High Altitude Brown Butter Pecan Cookies
Thick and chewy cookies made with brown butter and crunchy pecans, for a sweet and salty treat.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter
- ¾ cup (162g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (80g) dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 (55g) large egg
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups (260g) all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 cup (236g) pecans, roughly chopped
- 16 pecan halves
Instructions
- In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter, swirling occasionally, until the water evaporates, the butter starts to foam, and the butter forms fragrant, nutty brown solids at the bottom of the pan.Remove from the heat and immediately pour the hot butter into a bowl, scraping all the browned bits off the bottom of the saucepan with a spatula.Let the butter cool at room temperature for several hours, until it becomes somewhat solid again. As the butter cools, it may not become firm enough to hold its shape (depending on how warm your kitchen is), and may remain a little soft and spreadable, but allow it to cool until it is no longer a liquid.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cooled browned butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar for 5 minutes on medium speed, scraping the bowl occasionally, until very light and fluffy. Gently mix in the egg and the vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, 3/4 teaspoon salt and the chopped pecans. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined, briefly increasing the speed to medium to incorporate all of the flour.
- Use a cupcake/ice cream scoop to divide the dough into 16 portions. Shape the dough into balls, and press the pecan halves on top. Place the dough balls in an airtight container and refrigerate for two hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. While the oven is preheating, place the container of dough balls in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Place the frozen balls of dough on the baking sheet, spaced three inches apart. Bake for about 13 minutes, until the edges are crisp and light golden brown, and the centers are gently puffed and look slightly underdone. Sprinkle the cookies with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Let cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. As the cookies cool, the soft centers will settle down a bit, leaving a lightly crisp edge around the cookies with chewy centers.
- Store cooled cookies in an airtight container for several days, or freeze indefinitely.
Notes
Pro Tip: If after baking your cookies, your pecans are slightly off-center, gently nudge them perfectly into place while the cookies are still hot.
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