The Easiest Chocolate Walnut Cookies Recipe (From Scratch)
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Chocolate Nut Cookies are chock-full of your favorite nuts and are a perfect dipping cookies. What do we mean by dipping cookie? It is a cookie that softens, yet holds together when dipped in a cold glass of milk or hot cup of coffee.
Chocolate Nut Cookies
Our mom has made these Chocolate Nut Cookies every Christmas for as long as I can remember. She has a recipe card basket FULL of great cookie recipes.
Some of them are cut from a newspaper or magazine and taped onto a recipe card. Others are handwritten by her or a family friend who shared the recipe with her years ago.
Most of the cookies our mom makes include nuts – pecans to be exact. I’ve never asked her what led to her love of pecans but the love runs deep. So deep that for years, she would order pecans by the box to show up right after Thanksgiving just in time for holiday baking.
Chocolate Cookies with Walnuts
The original recipe for these Chocolate Nut Cookies call for walnuts and you can definitely use them instead of pecans – totally your choice.
The dough for these cookies needs to be chilled twice so it’s really easy to make these while you are making another kind of cookie because you have time to concentrate on the other ones while the dough chills.
These cookies freeze really well so you can make them before the holidays or a party and then just pull them out a few hours before you need them.
Ingredient List
Granulated Sugar
Unsalted Butter, softened to room temperature
Large Eggs
Vanilla Extract
All Purpose Flour
Cocoa Powder
Baking Soda
Salt
Milk
Chopped Nuts
How to Make Chocolate Walnut Cookies
Step By Step Instructions
- In a large bowl, cream softened butter and sugar until fluffy with the paddle attachment.
- Add eggs and vanilla, and mix.
- Sift flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda.
- Alternately add dry flour mixture and wet ingredients to the batter, mixing well between each addition.
- Stir in nuts.
- Chill for 30 minutes until firm in the bowl in the fridge.
- Remove from the fridge; make two logs, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill for several hours.
- Slice cookie dough into 1/4 inch cookies, and bake on baking sheets in a preheated 375 degrees F oven for 8 minutes.
Storage Instructions
Let cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. Cookies can be frozen in the freezer for several months.
Recipe FAQs
- Salted butter can be used too, if needed.
- Chopped pecans or chopped walnuts work in this recipe. I love them both ways.
- Be sure to start with softened butter.
- Roll the chilled dough into 2 logs, approximately 7 – 10 inches long with a diameter of 1.5 to 2 inches.
- You could bake one log today, and save the other log for later. Or, try freezing the cookie log by placing the wrapped log into a freezer bag.
- If you don’t have a sifter, use a sieve instead. It does the same thing as a sifter.
Are walnuts or pecans better in cookies?
This is a personal preference. I’ve found that walnuts and pecans are interchangeable in cookie recipes. For added flavor, toast pecans in the oven for a few minutes which will result a nice toasty flavor.
What causes cookies to spread out?
The spreading of cookie batter during the baking process is caused by the ratio of fat to flour in your cookies. If you have too much fat, it will melt in the over causing the cookies to spread. Flour binds to the fat and prevents it from spreading.
If your cookies are spreading, be more precise in your measurements, or consider chilling the dough before baking.
Can chocolate cookies be frozen?
Yes, chocolate cookies are a great dessert to make ahead and freeze for later. To freeze an entire batch at once, let them cool, and then place in an airtight container (such as a tin cookie container). Place the entire container in the freezer. To thaw, remove the container, and let thaw at room temperature.
To freeze cookies individually, place the chocolate cookies on a baking sheet in a single layer. Place in the freezer until frozen, then remove and place in an airtight container, and immediately place in the freezer. This way, you can remove one cookie at a time instead of the entire batch.
Other Cookie Recipes
Cookies are our family’s love language so here are a few of our favorites:
- Dainty Log Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips
- Mini Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Salted Peanut Butter Cookies with Dark Chocolate Chunks
- Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Old Fashioned Cinnamon Snaps
- Grandma’s Three Layer Chocolate Squares
- Giant Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Hershey Kiss Cookies
Note: We use referral links to products we use and think you might enjoy too.
Chocolate Nut Cookies
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup butter or margarine softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups sifted flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add egg and vanilla and beat well.
- In separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.
- Add dry ingredients alternately with milk to creamed mixture, mixing well after each addition.
- Stir in pecans. Chill dough until firm.
- Shape dough into two rolls (7-10 inches long, 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide). Chill completely.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Cut cookies into 1/4 inch slices.
- Place two inches apart on a greased cookie sheet.
- Bake for 8 minutes.
- Remove from pan and cool on racks.
Notes
- Salted butter can be used too, if needed.
- Chopped pecans or chopped walnuts work in this recipe. I love them both ways.
- Be sure to start with softened butter.
- Roll the chilled dough into 2 logs, approximately 7 – 10 inches long with a diameter of 1.5 to 2 inches.
- You could bake one log today, and save the other log for later. Or, try freezing the cookie log by placing the wrapped log into a freezer bag.
- If you don’t have a sifter, use a sieve instead. It does the same thing as a sifter.
Nutrition
Pecans and chocolate together sounds like a winner to me!
These cookies look amazing!!
They look tasty!
Looks perfect for Christmas Eve!
These look so yummy!
These sound really tasty! Always love the combo of chocolate and nuts!
These cookies look incredible!
List of ingredients does not include egg, but step 2 says to add egg and vanilla. Which is correct?
Sorry about that. There is indeed one egg in the recipe. We’ve corrected the recipe card. Thanks for asking.
I made these cookies and my husband thought they were very good. I believe the cookies would be more interesting if espresso powder would be added to dry ingredients. Thanks for sharing recipe.
Espresso powder does sound like a good addition!