Earl Grey White Chocolate Toasted Pecan Cookies

Start by prepping the mix-ins: Preheat the oven to 180°C fan / 200°C conventional. Spread the pecans on a baking tray and toast in the oven for 5-8 minutes until fragrant. Leave to cool, then roughly chop them up.

Roughly chop the white chocolate into chunks (some big, some small).

Now make the cookie dough: Start by browning the butter. Measure the butter into a saucepan and place over medium-low heat. Stir until melted. Continue to heat for 8-10 minutes, swirling the pan occasionally, until the melted butter is a golden amber colour and has a nutty aroma. Be careful not to overheat, otherwise the butter will burn and taste bitter. There should be brown flecks in the bottom of the saucepan, these are browned milk solids and hold lots of toasty flavour!

Remove from the heat and stir in the Earl Grey tea leaves. Leave to infuse and cool down for 10 minutes. Now pour the butter through a fine-mesh sieve into a large mixing bowl, pressing gently on the tea leaves to extract as much butter as possible.

Add the brown sugar, caster sugar, egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract to the cooled butter. Mix until combined.

Gradually fold in the self-raising flour and salt to form a soft cookie dough.

Fold most of the white chocolate chunks and chopped pecans into the dough, reserving a handful of both for finishing the cookies once baked.

Shape and chill the cookie dough: Scoop up heaped tablespoons of cookie dough and shape into a ball (they should be roughly 5 cm in diameter). Arrange on a lined baking tray as you go.

Cover and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

Bake the cookies: Preheat the oven to 180°C fan / 200°C conventional. Arrange the chilled cookie dough balls on lined baking trays, leaving plenty of space between each so they have room to spread out. I bake 5-6 at a time on separate trays.

Bake for 10–12 minutes, until the edges are golden but the centres still look slightly soft.

Immediately after removing the cookies from the oven, press the reserved white chocolate chunks and extra toasted pecan pieces into the tops of the cookies. The residual heat will soften the chocolate slightly and create beautiful pools across the surface.

Leave the cookies on the baking tray for 15 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and enjoy warm or at room temperature with a steaming cup of Earl Grey tea.