Salted Caramel Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Some days I have a zillion recipe ideas in my head. Other days, nothing inspires me. When that happens, I find that perusing the sites of some of my favorite bloggers usually helps to spark some different flavor combination ideas or when I see a recipe that looks interesting I’ll try it as is. And that’s how I came upon these Salted Carmel Pecan Chocolate Chip cookies from Sally’s Baking Addiction. And since I had all of the ingredients in my magic baking drawer of goodness, I took that as a sign that I needed to make these cookies.

I had been using nuts in a muffin recipe a week earlier and knew that I wanted a nutty crunch to my next cookie recipe. I also love anything salted caramel, but I’ve always been challenged baking with caramel in a cookie since it mostly bakes out and burns. But I was intrigued to see how Sally’s Baking Addiction topped the cookies with small caramel bits to keep it from melting all over.

Another thing that’s great about this cookie base is the use of corn starch. Two teaspoons of cornstarch helps to keep these chocolate chip cookies ultra soft and chewy. This is such a great chocolate chip cookie base you could definitely experiment with other add-ins. But for today, I stuck with caramel chews, chopped pecans, chocolate chips, and of course, sea salt.

Yield: 24 cookies

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 16 wrapped caramels, quartered
• sea salt, for topping

Step 1: Cream together butter and sugars in your mixer until light and fluffy. Slowly add in egg and vanilla and mix well.

Step 2: Combine flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt and slowly mix into the wet ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips and pecans. Chill the dough for a half an hour before baking. 

Step 3: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. On sil-pat or parchment-lined baking sheets, use a medium cookie scoop to place even-sized balls of dough at least two inches apart. Lightly press a few pieces of caramel on top of the cookies and sprinkle with sea salt. I love this Jacobsen Sea Salt that I picked up when I was in Portland earlier this summer. 

Step 4: Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove and let the cookies cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack.

Best enjoyed straight out of the oven, in my opinion, otherwise I recommend microwaving these for just a few seconds before indulging so that the caramel is nice and ooey gooey melty. These cookies are a great flavor combination of sweet and salty, with both a soft and crunchy feel when you bite into them. The nuttiness of the pecans is a great compliment to the salted caramel and sweet chocolate.

It was SO hot in Boston this past week that I didn’t want to put these in the mail since I figured they would melt into a caramel puddle before safely arriving at any of my friends’ houses. So instead I brought back Cookie Monday to my old coworkers since I was working in downtown Boston, and my old (but favorite) intern Abby met me on the street corner for the cookie drop. Feels like I’m running a bit of a cookie ring in the city sometimes with friends being my cookie runners, meeting me on street corners or swinging by my house to “pick up the goods” before work.
Maybe Southie is finally rubbing off on me and I’ll be the next Whitey Becca, the most infamous cookie gangster this side of Dorchestah. I’m sure I could learn a thing or two from Crazy Eddie next door, though he might be more of a Walter White type of baker if you catch my drift.

I promise I’ll catch up with all my cookie blogs this week. I owe you a Nutshell post of what I’ve been up to, along with some of the other recipes I’ve been taunting you with on Instagram!