These Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies are dangerously wonderful. Twelve gorgeous cookies in under 30 minutes stuffed full of chocolate chips and delicious pecans. Plus, I explain how to make them as firm biscuit-like cookies or as soft-bake cookies with a more cake-like texture.
Chewy, sweet, nutty, and delicious, these cookies hit all the right notes. Super easy to make, they need just a few everyday ingredients. Plus, they don’t need to chill before baking. Sound good so far?
Recipe Features
- This is a simple cookie recipe. It involves mixing the ingredients and baking them to perfection; it’s nothing complicated.
- Bursting with chocolate chips and pecans, which toast as they bake. Delicious.
- This versatile recipe allows you to bake them as a firm cookie or shorten cooking times for a soft-bake cookie with a more cake-like texture.
- This recipe makes 12 medium-sized cookies that will please your cookie jar and anyone who discovers a cookie there.
Ingredients
- Chocolate chips – use milk/dairy chocolate chips to create a fairly sweet cookie. If you want something that may appeal more to adults, use a 70% cocoa chocolate, which gives just the right amount of bitter sweetness. If chocolate chips aren’t available, then chop up a chocolate bar. Not too finely though, otherwise the chocolate chip pecan cookies will become more of a chocolate pecan cookie. This is still good, but you won’t have the little pieces of chocolate hiding within the cookie.
- Plain or all-purpose flour – this provides the structure of the cookie. I use white plain flour for these cookies but the recipe also works if you use a mix of half white and half wholemeal flour.
- Pecan nuts – a gentle sweet-flavoured nut. Substitute with walnuts if you can’t find these. A great combination that goes so well with the chocolate.
- Vanilla extract – a flavour enhancer that brings out all the chocolate and nut flavours.
- Egg – used as a binder and helps everything to rise a little.
- Salt & bicarbonate of soda – the bicarbonate helps with the cookie rise and texture. The salt just brings the flavours alive.
- Light muscovado sugar – a light brown sugar that has a slightly caramel flavour. It sweetens and flavours the cookies.
- Unsalted butter – the fat that holds everything together. Butter also adds great flavour to the cookies but it can easily be substituted for your favourite baking margarine. If you use a salted butter or a baking margarine then you can probably omit the salt in the recipe.
A short note on Chocolate
I’ve already said quite a lot about chocolate chips, but it seemed worth repeating that as chocolate has a large part to play in this recipe, use your favourite kind. If you’re making these for children or sweet-toothed adults, then use good dairy milk chocolate.
Otherwise, why not treat yourself by using good chocolate such as one containing 70% cocoa? This has a nice bitterness that contrasts really well with the sweetness of the dough.
Variations to the Homemade Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookie Recipe
Here are a few ideas for adjusting the basic cookie recipe should you want to ring the changes. We’ve tried them all at some point.
- Substitute a chopped up bar of chocolate for the chocolate chips.
- Use white chocolate chips for White Chocolate Pecan Cookies, quite a different look and flavour.
- Substitute raisins for some of the chocolate chips.
- Substitute pecans for the same amount of hazelnuts or walnuts. Both of these nuts go well in these homemade cookies.
- Dot a few chocolate chips on the surface of the cookie dough so that the chocolate is clearly visible once they’ve baked to perfection.
Top Tips for Successful Cookie Making
- Measure all your ingredients accurately. It makes such a difference. This is why I always use digital scales when I’m baking. It only takes a few extra grams or ounces of an ingredient to cause a recipe to fail, so weighing your ingredients accurately will help you be successful.
- Use an oven thermometer to ensure that your oven temperature is correct.
- Try to avoid overworking the dough.
- Always read and follow the instructions carefully.
- Allow the cookies to cool a little before moving them off the baking sheet. They’re fragile when they first come out of the oven.
- Let a few minutes pass before sampling your freshly made cookies (hard to resist, I know), as the chocolate will remain hot and molten for a little while after they come out of the oven and may scald you.
Soft-Bake Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies
If you prefer a soft-bake cookie with more of a cake-like texture then the trick is to scoop out larger pieces of dough and reduce the baking time. For example, this recipe bakes for twelve minutes; for a soft-bake cookie cut this down to 10 minutes. They’re done when the edges are firm, but still a little soft in the middle and the cookie has a nice golden colour.
Want more biscuit-like Chocolate Chip and Pecan Cookies
To make a crisper, more biscuit-like cookie, the trick is to scoop smaller amounts of dough, (around 30g worth of dough) out onto the baking sheet and add a couple of minutes extra to the baking time. So, for firmer baked cookies, that take about twelve minutes to bake, add two minutes more to the baking time. They’re done when they’ve firm edges and are golden brown.
I always think that a little variation in size in homemade cookies is good, right? But, sometimes you do want a little bit of size consistency, so I use a cookie scoop or tablespoon to scoop out the dough and other times I weigh the dough to make sure that they end up looking similar.
For this recipe, I aimed for 55g/2 ounces of dough, gently compressing it into a ball and placing it on the baking sheet. Depress it slightly, but only a little; it will spread whilst baking. I do this to all the balls of dough.
Once baked, they’ll all be roughly the same size. Beautifully uniform and quite delicious.
Storing Your Homemade Cookies
Now that you’ve made the best Chocolate Chip Pecan cookies you’ve ever tasted, you need to store them somewhere. They’re best stored in an airtight container for up to 4 days. (I bet they don’t last that long!)
Soft-bake chocolate chip cookies are not great keepers, however wonderful they are. I mean, who can resist? So, be prepared soft-baked cookies become a little softer as time passes. These can be rescued and returned to their previous glory by warming in an oven for around 5 minutes at 340F/190C/170C Fan.
You may store the unbaked dough in the fridge for up to 4 days. Bake it as you would the freshly made dough. You may need to allow a minute or two extra minutes for baking, just ensure that the edges are set and the centres are still a little bit soft.
If you like this cookie recipe, then you may like these…
- Soft and Chewy Oat and Raisin Cookies
- Lemon Cookies
- Oat and Coconut Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Peanut Butter Cookies and Chocolate Chips
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Shortbread Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Easy Ginger Cookies
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Simple Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies Recipe
Equipment
- baking tray
- mixing bowl
- mixing spoons
- cookie scoop
- baking parchment
Ingredients
- 5/8 cup butter softened unsalted butter, or baking margarine
- 3/4 cup muscovado sugar
- 1 egg medium
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda also known as baking soda
- 2 cups plain flour white, all-purpose
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips substitute a chopped up bar of chocolate if you prefer.
- 1 cup pecans roughly chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon salt omit if using slted butter or margarine
Instructions
- You may make these cookies using a mixer or by hand using a wooden spoon. Line a baking tray with baking parchment or grease thoroughly.
- Preheat the oven to 340F/190C/170C Fan
- Weigh the softened butter (5/8 cup butter , 115g ) into a large mixing bowl and add the muscovado sugar.( 3/4 cup muscovado sugar(150g) ) Mix thoroughly until the butter and sugar are well combined and creamy.
- Add the egg (1 egg) and the vanilla extract (1 teaspoon vanilla extract) and mix to combine. You don't need to beat the egg into the butter/sugar mix as we're not trying to add air.
- Add in the flour, the salt and the bicarbonate of soda.(1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, 2 cups plain flour (240g), 1/2 teaspoon salt) Mix once more until everything is well combined and there is no visible dry flour.
- Add in the chocolate chips ( 1/2 cup chocolate chips, 120g)) and stir once more to distribute them through the dough. Add in the roughly chopped pecans and repeat. (1 cup pecans, 90g))
- Scoop two tablespoons of dough onto the baking tray. Mould this into a roughly circular shape with your fingers but don't compress the dough. Press the top slightly to give a circular cookie. Space the cookies out on the baking tray to give them room to spread a little whilst they cook.
- Cook for approximately 12 minutes until the edges are slightly golden and the tops are still a little soft. They'll firm up as they cool. (Bake for 10 minutes for a soft-bake cookie and 14 minutes for a firmer more biscuit-like cookie.) They're done when they are golden brown in colour.
- Leave them on the baking tray for a few minutes before moving them onto a cooling rack and allow them to cool. They're a little fragile straight out of the oven. Resist munching them straight away as the chocolate will be quite hot from the oven.
Notes
Variations to the main recipe
- substitute some of the chocolate chips for raisins.
- add 90g of chopped hazelnuts or walnuts (1/3 cup) instead of the pecans.
- dot a few chocolate chips on the surface of the cookie dough so that the chocolate is clearly visible once they’ve baked to perfection.
Storing the Cookies:
These cookies will store for up to 4 days in an airtight container. You may store the dough in the fridge for up to 4 days. Cook as you would the fresh dough. You may need to allow a minute or two extra for baking, just ensure that the edges are set and the centres are still a little bit soft.Nutrition
Why not Pin Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies recipe to use later?
Chocolate chip and pecan are the perfect combination! These cookies are wonderful to make ice cream sandwiches with!
The recipe is so easy to follow and I’m loving this cookie flavour combo! You can never go wrong with choc and nuts 🙂
Pleased you liked it, Deb 🙂