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close up of Brown Butter Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies

Brown Butter Double Chocolate Cookies

Sweet and salty. Gluten free. Crisp and chewy!

Course Baking
Cuisine American
Keyword brown butter, chestnut flour, chocolate, gluten free
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 14 minutes
cooling time 30 minutes
Servings 18 cookies

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (56 gram) pecan halves
  • 8 tbsp (113 grams) butter
  • 1/2 cup (105 grams) packed light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup (55 grams) granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup (80 grams) chestnut flour see Notes
  • 1/4 cup (30 grams) tapioca flour see Notes
  • 1/2 tsp rounded baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract or paste
  • 2/3 cup (4 oz; 110 grams) chopped dark chocolate (78 % or higher) see Notes
  • 1/3 cup (1 3/4 oz; 55 grams) chopped milk chocolate see Notes
  • 1/2 cup (2 oz; 60 grams) dried cherries or cranberries see Notes
  • Maldon sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
  2. Place the pecan halves on a baking sheet and toast until fragrant and just a darker golden, about 8-10 minutes, depending on your oven. Let them cool and then chop roughly and set aside.
  3. Place the butter in a small pot and melt over medium heat. Let it go through all the stages of turning to brown butter, swirling it occasionally. Once the foam subsides a bit, the butter smells pleasantly nutty, and the there are brown bits (not scorched!) at the bottom of the pot, then remove from the heat.
  4. Place both sugars in a large bowl. Add the browned butter to the sugars, scraping any bits from the pot into the sugars. Stir to blend well. Let it cool.
  5. Set a mesh strainer over a medium bowl. Sift the chestnut flour and tapioca flour into the bowl to remove any lumps. Add the baking soda and salt and blend.
  6. In a small bowl whisk together the egg and vanilla. Once the butter sugar mixture has cooled down a bit, it will be safe to add egg to the bowl. Stir well to blend.
  7. Add the flour mixture. Stir well to combine. And then whisk vigorously till well blended. It will firm up a bit, this is fine.

  8. Setting 2 tbsp of the chopped pecans and 2 tbsp of the chocolate chunks aside, stir in the remainder, as well as the cherries into the batter, until evenly distributed. Set the bowl of batter into the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

  9. Preheat the oven to 375F. (in case you turned the oven off from before)

  10. Roll out approximately 1 1/2-2 tbsp of the dough to place on two parchment lined baking sheets. The balls of dough should be about 1 1/2 inches in diameter or a bit smaller. You should be able to make around 18 cookies balls. Don't put more than 6 per sheet spread out as much as possible. I use two sheets, with 6 cookies per sheet.

  11. Gently push down on the tops of the mounds, and divide the reserved pecan pieces and chocolate chunks over the tops of all the cookies.

  12. Place the baking sheets side by side on a rack set at the middle of the oven.

  13. Bake the cookies until the edges are golden brown and just set, about 12- 14 minutes (depending on your oven and the size of your cookies), rotating them from side to side and back to front at the 6 minute mark. The middle may still seem soft and underbaked, this is fine. They will continue firming up outside in the residual heat. If desired, occasionally open the door and bang the entire sheets against the rack to help the dough settle into pleasing edges. I do this every two minutes, starting at the 6 minute mark.

  14. Remove the sheets from the oven and set them on cooling racks. If desired, use a large glass or english muffin ring to surround the warm cookies and spin to help bring in the edges into a pleasing roundness. Sprinkle with salt while the chocolate is still warm and gooey.

  15. Let the cookies cool for about 4-5 minutes. At this point you should be able to use a spatula to remove the cookies from the baking sheets directly onto the cooling rack to finish firming up.

  16. They will firm up after 10 minutes or a bit longer. They can be stored in a sealed container for 4 days. (if they last that long!)

Recipe Notes

The dough can be prepared in advance and even frozen. I find it best to roll out the dough balls, place them onto a wax paper lined baking sheet and freeze. Once frozen they can be transferred to a freezer bag. Thaw just enough to be able to place a few strategic pieces of chopped chocolate and pecans onto the tops so that they will stick. Increase the baking time to allow them to bake through to the centre. This recipe makes 18 average sized cookies.

Feel free to replace the total amount of dry flour (chestnut and tapioca) with straight AP flour, or a gluten free cup for cup blend.

Alternative add-ons: pretzel bits will work (if you are not gluten free) Dried cranberries, pepitas, and even popcorn would be great stirred through instead of the dried fruit.

This recipe was inspired by the Cherry Chestnut Chocolate Cookies by Alanna Taylor-Tobin in her book, Alternative Baker.  Check out her website The Bojon Gourmet for other great gluten free baking recipes.