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Thick, chewy, and insanely delicious Butter Pecan Cookies! Made with brown butter, brown sugar, and plenty of toasted butter pecans, these cookies are so flavorful. A must bake cookie recipe for the holiday season!
Butter Pecan Cookies
Do you follow me on Instagram? If yes, you may have seen me make this recipe on Instastories last week. I posted a couple of pictures of these pecan cookies when they came out of the oven and within just a few hours I had over 100 requests for the recipe! So while I wasn’t planning on posting these until Fall, I decided to shuffle around my editorial calendar and share them with you today. Because I love giving you what you want! And according to my inbox… you definitely want these butter pecan cookies!
So bust out your baking sheet and let’s get baking!
As I mentioned earlier, I was originally planning on sharing these cookies with you in October… when my first book is released! I’ll be sharing 5 recipes from the book with you, so that you can get a sneak peak and see if it’s right for you. Of course this recipe will be in the book, along with chapters and chapters more! I’m pouring my heart and soul into this project. And I’m really excited to share more details about it with you soon.
But for now, let’s focus on these cookies. Because they’re incredible! Each bite is super chewy, perfectly crunchy, and so flavorful. The flavor comes from brown butter, a pinch of cinnamon, and plenty of toasted pecans. Pecans toasted in BUTTER, that is.
Because when it comes to butter pecan cookies, more butter is always better. Warm from the oven, these cookies basically melt in your mouth. But after an hour or so, they firm up and are chewy in the middle and crunchy at the edges. If you’re a butter pecan fanatic (like me!) I highly suggest buying some butter pecan ice cream and making homemade ice cream sandwiches with these cookies
Pecan Cookie Recipe
Ingredients:
- pecans (I suggest tasting your pecans to ensure they’re fresh. They should be golden in color when you purchase them. For optimal freshness, I suggest storing your pecans in an airtight container in the fridge – they’ll keep for 9 months, or up to 2 years in the freezer.)
- unsalted butter
- eggs
- vanilla extract
- sugar
- cinnamon
- cornstarch
- flour
- baking soda
- and salt
You’ll also need a large bowl, an electric mixer, and a baking sheet with parchment paper.
How to Brown Butter
Do you know how to brown butter? If you do, feel free to skip this lecture. But if you don’t, I’ve got you covered! Browning butter is insanely simple and I’m going to walk you through each step!
To brown butter you’ll need a saucepan, butter, and a little patience. You’ll melt the butter as normal, then continue to cook it over medium heat – swirling the pan occasionally – until it reaches a golden brown color. Watch your butter closely as it browns, because it can burn easily! Once it’s nice and golden brown, remove it from the heat and pour it into a heatproof bowl – being sure to scrape all of the golden bits off the bottom of the pan. And that’s it! Easy, right?
Assembly
- There are 3 steps to assembling this cookie dough: making the buttered pecans, browning the butter, and then making the cookie dough. And it should be done in that order. The good news is each step is quite easy and only takes a few minutes!
- Because the butter is in a liquid form when we add it to the cookie dough, this recipe does require chilling. But just for 4 hours! During this time the butter is basically coming back to room temperature, which helps our cookies hold their shape as they bake. Of course you can chill it longer, or scoop it and freeze the cookie dough balls until needed. But if you refrigerate over 4 hours, you’ll need to allow the dough to slightly soften before scooping.
Baking
- I prefer making these cookies BIG. So I use a large cookie scoop (about 1/4 cup) tp scoop up the raw cookie dough. But you can definitely make them smaller. Just adjust the baking time, as smaller cookies will bake faster. And larger cookies might need an extra minute or two.
- For decoration, you can press a pecan on top of the cookie dough before they bake. You can also sprinkle the cookies with a little granulated sugar right when they come out of the oven for a sparkly effect!
- Unlike most cookie recipes that instruct you to preheat oven to 350, these cookies call for a slightly higher oven temperature of 375. The higher temperature yields cookies that are crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside.
- Finally, be sure you don’t over bake these cookies! They only need 10 to 12 minutes in the oven, and will firm up quite a bit as they cool. Over baked cookies will be dry and crumbly… not chewy like we want!
I had my family over for dinner last night and everyone loved these cookies! Even my brother, who typically refuses anything that doesn’t involve chocolate, ate 3 of these chewy pecan cookies for dessert. Oh, and he took a few home, too!
If you try this recipe for Brown Sugar Pecan Cookies, let me know! Leave a comment below and don’t forget to snap a pic and tag it #bakerbynature on instagram! Seeing your kitchen creations makes my day.
More Pecan Recipes:
- Brown Sugar Butter Pecan French Toast
- White Chocolate Butter Pecan Blondies
- Overnight Pecan Pie French Toast
- Brown Butter Bourbon Pecan Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- 6-Ingredient Butter Pecan Fudge
- No Corn Syrup Pecan Pie
Butter Pecan Cookies
Ingredients
For the Buttered Pecans:
- 1 and 1/4 cup pecan halves, finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
For the Butter Pecan Cookies:
- 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoons cornstarch
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, melted until browned
- 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 16 pecan halves, for decoration, optional
Instructions
For the Buttered Pecans:
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add in chopped pecans and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 to 5 minutes, or until lightly toasted. Set aside until needed.
For the Butter Pecan Cookies:
- In a large bowl combine flour, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda; whisk well to combine then set aside until needed.
- In a small saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Continue to cook the butter. swirling the pan occasionally. Keep a close eye here. The top of the butter should become foamy. And you should hear tiny popping noises. The butter will develop into a rich amber color, with tiny brown bits at the bottom. And it will have a slightly nutty aroma. Once the butter reaches this stage, remove from heat immediately and pour into a large mixing bowl.
- Add both sugars into the mixing bowl and whisk well to combine.
- Add in vanilla. Beat in eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, beating until eggs are just combined.
- Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour, stirring until just combined. Fold in the buttered pecans.
- Cover bowl and refrigerate for 4 hours.
To Bake:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (F). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Using a large cookie scoop, divide the dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls and place onto prepared baking sheets, leaving about 3 inches between each ball of dough for spreading.
- Firmly press a pecan half on top of each ball of cookie dough.
- Bake, one tray at a time, in a preheated oven for 10 to 11 minutes. If any edges spread out while baking, use a spatula and gently press them back in as soon as you remove the cookies from the oven.
- Sprinkle warm cookies with granulated sugar.
- Allow cookies to cool on the pan for 15 minutes, then carefully transfer to a cooling rack.
Video
Notes
- Cookies will stay "fresh" for 3 days when stored in an airtight container.
- Cookie dough will keep in the fridge for 48 hours. Alternatively, you may scoop and freeze the cookie dough for up to 2 months. You will need to add an extra minute or two to the bake time if baking frozen dough.
- You can make smaller sized cookies, but you'll need to decrease the bake time by a minute or two.
- For decoration, you may sprinkle granulated sugar on the cookies right when they come out of the oven.
Thank you Ashley for sharing – these look absolutely delicious! I can’t wait to bake some! I have one question, it appears you may have something sprinkles on top of the cookies, like sugar, but I didn’t see anything mentioned about this on your blog or recipe?
She mentioned at the end to sprinkle granulated sugar on top if you choose, to give a sparkly effect. Made these and they are dangerously delicious.
Try a little kosher salt instead of sugar. Omg. They re to die for!
I will try the salt. I am baking them tonight. I think that sounds like a sweet/salty combo and I was thinking of trying that instead of sugar. I’m glad to see someone already did and it turned out!
I sprinkled coarse kosher salt per your suggestion and these are my new favorite cookies ..do yummy!
Can’t wait to make these
Hi I live in Australia, your recipe sounds fab. question how much butter as we don’t get sticks of butter? is it Just 8oz or 16oz
1 stick equals 1/2 cup so you’ll need 1 cup for this recipe
In the U.S. a stick of butter is 1/2 cup
8 oz
4oz stick is a quarter pound
Do I have to wait four hours to chill? Yes
I read your recipe, I live in Australia and we don’t get sticks of butter, so how much butter would I use?
One cup
250 grams equals 2 sticks which is half a pound.
Hi Ashley, i’d like to add maple to these cookies. Would you suggest omitting vanilla and adding maple flavoring in its place? Or would you feel that using pure maple syrup to toast the pecans? Using the same amount of syrup instead of butter ? Thanks so much. I can’t wait to try these.
Hi Anna, these sound delicious. I’d love to incorporate maple into these cookies some how. Would you omit the vanilla and add in maple flavoring ? Or would you toast the pecans in pure maple syrup in place of the butter amount required to toast them? ThAnks so much
Domino makes a maple flavored pourable sugar, try using that instead of brown sugar
I would replace the 1/2 c granulated sugar with 1/2 c pure maple sugar. It’s so good and works well in a 1:1 swap. It’s simply dehydrated pure maple syrup. You can find it on amazon. It’s also amazing in a latte!
How many cookies does this recipe make? I see you have 16 pecan halves for the tops. Hoping the recipe makes more than that.
She stated that the recipe makes 16 large cookies. However, she also stated that you can make more smaller cookies, but would need to decrease baking time. It’s all spelled out in the recipe. Reading is knowledge.
A little rude
I thought so too. These cookies are delicious!
I agree – rude. When I read recipes, I do it in spare time and I am usually tired from working all day or other obligations. Browsing recipes is suppose to be enjoyable and relaxing. We are not always as attentive as maybe we would like to be until we actually begin to cook/bake.
I loved your answer
I made smaller cookies for a New Year’s party for 4, about 30 cookies. They are OK, but I think a larger cookie would be more moist and chewy. I also think that I did not brown my butter enough. My pan was too small so it was difficult to see the stage of the browning. But I love the idea.
Hi Ashley!
My name is Anna and I’m from Barcelona. First of all let me tell you that I’ve done several of your recipes and they are all fantastic!! So for sure I will include your book to my Xmas Wishlist this year. Just a small suggestion about your recipes… Have you ever thought about the possibility to write some of them also on “grams”?? cups, sticks, tbs and ts are a chaos for me… thanks for reading!
Hi Anna! Thanks so much for the kind comment 🙂 The book will include weight measurements for all recipes, and we may make that switch on the blog soon too!
Will u leave the cups and teaspoon measurements also?
Of course! Those will always be included 🙂
Can I use gluten free flour instead?
Hi! Yum! I’m going to make these right way! After browning the butter, do you wait a for it to cool before adding the sugars, vanilla and eggs?
Thanks,
Ann
No need to wait 🙂 Just be sure to add the sugars first, then quickly whisk in the eggs!
Hey! Can I use almonds or other kind of nuts instead of pecans ?
I think that should work just fine 🙂
These are great! I used a silicone ice cream scoop dipped in water. Also great. I baked The for 10 minutes as our oven tends to run hot.
I’ve made them four times. I find they are better the.next day. Also, I weigh the flour. The other stuff can be measured, Utah the flour seems to have a mind of its own. Great recipe. Thanks!
Are these a soft cookie?
Yes, so chewy and oh so good! Nice little crunch on the outside layer My 10 & 14yo daughters request them regularly, lol.
My cookies came out cakey as opposed to chewy, what did I possibly do wrong?
Hi I might be wrong you probably overmixed the flour when you added it! If you overmix the flour when it is added it can make it have a more cakey texture – the tip with cookies is to always mix in all of the ingredients until they are just combined! Hope that helps x