- 1 box devil’s food cake mix
- ¼ cup melted salted butter
- 2 large eggs
- ⅓ cup chopped pecans
- 3 oz semi-sweet chocolate chopped
- ½ teaspoon flaked or coarse sea salt
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Preheat oven to 350°F
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Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with non-stick spray.
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Roughly chop the chocolate and set aside.
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In a large bowl mix the cake mix, melted butter and eggs until well mixed. At first it will seem dry and it will seem as if there is not enough liquid ingredients, but just keep mixing and it will come together.
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Fold in the chopped chocolate and pecans then let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
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After you have let the dough rest, scoop onto the prepared baking sheet leaving about an inch and a half between cookies. I use a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop, but you can drop by heaping tablespoon if you prefer.
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Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with a pinch of salt then place on the centre rack of the oven and bake for approximately 12 minutes. Cookies will look puffy and the tops will feel soft when you take them out of the oven, but the edges should feel set. If the cookies still feel wet, or the edges are not set, return to the oven for 2-3 mintues.
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Let cool for 5 minutes then move to a cooking rack.
Letting the dough rest for 15 minutes is important as it helps hydrate the dry ingredients resulting in a better texture cookie.
Don’t overbake, the cookies will seem puffy and soft when you remove them from the oven but they will continue to firm up as they cool resulting in a soft, chewy cookie.
I used devil’s food cake mix, but any chocolate cake mix can be used.
The dough will seem very dry as you first start to mix it with the wet ingredients. Do not be tempted to add more butter. Just keep mixing and it will come together to form a dough.
Substitutions
Pecans can be replaced with any nut you like. Walnuts, chopped peanuts and almonds all work well.
If you don’t want to chop chocolate you can replace with ½ cup chocolate chips.
Butter can be replaced with vegetable oil if you prefer, but the cookies may spread a little more.
How long will these cookies keep?
They will keep for about a week at room temperature if stored in an airtight container or ziplock bag. Stored in the freezer they will keep several months.