I am always on the look-out for the “perfect” chocolate chip type cookie and this recipe for The Best One Bowl Chocolate Chunk-Pecan Cookies is pretty darn good. These cookies bake up nice and moist with a slightly crispy edge, and taste even better a few days after they are baked.
All the flavors seem to really combine to give it a more complex well rounded flavor. The chunky chocolate pieces and chunky almond pieces create an excellent texture and added flavor.
There are, however, three important tricks to this dough that you must follow:
1. You must use melted, cooled butter
2. You must use chocolate chunks not chips. The chocolate chunks add a nice hefty texture and feel to the cookies that you just won’t get with chocolate chips.
3. You must chill dough before baking. The melted butter provides a very nice flavor element. As the dough chills the flour absorbs the melted butter and the dough firms up. All the flavors seem to come together better and the chilling also helps the cookies keep their shape and spread less while baking.
I didn’t have any pecans on hand so used I roughly chopped toasted almonds (make sure to toast your nuts to bring out their flavor). You could easily substitute with toasted walnut or hazelnuts. Let’s make cookies!
You can find the recipe for The Best One-Bowl Chocolate Chunk-Pecan Cookies here. I really recommend checking out the cookbook that this recipe is from: Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor – this book is super cute and a pleasure to read. Lots of helpful tips and the photos are drool-inducing!
The first step to making these delicious cookies is to get yourself a big microwave safe mixing bowl (Pyrex is good) and a spoon. Most bakers prefer using a wooden spoon, but whatever you have on hand to get the ingredients well mixed will work.
Start by melting the butter in the bowl until the it’s almost completely liquid. Stir the butter to finish melting the extra little pieces. I like to let my butter cool for a bit before proceeding because I don’t want anything melting my chocolate chunks.
Next add the eggs, salt and vanilla and stir until smooth. Since I used almonds, I added a little almond extract with the vanilla. Mix in the flour, baking soda, baking powder (hint: to make sure that your baking powder is still active combine 1 teaspoon baking powder with 1/3 cup hot water. If the mixture fizzes then it’s still active. If not, then it’s time for a new can!) until a soft dough comes together.
Fold in the chocolate chunks and nuts. Once the dough comes together I like to chill it until slightly firm, scoop out my balls of dough and then chill them again until time to bake.
Altogether, the dough needs to chill for an hour before baking. During the last 1/2 hour of chill time, turn on the oven to 350, that way the oven gets a 1/2 hour to preheat before baking. Bake for around 15-18 minutes, until the centers are still a little soft but the edges look done. Transfer to a wire rack for cooling. These cookies freeze perfectly, let them thaw completely in their bag before removing.
