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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.
These were delish! I added some caramels to the mix just because I had some on hand. And changed up the nuts to include walnuts as well as pecans…I would not have had enough otherwise. I doubled the recipe and they turned out great! Absolutely fantabulous! The cinnamon was a great addition!
I am a huge fan of brown butter and your recipe looks sooooooo good. However, bourbon is not easily available in my country. What would u suggest as alternative? Brandy, whiskey and rum are more common at the stores here.
Yes! All of those should work just fine 🙂
I’m not a drinker so is there a bourbon flavored extract ir something else I can use so I don’t have to waste an entire bottle of bourbon?
The flavor is what is left after baking, if any alcohol remains will be limited
Most grocery stores sell Rum flavored extract that should work well. Also, someone mentioned the travel sized bottles if liquor that are generally sold in liquor stores. Happy baking!
I made these last week for my coworkers. But I initially tested the recipe the week before with a small batch so that I could perfect anything I may have gotten wrong before serving them. Nevertheless I brought the final product in …and mind you this was my first time baking from scratch… everyone LOVEDDDDDEDDDD them. You truly have a gift. Thank you so much for sharing !!!!
My brown butter is not getting back to a ssolid form…any suggestions? Can I keep using it?
I suggest refrigerating until at room temperature 🙂
These are, by far, the best cookies I’ve ever made. I never comment on these boards but I feel I must sing your praise!! The only mods for me were; after reading all other comments: used 1/2t of cinnamon instead of 1t and measured out the dough balls at 1.85oz aprox each. I cooked them for 9 min and yielded 28. three cookie sheets. Everyone reading, my advice is to follow directions exactly. wait the 15 seconds between eggs, for example–you will see a change in the dough. Also, do not over bake. the brown on the edges and not so much in the middle is where you want to be. Leaving on pan for 10 min will cook em to where they end up. Perfect!!
Well as the wife of a sailor who did several deployments. if you put each cookie in a fold top sandwich bag they will travel well. As a bonus if it is hot where theu are its like they just came out of oven.
try packing them in real popcorn
These cookies were divine!! Just so so good.
I changed the recipe just a wee bit by increasing the amount of vanilla extract and bourbon to 3 teaspoons full and baked them only for 8 minutes. Perfection!
Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe.
You’re so welcome! Glad they were a hit 🙂
These cookies are so good! Worth every step I complained about, like browning the butter. Worth it!
Hello!! Thanks for sharing I am super excited about these beauties. However I do have a question, How important is it to let the butter come back to room temperature? I’ve made regular chocolate chip/chocolate chunk cookies where I traditionally melt the butter and keep it melted for the entire process?
I think your cookies will have a better texture if your butter is not melted,
You want to cream the sugar and butter together; the sugar helps air get into the butter…this doesn’t happen with melTed butter.,
I made these for a cookie exchange at work and doubled the recipe and used a smaller scoop so there could be some left over for my personal stash. OMG delicious! I will try to be more careful about how much flour I put in the cup when measuring next time so they spread a little more. I still love them, especially warm out of the oven!
I just finished making these & they are delicious!! Mine stayed in a mound shape so I will flatten them a little before baking next time. And, trust me, the will be a next time…. and a time after that! This is the best pinterest recipe I’ve ever tried. Thank you for posting!!