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Butter pecan cookies are one of my favorites! I feel like butter pecan is one of those flavors that is often over looked. Perhaps this is because people just aren’t doing it right! I mean, the last time I had butter pecan ice cream it mostly tasted like vanilla ice cream with a few nuts in it. REAL butter pecan flavor should be rich, buttery, and have a toasted nut flavor.
What is the texture of these cookies like?
What I really love about these cookies (besides EVERYTHING!) is the texture. These cookies have crispy edges and a crispy outer crust but stay soft in the middle. This is thanks to a couple of things. The high ratio of butter and sugar and baked at a higher temperature caramelizes the sugar and gives the cookies a crispy exterior. Because we are baking our cookies at a higher temperature the outside of the cookie gets crispy but the inside stays soft. A little cornstarch also helps keep the cookies soft–pretty much, a perfect cookie!
Buttering your pecans
First, you’re going to toast your pecans in a pan with a little butter, sugar, and cinnamon. This is going to bring out the nutty flavor of the pecans. Then, once cooled, they should be nice and crispy. After all, you don’t want soft nuts in your cookies. Just be careful not to burn your pecans!
Making the cookie dough
The brown butter is an essential part of these butter pecan cookies! It makes the butter pecan cookies buttery, and nutty, and makes the flavor SO GOOD!
While browning butter isn’t hard, but it can be a little intimidating if it’s your first time doing it. If you’ve never done it before read a little about it on our How to Brown Butter post!
Browning your butter before mixing it with your sugars is going to enhance the rich buttery flavor of these cookies while also adding a toasted nutty flavor to them. We use more brown sugar than white sugar because it compliments the pecans more. You’ll want your butter to be slightly set up, so after browning it, pour it into a bowl (make sure you get all those toasted dark bits at the bottom of the pan they have amazing flavor) and put in the fridge or freezer to set up some. You can even brown your butter in advance to speed up the process!
My Cookie Baking Essentials:
You don’t need a cookie scoop for this recipe, but it sure speeds up the cookie scooping process and guarantees that your cookies are all the same size and shape. This scoop is a 4 tablespoon scoop (1/4 cup) and it is my most used scoop!
I love using a kitchen scale to weigh out my flour. If you don’t weigh out your flour make sure you are measuring your flour correctly otherwise you may end up with way too much flour in your cookies, which would be a tragedy.
Basic cookie sheets, I use these for EVERYTHING!
I love these silicone mats! Nothing sticks to them and they make cleaning up a breeze!
You can use a hand mixer or any stand mixer you already have for these cookies, but this kitchen aid mixer is my absolute favorite!
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Enjoy!
Alyssa
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Butter Pecan Cookies
RIch buttery and nutty cookies with crisp edges and soft centers
Ingredients
Butter Pecans:
- 1 ¾ cup pecan halves
- 1 ½ tablespoons butter
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Cookies:
- 1 1/4 cups butter
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed (I used dark brown sugar)
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 ¾ cup flour, measured correctly
Instructions
For Butter Pecans:
- Separate 20 pecan halves (for topping cookies with) and chop the rest of the pecans finely. In a frying pan melt 1 ½ tablespoons of butter then add all of the pecans (finely chopped and unchopped halves) to the pan. Coat pecans in butter and then add 1 tablespoon of sugar and pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes while stirring with a wooden spoon. Add cinnamon, coat pecans completely, cook for 1 minute longer. And then remove from heat and spread pecans out on wax paper to cool. Separate out the 20 full sized pecan halves and set aside. Cool completely before using.
Cookies:
- In a small saucepan add butter. Brown butter until a deep golden brown color (you’ll want it to be somewhere in between the color of honey and maple syrup). For tips on how to brown butter read this. Once browned, pour into a bowl and cool until solid but soft—room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Cream together brown butter, both sugars, vanilla, and eggs for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add in cornstarch, baking soda, salt, and flour, mix until just combined. You don’t want to overmix or the cookies will be tough. Stir in butter pecans.
- Grease or line a baking sheet with silpat mat. Scoop about ¼ cup of dough and shape into balls. Sprinkle a little bit of sugar on top of the cookie dough balls. Press a pecan half into each dough ball. for 10-12 minutes until edges are golden. Cool 5-10 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
20Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 311Total Fat: 20gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 51mgSodium: 346mgCarbohydrates: 32gFiber: 1gSugar: 17gProtein: 3g
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Try Out These other AMAZING desserts:
- Brown Sugar Pecan Pie
- Chocolate Pecan Pie
- Pumpkin Coffee Cake w/ Streusel Topping
- Southern Chocolate Coca-Cola Cake
- Blueberry Lemon White Chocolate Chip Cookies
originally posted October 20, 2018
I noticed that this recipe is mostly the same recipe from the brown butter chocolate chip cookie, the only difference is you added 1 more tablespoon of vanilla, used 1 teaspoon of slat and added cornstarch. Did you notice a different in the cookies as far as taste, texture, and thickness goes ( excluded the fact that it has pecans in them)?
Good eye! The chopped pecans added into the dough and cornstarch for change the texture and of course the pecans change the taste as well. These tend to turn out a touch thinner for me than the brown butter chocolate chip cookies, but the caramelized chopped butter pecans add a bit of crunch and because these are baked longer they tend to be crispier. Then the added cornstarch to to the dough keeps them not too hard. I think the flavor is quite different, they’re definitely worth trying!