Butter Pecan Cookie Recipe
Move over ice cream – butter pecan cookies are taking over! This classic rich, buttery and nutty, flavor has finally made its way into a cookie.
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Butter Pecan Cookies
If you go to an ice cream shop with my mother, she will choose a scoop of butter pecan, without question, every single time. Which is why I knew I had to create a recipe for butter pecan cookies for her. And guess what? Butter pecan cookies deliver the same buttery, crunchy, nutty, sugary, rich flavor we’ve grown to love in their cold counterpart.
Combining browned butter and sugared pecans, this recipe takes your expectations for what a butter pecan cookie would taste like and blows them out of the water. I’m serious – you’re never going to be able to eat the ice cream again without being disappointed.
Butter Pecan Cookie Ingredients
Cookies:
- Salted butter (browned) – First, I always use salted butter. If you don’t have salted, just add an extra pinch of salt to the dough. Second, Do you HAVE to brown the butter? No, but these cookies will have a much different flavor if you don’t.
- Brown sugar – Using more brown sugar makes the cookies stay nice and chewy.
- Granulated sugar
- Eggs
- Light corn syrup – This will keep your cookies chewy for dayyyys.
- Canola oil – The canola oil helps the cookies spread while baking and gives the outside a buttery, melt in your mouth crisp (yum).
- Vanilla extract
- All purpose flour
- baking soda
- salt
- Sugared pecans (see below) – I LOVE THE SUGARED PECANS! While I suppose this is optional, I don’t know if I really think it is haha
Sugared Pecans
- Chopped pecans
- Salted butter
- Water
- Granulated sugar
- Vanilla
How to Make Butter Pecan Cookies
Browned Butter
- In a small sauce pan, heat your butter on low, stirring constantly until the color of the butter turns a golden brown color and it gives off a nutty aroma. If you need more help, here’s a post on how to brown butter you can reference!
- Immediately transfer the brown butter to a cool bowl or container to stop the cooking so the butter doesn’t burn.
- Allow the butter to sit until close to room temperature and then place in the fridge for approx 30 minutes, or until the butter is back to it’s solid form.
Sugared Pecans
- While the butter is cooling, sugar your pecans.
- In a medium nonstick sauce pan, combine the butter, water, sugar, and vanilla.
- Bring to a boil. Add in the chopped pecans, and continue to boil while stirring constantly.
- Continue stirring – the mixture will go from a liquid to a thick syrup, then to a grainy sugared mixture that sticks to the pecans in about 10-15 minutes.
- Once the water has boiled out and you are left with just the sugary mixture, immediately pour the pecans out onto the prepared cookie sheet and spread the mixture out and allow it to cool.
- While the pecans are cooling and the browned butter is back to a solid form, make the cookie dough.
Cookie Dough
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the brown butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until light in color and fluffy in texture (about 2 minutes).
- Scrape the sides of the bowl and add in the eggs, corn syrup, canola oil, and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
- Add in the flour, baking soda and salt.
- Mix until a soft dough comes together. Add the sugared pecans and mix until evenly distributed.
- Use a cookie scoop to portion out the cookie dough. For small cookies, use 1 1/2 tbsp of dough (#40 scoop) and for larger cookies use 3 tbsp of dough (#24 scoop).
- Arrange on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350° F for 7-11 minutes until the cookies spread slightly and expand. For the small cookies, about 7-9 minutes. For the larger cookies, for 9-11 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack.
Pecan Butter Cookies Variations
You absolutely can! I know cinnamon can be a divisive flavor, but I think it would really push these cookies over the edge. Vanilla and maybe even white/dark chocolate chips would be delicious here.
Butter Pecan Cookie Recipe Storage
Once cooled, store your cookies in an airtight container on the counter for 3-5 days! These cookies also freeze really well and can be stored in a resealable freezer bag for up to 3 months. I have a post all about how to freeze cookies if you need more guidance!
Recipe for Butter Pecan Cookies FAQs
Butter pecans are toasted with butter, giving them a rich & buttery flavor and are often used in ice cream and baked goods.
Pralines are candied nuts that can be eaten as a standalone treat or chopped to top salads or be added to desserts.
Butter pecan’s textbook flavor comes from toasting pecans in butter to bring out a rich & deep, nutty flavor. In many recipes, brown sugar compliments the buttery flavor to become what we recognize as butter pecan.
No, butterscotch and butter pecan are very different and distinct flavors! Butterscotch is a brown sugar/butter/caramel-like flavor whereas butter pecan is a rich, buttery, and toasty pecan!
More like this Butter Pecan Cookie Recipe
Butter Pecan Cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 cup salted butter
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp light corn syrup
- 2 tbsp canola oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 6 oz sugared pecans (see below)
Sugared Pecans
- 6 oz chopped pecans
- 2 tbsp salted butter
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla
Instructions
Browned Butter
- In a small sauce pan, heat your butter on low, stirring constantly until the color of the butter turns a golden brown color and it gives off a nutty aroma.
- Immediately transfer the brown butter to a cool bowl or container to stop the cooking so the butter doesn't burn.
- Allow the butter to sit until close to room temperature and then place in the fridge for approx 30 minutes, or until the butter is back to it’s solid form.
Sugared Pecans
- While the butter is cooling, sugar your pecans.
- In a medium nonstick sauce pan, combine the butter, water, sugar, and vanilla.
- Bring to a boil. Add in the chopped pecans, and continue to boil while stirring constantly.
- The mixture will go from a liquid to a thick syrup, then to a grainy sugared mixture that sticks to the pecans in about 10-15 minutes.
- Once the water has boiled out and you are left with just the sugary mixture, immediately pour the pecans out onto the prepared cookie sheet and spread the mixture out and allow it to cool.
- While the pecans are cooling and the browned butter is back to a solid form, make the cookie dough.
Cookie Dough
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the brown butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until light in color and fluffy in texture.
- Scrape the sides of the bowl and add in the eggs, corn syrup, canola oil, and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
- Add in the flour, baking soda and salt.
- Mix until a soft dough comes together. Add the sugared pecans and mix until evenly distributed.
- Use a cookie scoop to portion out the cookie dough. For small cookies, use 1 1/2 tbsp of dough (#40 scoop) and for larger cookies use 3 tbsp of dough (#24 scoop).
- Arrange on a cookie sheet.Bake at 350° F until the cookies spread slightly and expand. For the small cookies, about 7-9 minutes. For the larger cookies, for 9-11 minutes.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack.
These. Are. Amazing. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
My husband went bananas for these!!
I made these using a scale to be sure measurements were exact, and I followed the directions without any substitutions. My cookies spread too much and were quite thin compared to the photos. So, I put the dough in the fridge for an hour and there wasn’t much difference. I would love to see this recipe tested and posted by the author with metric measurements because they sure were tasty, but I would love for them to look more as advertised for gift giving.
Made these (believe it or not) successfully using block margarine & almond butter to mimic the brown butter. Was able to create a very good likeness in a somewhat similar way one would do a brown butter. When i candied the pecans, I sub’d with margarine again. Chilled the cookie dough over night on the tray, and they are amazing! Great recipe Karli.
Hi! Thank you for the recipe! Can you make a substitution recommendation for the light corn syrup, for those who don’t use that product? Do you think pure maple (while, admittedly, altering the flavor) would maintain the same chewy consistency for days? (Or if your family is prone to finishing the bake in one day, will it not matter anyways? 😉) Thank you!