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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.
What if I don’t have bourban or don’t want to use it? Can I skip it? Can I use something else instead?
I was wondering the same thing.
Good chocolate chip cookie. I decided to reduce cinnamon, like a few recommended, down to 1/2 tsp. My husband thought they were good but only mentioned getting a hint on the bourbon after I asked if he could taste it. Next time I will reduce the chocolate down to 8oz and increase the bourbon to 3 tbsp. Hopefully the bourbon and browned butter will shine through more with less chocolate.
ok i have been making cookies for at least 36 years OH My Gosh these are absoultley the most amazing flavor. followed the reciepe exactly and i will be making these alot. Thank you for sharing
I got 52 1-ounce balls out of the recipe. (Yes, I weigh them!) I baked for 9 minutes but will do 8 next time. (At 9, they were still soft when I moved to cooking rack, but they were much harder when I served them for dessert. Bottoms were brown.) The uncooked balls freeze well and I just took them out of the freezer to defrost while I preheated the oven and took a shower. Add the pecan on top if you have them; they add a whole ‘nother dimension. And don’t forget the salt at the end. Aside from the overall deliciousness, everyone commented about the extra sprinkle of salt on top. THIS IS A KEEPER!! Thank you for the great recipe!
These cookies are well worth the extra steps. I got 36 cookies out of one batch. They are still pretty large. I baked for 11 minutes. My husband raved about them and ate enough of them that I will have to make another batch for my trays! I rate these a 10+. Thanks for sharing!
Can the dough be made a day before baking? I have an event on Tuesday that I want to make them for, but I was hoping to make the dough on Sunday and then bake them Monday. I noticed the instructions said that the dough doesn’t need to rest before baking. Will resting the dough in the cooler for 24+ hours compromise the taste or texture of the cookie?
Would measuring the flour by weight work to get the right amount instead of fluffing it? Wondering what weight that would be!
My daughter n law wanted me to make these for her Christmas present.
I tested a large cookie and a small cookie. The large one spread as it cooled in the tray.
I used Linders dark chocolate bars with sea salt. So I didn’t need to sprinkle with sea salt. If you like chocolate chip cookies they are the bomb.
I am not a fan I love peanut butter cookies.
Ok. I put these cookies in the freezer so they would keep until Christmas. My husband took cookie to work for the cookie connoisseurs to try. He had to cut it in to 8 pieces so everyone could get a taste. Needless to say I am making another batch. This time instead of the sea salt dark chocolate I am also doing a batch with dark chocolate with chili and adding sea salt to the top. I think the heat will be a neat surprise.
This is definitely a keeper.
I Love the idea of the dark chocolate with chili!!
I altered the recipe to make an apple salted caramel version last Christmas by using Apple Crown Royal and salted caramel chips instead of chocolate. I have a cinnamon allergy so I eliminated the cinnamon. They were soooooooooooo good! I ended up making several batches for folks at their request after trying them.
Oh my! I have both Apple Crown and Caramel chips in the pantry! I am going to give this a try! YUM! Going to try the original recipe as well!
Can these be made smaller in size? And if so, should baking time be adjusted? TIA.
Awesome looking recipe. I would like to make this for my co=workers, but one batch will not be enough. I’m guessing that I just double everything for two batches or do I need to do them separately?