These are my best pecan chocolate chip cookies, made with brown sugar cookie dough and filled with gooey chocolate chips and pecans.

I love walnut chocolate chip cookies, but since I’m writing this in October and ‘tis the season of pecan pie, I changed it up a bit and whipped up a recipe for pecan chocolate chip cookies. These cookies use a brown sugar dough that’s filled up with cinnamon, gooey chocolate chunks, and chopped pecans.

Why You’ll Love These Cookies

They’re nutty and full of flavor– finely chopped pecans ensure that there’s an even distribution of pecans throughout the dough to add pecans to every bite.
Perfect chewy texture with gooey middles. Chilling the dough before baking (a non-negotiable hehe) and dry milk powder added to the dough makes these cookies extra chewy and rich.
They’re easy to make–you could even do it in one bowl without a mixer!
A great holiday cookie or fall cookie idea.

Ingredients for Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here is everything that you will need to make these cookies as well as some notes to keep in mind.

Butter, either salted or unsalted. I’ve made these cookies with both salted and unsalted butter, and both turn out just fine! My sodium loving self honestly likes using salted butter, and I think it also adds some depth to the flavor.
Brown sugar: either light or dark brown sugar work here.
Granulated sugar
One egg, at room temperature: to quickly warm up the egg, soak it in a bowl of very warm water for 10 minutes
All-purpose flour: for the best results, measure your flour with a scale.
Dry milk powder: I really like incorporating dry milk powder into cookie recipes. You can usually find it in the baking aisle at the grocery store, near where they sell the evaporated milk or sweetened condensed milk.
Chopped pecans: Take whole pecans or pecan halves and chop them up very finely using a large knife or a food processor. If using a food processor just be careful to not pulse the pecans to the point where they turn to butter!
Chocolate chips: you can use chocolate chips, chocolate chips, or chop up a chocolate bar. Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, the world is your oyster.
Salt, baking soda, vanilla extract, and ground cinnamon: because we love flavor here.

Step by Step Instructions

While a full list of instructions is below in the recipe card, here is a quick step by step including some tips for how to make pecan chocolate chip cookies.

Step 1: Melt the butter. Make sure your butter is cut into pieces first to ensure that it melts evenly in the microwave. Then let the butter cool down slightly before using it–piping hot butter may end up dissolving the sugar or cooking your egg, neither of which we want!

Step 2: Add sugars, vanilla, and egg. Beat the sugars into the butter using either a mixer or a whisk, then add the egg and vanilla. Mix it for around 1-2 minutes until you have a smooth, creamy mixture. If you’re mixing it by hand, don’t be afraid to get in there with some arm-power.

Step 3: Add dry ingredients and mix until a dough just starts to form, then fold in the pecans and chocolate chips. Make sure that you do not over-mix the dough here, otherwise the cookies will end up with a tough texture. My rule of thumb is to mix until the flour is just combined into the dough.

Step 4: Chill the dough. This is very important! The dough will be quite soft and hard to scoop right after you make it. Chilling the dough not only ensures that the cookies won’t spread into flat pancakes, but it’ll also help build flavor as the ingredients marinate together. Chill the dough for at least 1 hour, or overnight if you have time.

Step 5: Bake! I like to bake cookies directly on the cookie sheets instead of using parchment paper–I find that this gives them crispier edges and more even browning.

FAQs

Can I substitute other nuts or add-ins?

While pecans are the nuts of choice in this recipe, they can easily be substituted for other nuts such as walnuts or hazelnuts. You could even substitute out the chocolate for white chocolate, or add in some toffee chips. Think of the dough as a base for you to experiment with. 🙂

Another fun modification you could make is to use browned butter in place of regular melted butter. I have tons of browned butter recipes where I go into depth on how to brown butter. Check out these browned butter cinnamon rolls or brown butter pumpkin snickerdoodle blondies recipes for details.

Do I have to chill the dough?

I’m not exactly the most patient person in the world, but when it comes to baking cookies, especially these pecan chocolate chip cookies, chilling the dough is essential! Please, please, please, take the time to chill the dough before baking. Especially since we’re working with melted butter in this recipe, the dough will be too soft and warm for baking. Chilling cookie dough also builds flavor and hydrates the flour.

How do I know when the cookies are done?

The cookies will be done when the edges are set, starting to turn golden, and middles are puffed up. When in doubt, it is better to underbake rather than over bake cookies. Even if the middle doesn’t look quite done, the cookies will continue to cook as they cool on the baking sheet.

Pin & Save for Later

If you’re not ready to bake yet, no problem! Simply hover over or tap (on mobile) any image in this post (pick your favorite or use the one below), and use the pin icon in the corner to save for later.