Serve hot or cold, these gooey chocolate pecan brownies are the perfect dessert! Fudgy chocolate brownies stuffed full of chocolate chips and crunchy pecans, sprinkled with sea salt.
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✏️ Why you'll love this recipe
A moist fudgy chocolate brownie with pecans is the perfect comfort treat. This recipe is a toasted pecan brownie that's purely nutty chocolate goodness.
The recipe is based on my best-ever triple chocolate brownies, but with pecan nuts thrown in. If you’re a chocolate lover then these fudge brownies are for you!
The addition of chopped pecans to gooey brownies is a fun mix of tasty textures and giving them a sprinkle of salt on top helps balance the sweetness.
The combination of chocolate with salty toasted nuts makes for the BEST brownies! If you love pecans, check out this collection of the best pecan desserts too!
These brownies are the perfect sweet treat for parties and to give as gifts, or why not serve them warm with a scoop of ice cream for the holidays? Pecan desserts just scream Thanksgiving for me, and pecans are such a classic Fall flavour.
🥘 Ingredients
This pecan brownies recipe calls for the following ingredients:
- Unsalted butter: allows you to control the salt content.
- Dark chocolate: from the baking aisle for ease of melting.
- Eggs: large size
- White sugar: finely granulated e.g. caster sugar.
- Soft light brown sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Plain all-purpose flour: sieve for a smooth brownie batter.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder: e.g. dutch-processed cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate)
- Milk chocolate chips
- Pecans: ¾ chopped and ¼ whole
- Sea salt flakes (optional)
See the recipe card for quantities.
Top tip: For accuracy, it’s best to weigh your ingredients rather than using cups.
♻️ Substitutions / Variations
Ingredient substitutions
Try swapping the pecans for walnuts!
Using white and brown sugar adds a caramel-like sweetness to the pecan brownies. However, you can use either all white or all brown sugar to the same total sugar amount.
You can swap milk chocolate chips for either white or dark chips. Alternatively, you can leave them out completely – your pecan brownies will still be delicious!
You can use any type of unsweetened baking cocoa powder, such as natural cocoa powder, Dutch-processed cocoa powder and black cocoa powder (great for a darker brownie!). This is not the same as hot cocoa power you’d use to make a hot chocolate, which won’t work in this recipe.
I like to use roughly chopped pecans inside my chocolate brownie batter so they’re easier to cut and eat, but you can use whole pecan halves for this instead.
Flavour options
Toast your pecans in a pan on low-medium heat for a few minutes and add 1-2 tablespoon of maple syrup to create delicious maple pecans that you can stir into your brownies!
Add 2-3 tablespoon bourbon to your pecan brownie batter before baking. Bourbon pecan brownies are sure to be a hit for a party!
For a pecan pie brownie, top these brownies with a layer of praline pecan pie topping. Just like the one from my pecan pie bars recipe - use half the recipe for a thinner layer. Once your brownies have baked, pour over your homemade pecan pie filling and continue to bake for a further 15-20mins.
You can also add a swirl of caramel into your brownie batter before topping with pecans and baking for delicious pecan caramel brownies.
Tin size
To use a 9-inch square tin instead of an 8-inch tin, use the same the recipe but cook for 5mins less time. You’ll have slightly thinner pecan brownies.
If you want to make a big batch or only have a larger brownie pan, such as a rectangular 13-inch pan, it’s best to double the pecan brownie recipe and cook for an extra 10-15mins.
📖 Method
First, preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°C (fan) / Gas Mark 4 / 350°F.
Step 1: If needed, chop 100g/1cup of pecans, leaving the rest whole.
Step 2: In a heatproof bowl, melt the butter and dark chocolate either in the microwave (30secs at a time) or over a double boiler, stirring until smooth.
Steps 3 - 4: In a separate mixing bowl, using an electric mixer beat the eggs and sugar. This should whip up to thick and creamy like a milkshake and can take roughly 3-8mins.
Steps 5 - 6: Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the eggy mousse, add in the vanilla extract and then gently fold together.
Steps 7 - 8: In a separate bowl, sieve the plain flour and cocoa powder, whisking together and then stirring in the chocolate chips and chopped pecans.
Steps 9 - 10: Add the wet ingredients into the dry mixture, slowly folding in until only just combined.
Steps 11 - 12: Pour the brownie batter into a greased and lined 8-inch baking pan, then scatter the whole pecans on top. Bake for 25-30mins, until papery and cracked on top, but with a slight wobble in the middle.
Allow the brownie to cool in the tin before removing and cutting into squares.
💭 Top tips
- Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. This helps to reduce the lumps in your mixture giving you a smooth brownie batter as it’s beaten together gradually.
- When melting the chocolate and butter in the microwave, melt it slowly in 15-30secs bouts, stirring between, so it doesn’t burn the chocolate.
- You can use a double-boiler - heating water in a saucepan with the chocolate and butter in a heat-proof bowl on top.
- For the perfect crinkly top, whip your sugar-egg mixture to a thick milkshake-like consistency. Try not to knock any of that air out. Mix in your other ingredients by folding gently.
- Your brownies are fully cooked once they’re cracked and papery on top, and there is only a slight wobble left in the middle when you give the pan a little shake.
- Let your fudgy brownies cool in the tin before you remove them and cut them into squares. This stops them from breaking when you try to lift them out.
❔ Recipe FAQs
Your pecan chocolate brownies should last for up to a week stored in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge. Store in the fridge for a firmer fudgy texture.
Yes! You can freeze your pecan brownies wrapped in a layer of cling film and a layer of foil for up to 2 months.
If you want to reheat your pecan brownies to serve warm, you can microwave individual brownies on a heatproof plate for 10-15secs.
I love topping these brownies with sea salt flakes as soon as they come out of the oven. Allow to cool and serve as fudgy brownie bars.
Or serve your nutty pecan brownies warm from the oven. Be sure to pour custard, cream or ice cream on top - yum!
If you’re looking for a dairy-free pecan brownie recipe, then you can swap the butter for a plant-based baking block instead. Be sure to check the dark chocolate you are using in the batter is dairy-free too.
To make gluten-free pecan brownies, swap the plain flour for gluten-free flour. I recommend using a gluten-free plain flour blend 1:1 measure.
🧁 Other goodies
Looking for some other goodies to make?
For all the chocolate lovers, check out these easy recipes:
- Peanut butter swirl brownies – a favorite brownie recipe of mine!
- Oreo chocolate drip cake
- Chocolate orange cake
- Bailey’s Oreo brownies
- Slutty brownies (Oreo brookies)
Or if you love pecan recipes perfect for fall, you might love this collection of tasty pecan desserts, including these treats:
Other Related Recipes:
Looking forward to some new recipes? Check out my Youtube, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest pages for a few sneak peeks and some sweet inspiration!
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📖 Recipe
Pecan Brownies
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 125 g (½ cups) unsalted butter
- 125 g (¾ cups) dark chocolate
- 2 eggs large
- 70 g (⅓ cups) caster sugar white granulated
- 115 g (½ cups) soft light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 60 g (½ cups) plain flour all-purpose
- 30 g (⅓ cups) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 50 g (¼ cups) milk chocolate chips
- 125 g (1 ¼ cups) pecans (100g / 1 cup) chopped, (25g/ ¼ cup) whole
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt optional
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven: 180°C / 160°C (fan) / Gas 4 / 350°F
- In a heatproof bowl, melt the butter and dark chocolate either in the microwave (30secs at a time) or over a double boiler, stirring until smooth.
- In a separate mixing bowl, using an electric mixer beat the eggs and sugars. This should whip up to thick and creamy like a milkshake and can take roughly 3-8mins.
- Pour the cooled chocolate mixture over the eggy mousse, add in the vanilla extract and then gently fold together.
- In a separate bowl, sieve the plain flour and cocoa powder, whisking together and then stirring in the chocolate chips and chopped pecans.
- Add the wet ingredients into the dry mixture, slowly folding in until only just combined.
- Pour the brownie batter into a greased and lined 8-inch baking pan, then scatter the whole pecans on top.
- Bake for 25-30mins, until papery and cracked on top, but with a slight wobble in the middle.
- Allow the brownie to cool in the tin before removing and cut into squares.
Notes
- Beat your sugar-egg mixture thoroughly until it’s thickened into a thick milkshake-like consistency.
- Fold your egg-mixture gently into the other ingredients to keep the whipped air in.
- Try serving pecan brownies hot with cream, custard or ice-cream!
- Use all white sugar or all brown sugar for the same total amount.
- Swap the pecans for walnuts.
- You can use any type of chocolate for the choc chips.
- You can swap the 8-inch square pan for a 9-inch square pan and reduce the baking time by 5mins.
- Double up the recipe and bake these brownies in a large brownie tin for 40-45mins, (e.g. 9inch x 13inch brownie pan).
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate based on an online nutritional calculator, actual values may vary.
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