Salted Dark Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

I’ve been sitting here for a few minutes, waiting for inspiration to strike: how to introduce this cookie post? Nothing’s coming.

What even needs to be said? These irresistible little guys are studded with luscious, creamy dark chocolate chips, filled with nutty, fragrant toasted pecans, and sprinkled with sea salt, all in a perfectly rich and buttery cookie base.

I can hardly add anything. They do all the talking.

I guess I’ll just say that, as a big-time cookie lover, these have made my top 5 list of favorite cookies. It took all of 2 hours home alone with them to accept that I had no choice but to package them up and send them to work with Jeff. My self-control is no match for the likes of these cookies. I truly think I could have eaten every last one of them, easily, and wished for more.

I started with the fantastic Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from Mel’s Kitchen Café. It’s a great recipe exactly as it is.

But I happened to have dark chocolate chips in my pantry, and I noticed a bag of pecans lounging in my freezer, and the wheels started turning.

You can never go wrong with chocolate chip cookies, if you ask me. These are just a pumped-up version of a classic.

Salted Dark Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies
adapted from Mel’s Kitchen Café

Note: Mel’s recipe calls for 2 1/8 cups flour—I live at a high altitude, and almost always have to adjust the amount of flour in baked goods to get good results. I live at 4,500 feet, and 2 1/4 cups flour was just right for me. If you live closer to sea level, you may want to start with 2 1/8 cups, as the original recipe calls for, and add more as necessary to get the right consistency of dough.

2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups dark chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
sea salt, for sprinkling

In a medium-sized skillet over medium heat, cook the pecans for about 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they are golden and fragrant. Set aside to cool. (I placed mine on a plate in the freezer while I prepared the dough, to speed up the cooling.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugars together until well mixed. Add the egg, yolk, and vanilla, and beat for 2-3 minutes or until the color has lightened from a deep amber to a light brown. Add the flour, table salt, and baking soda, and mix to combine. Mix in the chocolate chips and pecans.

Form dough into generous tablespoon-sized balls and place on cookie sheet. Sprinkle the top of each cookie with sea salt, pressing lightly to adhere. (To reduce the amount of salt that ends up rolling around on the cookie sheet, I like to pour a bit of sea salt onto a plate, and press the top of each cookie dough ball down onto the plate so the salt sticks to it, then place it salt-side up on the sheet.)

Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, or until they are lightly browned. Let cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.