Made with toasted pecans and a surprise sprinkling of toffee bits, these Butter Pecan Cookies are soft, chewy, buttery and so good! Easy to make with no mixer and no chilling required, what’s not to love??
This is a great last minute cookie option for your holiday cookie tray. I’ll be serving these alongside other soft and chewy cookies like my peanut butter blossoms, molasses cookies, and Snickerdoodles.
I originally shared this recipe for Butter Pecan Cookies over on The Recipe Critic!
If I can control myself, this Butter Pecan Cookie Recipe will be the last recipe that I share until 2019.
I have a few more videos of older recipes that I finished and have scheduled to go out (you’ll see them if you’re subscribed to my YouTube channel), and I do hope to get up a Crumbs post, but other than that I told Zach that I was going to give myself (both of us, really) a mini vacation between Christmas and New Year.
These past few weeks have been super fun but super busy. Somehow Christmas is just 4 days away and I’ve hardly even listened to any Christmas music so far. And didn’t we just put up our tree!? I’m going to try to take a minute to just breathe. To stop and smell the roses. Or in this case, the butter pecan cookies.
Self control has never been my strong point though (as was very clear when I wolfed down half a dozen of these butter pecan cookies by myself), and while sharing recipes is a lot of work, it’s also a lot of fun, so we’ll see if I can make it to the New Year. I honestly feel like I should just delete this whole post so far and just start over because it’s probably going to turn out to be a lie, but we will see!
Tips for Making Butter Pecan Cookies
As usual I have a few tips I want to leave you with. These cookies are really pretty simple (and there’s no mixer or chilling needed!) but it’s better to have too many tips than not enough, right?
Toast your pecans!
This is optional, but this step will give your cookies the best flavor. Toasted nuts always win over un-toasted. I also recommend toasting your nuts and then chopping them. This helps to toast them evenly and minimizes the chance of them burning in your oven.
Take care when measuring your flour
If you are measuring your flour using cups, I have some suggestions for best practices. Always stir your flour first in its container, then spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off your cup. Don’t scoop the flour directly into your cup, or you’ll pack it in, leaving you with way more flour than the recipe actually calls for.
Honestly I really recommend using a kitchen scale when baking. It’s been a game changer for me and it cuts back on dishes, no measuring cups to wash! This is the kitchen scale that I use (affiliate), it’s inexpensive and I love it.
Some notes for baking your cookies
When your cookies come out the oven, the edges should be a light golden brown but the centers should still seem soft and even just a hint under-baked. Let them cool completely on the baking sheet, where they’ll finish baking as they cool. This will keep your cookies soft and chewy as opposed to pulling them out of the oven when the centers are firm and fully baked, which will actually result in over-baked, hard cookies.
Alright, I hope you’ve enjoyed all the Christmas Cookies I’ve been throwing at you over the past few weeks!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
More Cookie Recipes You Might Like:
Soft & Chewy Butter Pecan Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ heaping cups pecan halves (175g)
- 1 cup unsalted butter melted and cooled at least 10 minutes* (226g)
- 1 ¼ cup dark brown sugar tightly packed (250g)
- ½ cup sugar (100g)
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk room temperature preferred
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups all purpose flour** (375g)
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup Heath Toffee bits optional, but recommended! (120g)
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Spread pecan halves evenly over cookie sheet and bake on 350F (175C) for 3-5 minutes.
- Remove from oven (do not turn off your oven) and set aside while you prepare your cookie dough.
- In a large bowl, combine melted butter and sugars. Stir well.1 cup unsalted butter, 1 ¼ cup dark brown sugar, ½ cup sugar
- Add eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and stir until well-combined.1 large egg + 1 egg yolk, 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.3 cups all purpose flour**, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, ¾ teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ¾ teaspoon salt
- Gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients until completely combined.
- Coarsely chop your pecans then stir in the pecans and toffee bits until combined.1 ½ heaping cups pecan halves, ½ cup Heath Toffee bits
- Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and drop cookie dough by heaping 1 ½ Tablespoon onto prepared cookie sheet, spacing at least 2" apart.
- Transfer to 350F oven and bake for 10-12 minutes. Cookies should still look soft/slightly under-done in the centers. Allow to cool completely on baking sheet and they will finish baking through as they cool but will stay nice and soft!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Lorraine
can you use walnuts, hazelnuts or almonds in this recipe
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
That should work fine. We hope you enjoy them, Lorraine! 😋
Jesse Draper
I used chocolate and butterscotch chips chopped instead of Heath bits as a replacement. Tasted great.
Alisa
Thank you, Sam, for such an amazing recipe.☺️ Right now is probably my 5th time making these! There wasn’t one person who didn’t like the cookies. Although, I do add slightly less white sugar (~60g) and slightly more pecans (~200g)😄 Also, I bake them for a little bit longer, as they seem too undercooked at 12 mins, but they do finish cooking and setting out of the oven, as promised!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Sounds like these are a huge hit for you, Alisa! Thanks so much for commenting 🥰
Rose
Very good cookie! Thank you for sharing your recipe. Great flavor and texture.
Arlene
Can these cookies be frozen?
Sam
Sure thing! You can either freeze the dough or freeze the finished product. If freezing the dough, I typically scoop the dough, wrap each dough ball individually then store in a freezer bag. 🙂
Rachel
If you freeze the dough, do you need to let thaw first? We loved our first batch, but with only 2 people in the house, we needed to save the rest!
Sam
Hi Rachel! You can bake them from frozen. It will just take a couple more minutes. 🙂
Amanda
When making these, do u have to use dark brown sugar or can u use the light brown?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Light brown will work fine! Enjoy, Amanda 😊
Deborah
I would like to halve the recipe the first time I make it. What would I use for the egg amount – one whole egg or two yolks?? Also, the bag of pecans I have on hand are pieces, not halves. How many cups of chopped pecans should I have? Which by the way, there are no instructions to chop the pecans after toasting them, but the directions say to “add chopped pecans”. Thanks for your help.
Sam
Hi Deborah! I would just use one egg if cutting it in half. I would use the same amount of chopped pecans. I will make sure to update the instructions to include the chopping of the pecans. 🙂
Melanie
I didn’t have any toffee bits, so I substituted butterscotch chips. These cookies were amazing!! I am going to buy some toffee chips and try them next. Thank you, Sam for another wonderful cookie recipe!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yum, that sounds amazing Melanie! We’re so glad you liked them 😊
Nancy
Just made these today. Followed recipe to a “T”. My batter seemed really dry and pebbly (is that even a word?)
Sam
Hi Nancy! Did you weigh your flour? It sounds like there may have been a little too much in there. 🙁
Debbie Rodriguez
How many cookies does this recipe make?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Debbie! You can find this info in the recipe card. You should get about 20 cookies 😊
Lori
These are now my husband’s favorite cookies. I took some to work and the next day someone asked me if I had more…said he needed a cookie fix.
Christina B
These are awesome! Made them for my Christmas Cookie Exchange & they came out perfectly! Couldn’t ask for better directions or recipe. A new favorite!
Belinda
Couldn’t get Heath Toffee bits here .. can replaced w dark chocolate ?
Sam
Yup! Or you can chop up some heath bars, either will work 🙂
Belinda
Thank you for your reply 💖 I will try out 😉
Kiran matharu
Can I freeze these? Thank you
Sam
Hi Kiran! While I haven’t tried freezing these myself, you shouldn’t have any issues freezing these cookies.
Miriam Rose Blanar
I made these for church and people loved them! They couldn’t get enough. My only regret is that I didn’t double these because people kept asking for more. Other people brought cookies but mine were the only ones that were all eaten.
Sam
I’m so happy to hear they were such a hit, Miriam! Thank you so much for trying my recipe and letting me know how it turned out for you, I really appreciate it! 🙂