Say no to dry oatmeal cookies and let me introduce you to these extremely chewy, crispy, and totally loaded Miso Chocolate Chip Toffee Pecan Oatmeal Cookies. As their name suggests, these cookies are made with dark chocolate chips, toffee bits and roasted pecans. Their nutty and caramelized flavor profile is further enhanced by brown butter and miso. You do have to chill the dough, but these cookies are well worth the wait!!
After having great success with these toffee macadamia oatmeal cookies, I couldn’t wait to make another variation. This version has pecans and dark chocolate chips – a little closer to the original Claire Saffitz’s Oat and Pecan Brittle Cookies but with chocolate!
I also added miso to the dough because pecans and miso played so well together in these miso caramel pecan sticky buns. The same can be said about miso and toffee in these miso toffee shortbread cookies.
Trang’s Recipe Highlights
- FLAVOR: Nutty and deeply caramelized, sweet but not too sweet, with a hint of bitterness from the dark chocolate, and a subtle umami from miso.
- TEXTURE: These cookies are definitely more textural than your typical miso chocolate chip cookies since they have tons of oats, nuts, toffee and chocolate chips. They are super chewy with crispy edges, and a tiny bit of crunch.
- EASE: More labor intensive than a typical oatmeal cookie recipe, there are a few extra steps you’ll need to take like browning the butter, toasting and grinding the nuts with oats, be sure to follow my step-by-step instructions with process photos in the recipe card.
Ingredient notes and helpful tips
You’ll need 12 ingredients to make these miso pecan oatmeal cookies. As always, for the full list of ingredients with quantities and step-by-step instructions, you can skip right ahead to the recipe card.
First, let’s talk toffee bits
As far as I know, there is only one brand of toffee bits you can buy at the store, Heath English Toffee Bits. The last couple times I purchased these, I ordered from the Walmart app for a pack of 6, and it was much cheaper than buying individual packages in store. The first time, I did a pick up order and the second time I got it delivered – for free with minimum purchase.
I’ve seen them at Stater Bros in store and I also see that they are available for pick up from Vons in my area. I know they are a bit difficult to find. You can buy them in bulk online or you can make homemade toffee bits.
Another version you can make is pecan brittle using this macadamia brittle recipe but substitute the macadamia and coconut for all the pecans called for in this recipe. Then, blitz half of the brittle in the food processor with the oats and then fold in the other half – broken into small bits.
Next, let’s talk miso
I typically use Marukome premium white miso paste in a lot of my miso desserts. For this recipe, I used a sweet white miso that has reduced sodium but is a bit saltier than the Marukome brand. It contains 570 mg of sodium per 24 grams serving size, compared to 290 mg of sodium per 18 grams serving size.
So for the amount I used in this recipe (¼ cup or 70 grams), the amount of sodium is 1662 mg. This is between half and ¾ teaspoon of salt. This number will be useful if you are using a different type of miso with different sodium content or rather omit the miso all together.
But note that the miso also contributes to the liquid ingredients which make these cookies more moist. If you plan to omit miso, I recommend adding an egg white to make up for the liquid ingredient. So instead of using 1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk, just use 2 whole eggs.
For perfect pecan oatmeal cookies
These pecan chocolate chip oatmeal cookies do spread in all directions when they are baked. If you love the rustic homemade look, simply leave them alone. But if you want yours to look absolutely perfect, take a round cookie cutter or a spatula and scoot the edges in as soon as they come out of the oven and still soft.
The blue round cookie cutter I’m using in these photos is 4 ¼”. It’s plastic and from IKEA. It’s perfect for this task.
I hope you enjoy these! If you’re not planning to make pecan pie for Thanksgiving, these will more than make up for it. 🙂
Hungry for more?
Miso Pecan Oatmeal Cookies Recipe
Equipment
- Light Color Saucepan
- Skillet
- 3-Tablespoon Cookie Scoop
Ingredients
- 8 oz (227 g) unsalted butter, brown 4 oz
- 1 ⅔ cup (180 g) pecans, raw or roasted and unsalted, divided
- 2 cup (200 g) old-fashioned rolled oats, don’t sub instant oats, divided
- 1 ⅓ cup (180 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cup (150 g) brown sugar
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (70 g) miso, 570 mg sodium per 24 g
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon (14 g) pure vanilla extract
- 1 (226 g) bag toffee bits
- 1 cup (164 g) chocolate chips, dark or bittersweet
- Flake sea salt for topping
Instructions
- Brown the butter – place half the butter in the stand mixer bowl and heat the other half in a light colored saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter melts, it will become foamy. When the foam subsides, you will see clear bubbles, start whisking continuously at this point to keep the milk solids from burning. When the butter is caramel in color and smells nutty, turn off the heat and immediately pour it over the butter in the stand mixer bowl to melt it. Stir as needed. Set aside to cool completely before making the cookie dough.8 oz unsalted butter
- Roast the pecans – In a skillet over medium heat, roast the pecans for 3 – 5 minutes until toasty and fragrant. Set aside to cool.1 ⅔ cup pecans
- Grind half the oats and pecans – Add half the oats and half the roasted pecans to a food processor and blitz until finely ground. Transfer this to a medium bowl, sift in the flour and baking soda. Mix to distribute evenly and set aside.2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats, 1 ⅓ cup all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 ⅔ cup pecans
- Cream butter with sugar – When butter is completely cool, add both granulated and brown sugar to the stand mixer bowl, beat with the paddle attachment on medium low to medium speed for at least 2 minutes, until lighter in color.¾ cup brown sugar, ½ cup granulated sugar, 8 oz unsalted butter
- Add remaining wet ingredients – Add the egg, egg yolk, miso, vanilla extract, and continue beating for at least another 2 minutes until fluffy and creamy.¼ cup miso, 1 large egg, 1 large egg yolk, 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- Incorporate dry ingredients – Add the oat-pecan-flour mixture set aside earlier to the wet ingredient mixture in the stand mixer bowl, stir until incorporated. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary.
- Add the remaining mix-ins – Roughly chop the remaining roasted pecans. Add chopped pecans, remaining oats, toffee bits and chocolate chips to the cookie dough, stir to distribute evenly. Stop the mixer and use a spatula to scrape the side and bottom of the bowl to ensure good distribution of all the mix-ins.1 ⅔ cup pecans, 1 bag toffee bits, 1 cup chocolate chips, 2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- Divide cookie dough – Portion the cookie dough with a 3-tablespoon cookie scoop and place them on a lined baking sheet. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before baking.
- Preheat the oven – Set the oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350°F.
- Bake – Place 6 dough balls on a large lined baking sheet, about 2-3 inches apart, and bake 1 batch at a time for 15 minutes, until the cookies are golden but still slightly undercooked in the middle.
- Cool – Remove the baking sheet from the oven, but allow the cookies to sit on the baking sheet to finish baking from the residual heat for 10-15 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely. Sprinkle some flake sea salt on top. Shape them with a round cookie cutter or spatula if you want them perfectly round as soon as they come out of the oven.Flake sea salt for topping
Notes
- Miso sodium level: the amount of miso I used in this recipe contains 1662 mg of sodium. If your miso has a higher sodium level, it’s okay to use up to 2200 mg of sodium without making the cookies too salty, but you may want to skip the flake sea salt topping.
- Miso substitution: to omit miso, substitute ½ – ¾ teaspoon of kosher salt and add an extra egg white.
- Chocolate chips: stick to dark or bittersweet, I think semisweet and milk chocolate would be too sweet but use what you like. You can also omit it if you don’t want to use chocolate chips.
- Storing baked cookies: store your pecan oatmeal cookies in an airtight container at room temp for up to 5 days.
- Storing cookie dough: portioned cookie dough can be kept refrigerated for 3-4 days, and frozen for 3-6 months.
- Baking frozen dough: you can bake frozen cookie dough directly without thawing, simply increase baking time by about 1-2 minutes.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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