Fred’s Chocolate-Pecan Cookies

Fred’s Chocolate-Pecan Cookies
Peter DaSilva for The New York Times
Total Time
35 minutes
Rating
4(222)
Notes
Read community notes

This recipe, an adaptation of a popular cookie served at Fred’s restaurant in Barneys New York, the Madison Avenue department store, is rich, chewy and dotted with crunchy pecans. If you’re into the salty-sweet thing (who’s not?), add a sprinkle of flaky sea salt a few minutes before the cookies are done baking.

Featured in: Cakes and Sales

  • or to save this recipe.

  • Subscriber benefit: give recipes to anyone
    As a subscriber, you have 10 gift recipes to give each month. Anyone can view them - even nonsubscribers. Learn more.
  • Print Options


Advertisement


Ingredients

Yield:About 60 cookies
  • 8ounces semisweet chocolate
  • 3ounces unsweetened chocolate
  • 6tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 3eggs
  • 1cup/200 grams granulated sugar
  • 1teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1teaspoon baking powder
  • 4tablespoons/30 grams all-purpose flour
  • 1cup chocolate chips
  • 1cup pecans, coarsely chopped
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (60 servings)

87 calories; 5 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 9 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 8 grams sugars; 1 gram protein; 43 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

Powered by

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Melt the semisweet and unsweetened chocolates and butter in a double boiler and cool slightly.

  2. Step 2

    In a separate bowl, whip the eggs until frothy. Add the sugar and continue whisking until the mixture thickens and pales. Add the vanilla and whisk. Whisk in the chocolate mixture to combine.

  3. Step 3

    In another bowl, combine the salt, baking powder and flour. Fold the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture, stirring to combine well. Stir in the chocolate chips and pecans.

  4. Step 4

    Drop the cookies from a 1 tablespoon measure onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until lightly set. Remove the cookies and cool on a rack.

Ratings

4 out of 5
222 user ratings
Your rating

or to rate this recipe.

Have you cooked this?

or to mark this recipe as cooked.

Private Notes

Leave a Private Note on this recipe and see it here.

Cooking Notes

Agreed! Definitely five stars. The batter is unorthodox, but trust that the pastry chef has fine tuned this recipe. Brownie style batter that creates an unforgettable finished; subliminal cookies. With a glossy, smoothness to them, don't forget to add the salt flakes on top. Add a little more flour if you wish, but please resist from adding 3 cups of flour. . . .

Here's what I think: when you wisk the eggs and sugar together until mixture "thickens and pales", you really have to put your mixer speed up pretty high (you'll see "ribbons" forming in the mixture, which means it's getting thick). This takes several minutes. Then it will get even thicker as you add the rest of the ingredients. 4 Tablespoons of flour worked for me.

I tried it as written and the cookies are fantastic.

When I first mixed up the batter as directed (with 4 Tbsp of flour), it seemed far too liquid to dish out onto cookie sheets. I sat down with my computer to read the comments, and when I got back to my bowl, the batter was no longer liquid--it was proper cookie dough for dishing onto parchment. So my advice is to rest the batter for a few minutes before scooping it out. In my experience, every other detail in the recipe was spot on, including the parchment (ungreased). I will make these again!

This recipe must not be accurate. 4 tbsp of flour was not enough, the dough was like a cake batter. I increased the flour to 3 cups and this made it more of a very soft cookie dough.

A little too sweet, so reduced sugar by 1/4 cup. Love the consistency and the intense chocolate flavor, heightened by a sprinkling of sea salt. Yum!

4 tbsp flour worked for me when the batter is well-whipped. I discovered that I cannot re-use the parchment paper for subsequent batches, as there was too much cookie residue on it. The batter that was waiting in the bowl for the first batch to bake became stiff. I was able to put form cookies, but they did not come out glossy. The next time I bake these (they are delicious!), I will scoop out the entire batter onto multiple sheets of parchment paper, and then bake them in batches.

Excellent! Made NY's eve for after dinner. Only used 4 T flour. Followed Lucille's comments on mixing longer eggs with sugar into ribbons. Thanks!

I’ve made these twice now and they are just amazing! Incredibly light, melt in your mouth, chocolatey, but not overpowering. I followed the recipe exactly except for using a mixture of semi sweet and bitter sweet chocolate as that’s what I have on hand. I just reduce the sugar a little bit and it’s great. To those adding more flour, don’t do that. The recipe is perfect as it is. But it is important to whip the eggs almost to soft peaks and let the batter sit sufficiently to firm up.

very delicious and chocolaty, i would say its more of a mini brownie texture, i could def make them a little smaller, mine are too big at a generous tablespoon. recipe is pretty perfect, with the beating of the eggs and sugar till thick being very important, i should think. yes a five star.

Followed recipe as written (without salt on top), and had no issues. Was able to reuse parchment sheets without a problem; let cookies sit on sheet for five minutes out of the oven before moving to cooling rack. Very intense chocolate. A bit too intense for this milk chocolate fan, in fact.

These cookies are sitting cooling on my counter and my kids and I love them! I made them on a whim for a school bake sale. These are definitely in the baking rotation now! Mine didn’t look quite so lovely and round - they kind of flattened out but I used vegan butter and may not have whipped the eggs long enough. They all came out with a beautiful crispy shiny top and a gooey delicious middle. So for anyone who has a dairy allergy, they come out nicely using Earth Balance baking sticks!

Wit 4 T of flour my dough came out like cake batter. I had to add a full cup of flour to get the dough a consistency it could be scooped. This is more like candy than a cookie.

Left out choc chips bc didn’t want more sugar, used bittersweet and semisweet. Added 1T expresso powder which gave these cookies more depth, will make these again maybe even try pinch of chile powder

Baked until my opinion of “lightly set” which was a reasonable 12 minutes and they looked just solid when pressed. They were absolutely liquid inside and not able to be picked up off the parchment. Cooked the next batch until fully set (meaning I could shift them in one piece on the cookie sheet). Looked much more like wrinkly cookies at this point than the beautiful shiny shelled mini soufflés they were when too raw. The more cooked cookies were just ok chocolate cookies. More flour next time?

I have tried so many chocolate cookie recipes…and this one is IT! Easy if you follow the directions and the tips from other cooks for whipping the eggs and butter really long. Flawless and delicious. Definitely a five.

Tried this today - used Valrhona bittersweet & Callebaut unsweetened chocolate with walnuts & Ghirardelli white chocolate chips (what I had in the house). The eggs have to be whipped for a bit to thicken them and I refrigerated the dough for a few minutes as someone suggested. They came out fudgy & delicious!

Anyone have tips for making these prior to the day you serve them? Are they just as good the next day? Can you freeze the baked cookies without negative effect?

Stick with 4 tbsp of flour, and make small cookies. They’re delicious and rich and you definitely need a good espresso to accompany them. Lovely recipe and learned a new technique!

Great recipe. Probably impossible to mess it up. Decadent and delicious!

I swore I would never become one of those NYT cooks who changes the recipe dramatically and then writes about it, but here I am to tell you I made these cookies w/o the choc chips or the pecans because half-way through mixing I remembered one of the picnic guests has a severe nut allergy. They are sublime just as chocolate cookies. Other reviewers are right -- the batter comes out perfect if you beat egg/sugar mix long enough, and let sit a few minutes after adding choc/flour.

Marvelous. I cut the sugar by half, omitted the chocolate chips, and increased the pecans. Obviously different than the intended spirit of the recipe but I really loved how rich these were.

Mine are much darker - maybe I over-combined. They are delicious anyway!

Made these cookies exactly as instructed and they are outstanding. I must be heavy handed in spooning out the dough though because I ended up with 35 cookies instead of 60

Made exactly 48 1 TBSP. cookies. Baked for 15 minutes and came out perfectly!

Private notes are only visible to you.

Advertisement

or to save this recipe.