There is a small Boston neighborhood shop named Fastachi that sells the best assortment of nuts, roasting them in small batches and by hand. A favorite of mine is the lightly salted, roasted pecans. I don’t usually prefer nuts in my baked goods but when I saw this recipe in a newsletter by recipe developer Susan Spungen, I knew I had to make them. I used my beautiful roasted pecans alongside bittersweet chocolate chunks for these delicious cookies. I swirled half of the chocolate into the melted butter to create a chocolate cookie and cut the rest into chunks about the same size as the pecan pieces. I left the cookies out to cool and my son and his friends devoured them!
Ingredients
- 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped
- 1/2 cup toasted pecans coarsely chopped
- Flakey sea salt optional
Servings: cookies
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt and set aside. In a small saucepan or microwave, melt the butter. Stir in both sugars and whisk until smooth. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and whisk again. Pour the butter mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just combined. While the mixture is still warm, fold in half a cup of the chocolate and stir. Let the mixture cool a bit and then add the remaining chocolate and pecans. The dough will be very loose. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill until the dough is firm, several hours or overnight.
- Pre-heat the oven to 325°F and position a rack in the center of the oven. Let the dough soften a few minutes while the oven is pre-heating. Line two baking sheets with silicon pads or parchment paper. Roll the dough with your hands into golf-ball size chunks, placing them on the baking sheets about 3 inches apart.
- Bake the cookies for about 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle sparingly with flaky salt. Cool on the baking sheets for 2 to 3 minutes, and transfer to a wire rack.