BOURBON-PECAN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

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These cookies take a little more work than your average Toll House, but 1. I think it’s worth it; 2. It’s a good use of pent-up nervous energy (should you find yourself with any of that.)

The result is a cookie with a chewy middle and crispy edges, rich with caramel flavor thanks to the alliance of brown butter, bourbon and toasted pecans, and of course plenty of dark chocolate chunks.

Pour yourself a bourbon on the rocks (save the real rocks for throwing at the TV), enjoy a cookie or two and hopefully you’ll fall asleep before the debate has even started.

ADVANCE WARNING: You’ll need to brown butter and toast pecans an hour or two before you get started with the rest of the recipe. And then the dough should chill a few hours in the fridge before baking. Mind you, no points off if you can’t wait, just know they get better with age, like so many other things. Or so I like to believe.

Ingredients:

8 ounces (227 grams) browned butter (see method below)

1 cup (110 grams) pecans, toasted (see method below)

3/4 cup pecan flour (80 grams)(see method below)

1 1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons (234 grams) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar

3/4 cup (160 grams) dark brown sugar

1 egg, room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 generous tablespoons bourbon

1/2 cup (37 grams) (or to taste) chopped toasted pecans

12 ounces dark chocolate chunks

To make brown butter:

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Once it melts, stir constantly, as it bubbles away. Milk solids will form and fall to the bottom of the pan. The goal is to make them nutty brown, without burning them. This is not the time to check Twitter. Stir and watch and as soon as it looks like your close to the desired color, pour the butter into a bowl. Cover loosely so your cat doesn’t lick it while it’s cooling. Once cool, I put in the fridge to solidify.

To toast pecans:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

  2. Pour pecans onto a rimmed baking sheet and bake until they’ve browned ever-so-slightly and smell, well, nutty. This is another case of don’t-leave-the-kitchen-while-they’re-cooking. Remove from oven and let cool.

To make toasted pecan flour:

  1. In a food processor with the blade attachment, and using cooled pecans (warm ones will turn quickly to nut butter), pulse the nuts fine. Sweep around the edges of the bowl to make sure all the pecans are evenly chopped. A few too many pulses and you will end up with nut butter.

How to make the actual cookies:

  1. In a medium bowl, mix the all-purpose flour, pecan flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

  2. Toss the solidified browned butter into the bowl of a stand/hand mixer and beat at low speed to soften it. Add the sugars and continue to beat until light and fluffy. We recipe writers say light and fluffy a lot because we mean it. You should see the mixture actually lighten in color (2-3 minutes). In the case of these cookies, creaming until light and fluffy will help ensure a flatter cookie.

  3. Add the egg, vanilla and bourbon and mix until well-blended. Doesn’t the mixture smell nice? Enjoy the smell. It makes you want to drink the bourbon. How much light is in the sky? Is it time to drink bourbon? Should you wait until after you pick up your dog from the groomer? Yes, yes you should.

  4. Add the flour mixture in two parts; mix until just blended.

  5. Add the chopped pecans and chocolate chunks, more or less as many as you see fit.

  6. Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours.

    When ready to bake:

    1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment.

    2. Form the dough into large balls (I used a 1 1/2” ice cream scoop). Balls weighed about 40 grams.

    3. Place 6 cookie balls on each baking sheet.

    4. Now is the fun part: We’re going to make these wrinkly cookies, which takes some fussing, but it helps ensure a caramelized outside and a chewy inside. After 6 minutes in the oven, remove a cookie sheet and thwack it straight down onto your stove top. You should see the cookie spread a little. Reverse sheets top to bottom and put them back in the oven. After 4 minutes, repeat the slamming. After another 2 minutes slam again. Maybe once or twice to really ensure the dough ripples away from the center. After 3 minutes or so check the cookies. They are done when they are browned at the edges and pale and soft in the center (but not jiggly).

    Obviously, times vary per oven. Yours may take less or more time. The basic idea is every few minutes or so to give that pan a good thwack to spread the cookie.

    Have a sleeping baby or cranky upstairs neighbor and don’t want to smash metal pans? You can leave them to melt on their own. Just remember to switch the pans from top to bottom to ensure even cooking.

    5. Let cookies cool on pan for 2 minutes, then remove to cooling rack.