These Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies are super soft and chewy. 1 bowl – 15 minutes to prepare – 10 ingredients.
I can’t believe that we arrived the end of October. Tomorrow is Halloween. YAY.
Fall baking is something special. Fall, in general, is magical. And all the Holidays which come are great. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. A lot to celebrate and enough excuses to eat cookies all day long.
Pecans are the whole year available here in Austria but it is funny that a lot of people are craving them just in fall. Including me. You can look at Google Trends, there you see that it is searched the most in November. Funny, isn’t it?
But I don’t know why it is like this? I love pecans so why do I eat them almost exclusively in fall? Maybe this is something in our human nature that we can’t explain. Maybe it’s the coming cold weather period (in regions where winter is coming now). The body needs more energy when it is cold and nuts are high in fat and deliver much energy.
Who knows. Just an idea.
However, these Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies are great in every season. Eating them to a huge mug full of hot chocolate or milk. Or crumbled over a cup of ice cream. You get the idea.
The perfect cookie.
How should a perfect cookie be? Some will say thin and crispy, others cakey. For me, it depends on which cookie it is. Every cookie is different. Although every cookie is delicious, my favorites are soft and chewy ones. But like I said, I love every cookie.
To get soft and chewy cookies, every baker has its secrets. On every blog, you will find other suggestions and recommendations. That’s great. I love that everyone has different approaches to super soft and chewy cookies.
Sally for example often adds cornstarch to her cookies to get them super soft. She also chills the cookie dough the most of the time. That are her secrets. And they totally work. Her cookies are awesome.
I have different secrets to get super soft and chewy cookies.
I always melt the butter by 2/3 and stir until it is completely melted. This makes sure that the butter is completely liquid when I use it, but it’s also not too hot. Liquid butter makes cookies chewier than room temperature butter.
Overmixing and overbaking is a no go. Both lead to dry and somewhat cakey cookies. Just mix until the ingredients are combined. Don’t mix too long or there are too much air pockets in the dough. Air pockets kill chewiness.
Remove the cookies as soon as they start looking dry on top. Don’t bake until they get color. They should be pale and look underbaked when you remove them from the oven. That is a key secret to the chewiest cookies possible.
What I never do is baking cookies on a silicon mat. This never worked out for my cookie doughs. They stay too thick for my taste. Perfect soft and chewy cookies are not overly thick. About ½ inch is a nice thickness.
You can get that thickness with a silicon mat too but then the cookie dough needs to be created in that way that it spreads enough anyway.
I almost never chill my cookie dough. My cookie doughs are so developed that chilling is not required. Making cookies should be a quick and easy process. I don’t want to take a break from making the cookies because the dough needs to be chilled. I want cookies. And I want them asap. You know what I mean?
When I start making cookies I’m done 10 or maybe 15 minutes later, and another 10 minutes later I remove the first batch of irresistibly smelling cookies out of the oven. So when I’m craving cookies, I want them fast and within an hour in my belly.
These Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies are
- packed with toasted pecans and chocolate chips
- prepared in 15 minutes with 1 bowl and 10 ingredients
- super fast and easy to make
- perfectly soft and chewy
- so. dang. delicious.
Do you also eat pecans mostly in fall?
If you make this Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe leave a comment, rate it and tag a photo #alsothecrumbsplease on Instagram! Would love to see your snap!
You may also like To-Die-For Pecan Pie Shortbread Bars, Best ever Chocolate Macadamia Cookies, Super Fudgy Chocolate Brownie Cookies Recipe, Moist Cinnamon Apple Bread Recipe, or click here to see all recipes.
These Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies are super soft and chewy. 1 bowl – 15 minutes to prepare – 10 ingredients.
- 3/4 cup pecans, chopped (95g)
- 1/2 cup butter, melted (113g)
- 1/2 cup granulated white sugar (100g)
- 1/8 cup brown sugar (25g)
- 1 large egg
- 1 vanilla bean* (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (210g)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (85g)
Preheat oven to 300°F (150°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange chopped pecans in one line. Bake for 15 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes. Remove pecans from oven and let cool down for 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, stir butter and sugars on medium speed just until combined about 1 minute. Add egg and vanilla* and stir to combine. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt just until combined. Don't overmix at any step. Fold in chocolate and toasted pecans.
Scoop balls of cookie dough and arrange 6 cookies on each baking sheet with about 2-3 inches space in-between. Make sure that you get 12 evenly sized cookies. Using a kitchen scale and dividing the batter by 12 is the most accurate method. Bake one sheet after another for about 10-11 minutes. Remove from oven when they look puffy, pale, and dry on top. Let cool for about 5 minutes until they are firm enough to move them. Then transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and let cool completely. The cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature up to 4 days.
Recipe Video
*First, cut off the straight end of the vanilla bean. Then place the tip of your sharp knife below the curled end and cut the vanilla bean through the middle of the bean lengthwise. Although you don't need to cut it all the way through, it's ok when you do so. Then open the vanilla bean and scrape out the flavorful seeds with the back of your knife. Just use the seeds.
I tried this recipe despite the negative comments, but it really just doesn’t work. They don’t spread at all and stay almost perfectly round and are a bit dry. Even without packing the flour at all and minimal mixing, these didn’t turn out correctly.
I’m sorry that you had troubles with this recipe, CJ! Thank you for your feedback though. I made these cookies several times and show exactly how I make them in the video. I’ve never had any problems with this recipe.
I had the same issues as the others… and I’m an avid baker. Is the flour measurement off maybe? Or should it be baking soda, not powder?? So curious, as yours look amazing!
Hi Tanya, I checked the measurements again and they are correct. I don’t pack the flour in the cup but rather spoon and level it. A packed cup of flour equals one and a half cups of flour, so the cookies will be super dry and don’t flatten. The most accurate results you get with a kitchen scale. I hope that helps!
I followed all of the instructions and these turned into a disaster. They didn’t spread in the oven, they didn’t cook, they were dry. This was a horrible recipe
I’m sorry that the recipe didn’t work out for you but there must have been something gone wrong down the process. It sounds to me that there was too much flour in the cookies. Please make sure to spoon and level the flour in the measuring cup. A packed cup of flour equals 1.5 cups of spooned and leveled flour. And if you use too much flour, then yes the cookies don’t spread, are crumbly, and super dry. Always watch the video and photos to see how the dough should look like. Good luck!
This recipe was so dry and the cookies never spread in the oven. Any idea why?
I’m sorry that you had troubles with the recipe. There could be a couple of reasons:
1. You had too much of dry ingredients in the dough. Please make sure to spoon and level the flour in the measuring cup. A packed cup of flour is 1.5x of spooned and leveled flour. The more flour the drier the cookies. The best would be to use a kitchen scale.
2. You had too little of wet ingredients. Did you use a large egg?
3. Butter quality. I made the experience that low budget butter leads to dry cookies which don’t spread. Always high-quality butter for cookies.
4. Overmixing. Mix just until combined at every step. Overmixing can lead to cakey and dry cookies.
Did you watch the video? Did your cookie dough look like mine? It should be slightly sticky to touch before baking.
Hopefully, that helps!