]
The dough freezes great! Roll it up in wax paper and make like slice n bake cookies. Decrease cook time if thawed.
I froze them and they still tasted amazing !
They freeze very well.
The cookies look amazing and I can’t wait to try them. One question: I noticed you add 1 and 1/4 teaspoons of cinnamon, and I was wondering how strongly the flavor comes through in this cookie?
Thanks!
Hi Shirlett! I would say the flavor is pretty mild but does shine through. If you’re not a huge fan of cinnamon, you can reduce it to 3/4 teaspoon 🙂
Help! I’m making now is it 8 oz total of butter or two 8 oz sticks?!
2 sticks of butter are 8 oz. So it is 4 oz and and 4 oz. For a total of 8
My sticks are 8 oz each. Never seen 4 oz sticks Just to be clear approx 1/2 cup butter total?
A stick of butter is 4 oz (8 tablespoons). If your butter comes from the grocery store it’s four – 4 oz sticks which equals a pound.
These are the best cookies ever!
Can’t buy or make a better tasting cookie.
All my favorite flavors. And they never last long around the house!
I made these this evening. I will most likely reduce the amount or completely remove it. Great recipe though!
Of what? The bourbon? Just curious because I’m wanting to make these but I’m wondering if it would be better with or without the bourbon.
Think he was replying to removing the cinnamon
These are amazing!!! Can I freeze the dough?
I’d like to know if they can be frozen also. I was thinking make the balls, press the extra pecan and flash freeze before transferring to an air tight bag. Maybe increase the bake time to 11 or 12 minutes. She mentioned they get dry and crumble if over cooked. Probably just need to play around with it.
Hi Christine. Sure, you can freeze the dough. I would roll them into balls and freeze on a cookie sheet until solid. Then place then in an airtight ziplock bag and freeze for up to 2 months. You’ll definitely need to add 2 to 3 minutes onto the bake time.
Help! I’m making now is it 8 oz total of butter or two 8 oz sticks?!
It is 2 sticks of butter. I don’t know where you are but, in the US, a pound of butter (16 oz) found in most supermarkets are split into 4 sticks (that divides into 4 – 4 oz sticks). I think people get confused because 4 oz butter = 8 tablespoons. Just clearing that up. There seems to be an awful lot of confusion!
8 0z is 1 cup of butter or i you buy 1lb of butter, like we do in Canada which is 454 g, then its half of that.