Pecan & Chocolate Slice-and-Bake Cookies
Easy slice and bake cookies with toasted pecans and chocolate. These can be made ahead and baked from frozen!
This site contains affiliate links, which means that I may make a small commission if you purchase a product using those links. However, please know that I only provide links to products that I actually use and wholeheartedly recommend!
These slice and bake pecan chocolate chip shortbread cookies are honestly some of my favorite cookies. They’re made in a log that you can keep in the freezer and then just slice off a couple cookies and bake them from frozen when you’re craving cookies!
The dough is similar to a shortbread, so you get a lovely crumbly pecan cookie studded with chopped dark chocolate. The bitterness of the dark chocolate stands up beautifully against the buttery sweetness of the cookie. Honestly, they’re just happy cookies, you know?
I love these around the holidays, but if you want something a bit more festive, try my apple cider donuts.
What makes these chocolate and pecan slice-and-bake cookies so great:
- Slice-and-Bake: You can easily freeze this dough and then slice it and bake it straight from frozen.
- Flavor: Chocolate and pecan. Need I say more?
- Texture: These cookies are lovely and crumbly, so they pair perfectly with a cup of tea or a second cookie…
- Easy: As with most cookies, this recipe comes together quickly and doesn’t require any special equipment.
How to make these lovely cookies:
Step 1: Prep the nuts
Unless you have roasted pecans, you’ll want to roast them before you start making the dough. To do so bake the nuts for 7-9 minutes until they start to make your whole kitchen smell of pecans. It’s a lovely process.
Once they’re roasted, you can chop them by hand or in a food processor. If you’re doing this in the food processor, then add a couple of spoonfuls of flour in with the nuts. This stops the chopped nuts from getting too oily, which can happen why you process them.
Step 2: Make the dough
Combine your dry ingredients in one bowl and then cream together the butter and sugar in a second bowl. Add the eggs and vanilla to the butter and then fold in the dry ingredients.
Once your dough has come together into a crumbly mess, you press it into a log and wrap in plastic wrap.
Step 3: Refrigerate or freeze your dough
At this point, you can refrigerate the dough for an hour before slicing and baking. Or you can freeze the dough for longer if you don’t want to bake the cookies immediately.
If you choose to freeze the dough, then when you’re ready to bake the cookies you’ll slice the frozen log and then just bake them from frozen.
Step 4: Slice-and-Bake the cookies
Slice the cookies into 1/4 – 1/2 inch rounds and then bake them for 10-12 minutes at 350 F. In general, thinner cookies will give you a crisper result and cook a bit faster.
On the other hand, if you bake from frozen, you may need to bake for a couple of minutes longer. Either way, you want to bake until the cookies are gently browned on the edges but still pale in the center.
I’m a die-hard-cookie-with-tea kind of person (otherwise known as British) and personally, I think these cookies tick all of the die-hard-cookie-with-tea boxes. Hopefully, you agree!
Did you like this recipe?
If so, consider sharing on Pinterest or Instagram and tagging @MayasKitchenDaydreams – I always love to see your photos if you baked my recipe!
You can also sign up for my email list to stay informed!
Pecan and Chocolate chip shortbread
Ingredients
- 224 g flour
- 75 g ground toasted pecans
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 65 g sugar
- 55 g brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 4 oz chopped chocolate
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and then toast the pecans for 7-9 minutes or until they start to smell toasted and look slightly golden. Using a food processor grind the hazelnuts with a couple spoonfuls of the flour until the nuts are in small pieces. A few larger pieces is fine but we want them to be mostly quite small.
- Combine the flour, ground nuts, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl and set aside
- Cream together both sugars and the butter. Once light and fluffy add the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.
- Add the flour and chopped chocolate mixture to the butter and mix slowly until just combined.
- Pour the mixture onto a long piece of cling film and press into a log shape. Roll up in the cling film and roll a couple times on the counter to shape the dough into a log. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or freeze until ready to use.
- When you're ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 and line a baking tray with a silicon mat or parchment paper.
- Slice the log into cookies that are 1/4 -1/2 inch thick and lay them on the cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges have started to turn a nice golden brown but the middle is still pale. Let them cool for 10 minutes before removing them from the baking sheet.