brown butter pecan cookies
the sleeper hit of your holiday cookie tins
hi hi hello!
We are back with another remix of the base cookie recipe, to show you everything you can do to a cookie once you understand what the different ingredients are here to do :)
Today’s cookie gets the same reviews from everyone who tried it. That it’s a cookie they normally would pass over in a bakery case (I get it, she’s no choc chip) but one that once they have it, they want it over and over again! But, also, Casey said they needed some form of chocolate which I agree and disagree with. For the sake of science I add some chocolate chunks to half the dough. You know what? BOTH versions are delish, so you know, do what you want with it. If ya want chocolate, ADD IT! THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS!!
For this recipe we’re gonna be browning the butter. But, the thing about browning butter in a recipe is that you end up losing about 20% of the weight of the butter in the water boiling off during the process. So, depending on the brand of your butter too, if you took a 113 gram stick and browned it you’re left with 85-90 grams of browned butter. That’s a 23-28 gram difference!! I know that may not feel like a lot, but it can really affect your cookie dough. So, you gotta reintroduce that moisture back into the recipe somehow. For this cookie, we are going to add a 2 whole eggs to the recipe vs the whole egg + large yolk. Because an egg is about 75% water, most of which is found in the white (85% of the white is water), that weighs about… boom 30 grams. You could also, just throw a little water back in with the butter.
While we brown the butter, we’re also going to toast the pecans in the butter, a little tip I picked up from Sohla’s walnut choc chip recipe. This’ll infuse the butter with a little bit of that pecan flavor to carry it through every bite and also like a toasted nut over a raw nut every single day. We also toss in a tablespoon of non-fat milk powder. The milk solids in butter is what is toasting up and gives brown butter it’s hot girl nutty flavor. By adding more milk powder in it’s boosting that flavor.
While on the topic of butter, for the most part my recipes are developed with the “cheap” american stuff. Lower fat percentage, Costco or Smart and Final, in bulk type shit. I’m buying my butter in 30# cases type beat, okay? But, I always have my “special reserve butter” for slathering on fresh bread, and personal cooking. Plugra, kerrygold and tilamook hold my heart here for hi-butter fat butters. So, I’m locking in and getting #brandspecific for this recipe. Because, while I think you should be using the best ingredients you can get your hands on, its also like I don’t have $300 to get top tier ingredients for EVERYTHING I bake. But, if the recipe is highlighting a specific ingredient, I always suggest that be the ingredient you splurge on. For choc chip cookies, if you wanna go budget friendly on everything, do it. But, get the good chocolate- it’s in the name!! Here, the butter is the flavor we want to highlight, so use the good stuff, the real fat buttery stuff.
Butter rant aside, we once again, for reference, have the base choc chip cookie:
Base cookie ingredients:
150 grams butter, melted & cooled
75 grams granulated sugar
140 grams dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
225 grams all purpose flour
1 tablespoon (10 grams) cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt
150 grams dark chocolate of your choice