Butter Pecan Cookies

Maybe it’s just me, but I think butter pecan is an underrated ice cream flavor. Quite often overlooked and running with the “boring” pistachio and rum raisin ice cream crowd. For the record, I love all three of these ice cream flavors! And that’s exactly why I made today’s cookie recipe. They’re salty, they’re sweet, and they’re rich with butter flavor.

Along with pie and more pie, I made these butter pecan cookies for Thanksgiving last week. Baked them on Tuesday and by Thursday, half were gone. And then the entire batch was mysteriously missing on Friday morning.

If it’s not their chewy edges, soft centers, and buttery flavor– it’s the toasted pecans that make these cookies so incredible. Emphasis on the toasted! The toasty, nutty flavor of these pecans is crucial to their flavor. If you’ve never toasted nuts before adding them to a recipe, you are missing out. The flavor is 84573849% better. I actually did the calculation yesterday; it’s really that much better.

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 the cookies when they came out of the oven and within a few hours I had received 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!

INGREDIENTS
BUTTER PECANS

• 3/4 cup (123g) finely chopped pecans
• 2 tbsp salted butter, melted

COOKIES

• 3/4 cup (168g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup (168g) packed light brown sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 2 cups (260g) all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Combine the melted butter and pecans in a medium sized bowl and toss to coat.
3. Spread the pecans evenly onto the cookie sheet and bake for 5-7 minutes, or until toasted.
4. Set pecans aside to cool.
5. To make the cookie dough, cream the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
6. Add the vanilla extract and egg and mix until well combined.
7. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix until well combined.
8. Stir in the cooled pecans.
9. Make balls of cookie dough about 2 tablespoons in size.
10. Place the balls of cookie dough onto the lined cookie sheet and bake for 7-10 minutes. Cookies will spread a bit and may look a little undercooked when you remove them, but they’ll continue to cook and firm as they cool.
11. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling.
12. Once cooled, store cookies in an air tight container for 3-5 days. Cookies are even better the second day after making them.

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