Have you ever made chocolate chip cookies with brown butter?  With just a few minutes extra time dedicated to cooking the butter on the stovetop over medium heat to turn the butter a rich amber color with nutty flavor, you can transform your chocolate chip cookies into something a little bit extra!

These are the BEST brown butter chocolate chunk pecan cookies in my humble opinion, (and I’ve had a lot of them.)  Soft, melt in your mouth goodness that is full of nutty flavor, pools of chocolate and a slight crunch from the pecans – they are quite heavenly.

A couple of tips for this recipe:

• To brown your butter, cut the butter in to chunks and add to a saucepan.  Place over medium heat and let it melt slowly, swirling you pan every now and then.  When I brown butter it usually takes 8-10 minutes to brown properly.  It will melt, then foam, then the foam will subside and you will start to see the butter brown, (or turn a beautiful amber color), and the solids will turn a little grainy in the bottom of the pan.  At this point you will want to remove from the heat before it burns.  The butter will smell and taste beautifully nutty and makes a wonderful flavor addition to your cookies!  Make sure you scrape EVERY SINGLE BIT of it into your mixer bowl.
• I NEVER remember to take my eggs out of the refrigerator before baking, so when a recipe calls for room temp eggs I simply put them in a bowl of warm water for a minute or two and they are the perfect temp to proceed.
• I am in love Trader Joes semi-sweet chocolate chunks.  They are large chunks, so feel free to rough chop if you want to, but my hubby loves the pools of chocolate you get from keeping them whole!  When I’m making these cookies, I mix in about 1-3/4 cup of the chunks and reserve the other 1/4 cup to push in to the cookies right when they come out of the oven.
• Freezing the cookie dough helps keep them thicker, if you like thinner cookies, don’t freeze them and they will spread more!
• Maldon’s flakey sea salt is my fav.  Just a tiny sprinkle of this beautiful salt over the top of baked goods, chocolates, or breads add beautiful flavor and a slight crunch.  
• If I’m not eating these warm out of the oven, I love to reheat for 20-30 seconds in the microwave to get that right out of the oven meltiness back.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup salted butter, browned
• 2-1/4 cups AP flour
• 1 Tbsp dried milk powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1-1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, room temp
• 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chunks, (can substitute chips)
• 1 cup chopped pecans (optional if you don’t like nuts but highly recommended if you do)
• Flakey sea salt (optional)

Instructions:

1. Line two large baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper.
2. Place butter in a saucepan over medium heat and let it melt and brown, (until it is a beautiful amber color.)  Remove from heat and set aside for 10 minutes so it slightly cools.
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, powdered milk, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
4. In your stand mixer bowl, add the browned butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla extract.  Beat together until well combined.
5. Add in your eggs one at a time and beat for about 2 minutes.
6. Add in the flour mixture and mix on low speed until combined.
7. Add in the chocolate chunks and pecans and mix on low speed until combined.
8. Scoop the cookies on to the baking sheet using a medium cookie scoop, leaving at least 2-1/2 inches between cookies
9. Freeze the cookie dough on the baking sheets for 20 minutes.
10. Preheat your oven to 350
11. Bake the cookies at 350 for 11-13 minutes.
12. Remove pan from oven and let cookies sit for 15 minutes on the pan, (you can press extra chocolate chunks in to the top to make them cute if you like and this is when you can sprinkle with optional flakey sea salt!)
13. Gently transfer to cooling rack and try not to eat all of them at once.