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Butter Pecan Cookies are soft and buttery cookies that practically melt in your mouth. Made with butter, brown sugar, and lots of yummy pecans! These are a staple cookie recipe for the holidays because they’re a classic Christmas cookie, but we happen to love them all year round!
Butter Pecan Cookies
If it’s not their chewy edges, soft centers, and buttery flavor, it’s the taste of the pecans that make these cookies so delicious. Because they have a shortbread texture, they are irresistible and always a crowd favorite. Best of all, they require just a few simple ingredients and only 10 minutes of baking time!
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Ingredients:
- Pecans halves
- Butter
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Granulated sugar
- Light brown sugar
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
In a mixing bowl, stir or whisk the “dry ingredients” (flour, baking soda, and salt). In a separate large mixing bowl, combine the room-temperature butter, eggs, sugars, and vanilla extract with an electric handheld mixer.
Instructions
Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter and egg mixture using a slow to medium speed. Finally, mix in chopped pecans! Make rounded dough cookie balls and place them on a baking sheet prepared with parchment paper. Because these cookies are delicate and cooked for such a short time, the parchment paper really helps in sticking to the bottom of the pan. Plus, it makes for easier cleanup!
Press a pecan half on top of each ball of cookie dough and bake the cookies at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. If the cookies are too puffy, gently press down on them with the bottom of a glass, the back of a spoon, or a flat spatula. This will give them that perfectly round and flat shape!
The baked cookies will look extremely soft in the centers when you remove them from the oven. Transfer them to a cooling rack in a single layer so the cookies do not continue to bake on the hot cookie sheet. The bottom of the cookies will have a light golden brown color.
Tip
Be sure you don’t overbake these cookies! They only need 10 to 12 minutes in the oven and will firm up quite a bit as they cool. Overbaked cookies will be dry and hard, not soft, and chewy. So if they look underbaked at first, don’t worry, that’s exactly how they should look. Store the leftovers in an airtight container.
More Cookie Recipes
Butter Pecan Cookies Recipe
Butter Pecan Cookies
Equipment
- 2 Mixing Bowls
- Whisk
- Electric handheld mixer
- Parchment paper
- Baking sheets
- Cooling rack
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened to room temp
- 2 eggs
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 cups flour
- ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- pinch of salt
- pecan halves to top cookies with
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°
- In a mixing bowl, whisk the "dry ingredients" (flour, baking soda, and salt)
- In a separate mixing bowl, combine the butter, eggs, sugars, and vanilla extra with an electric handheld mixer
- Slowly add the dry ingredients into the butter and egg mixture
- Mix in chopped pecans
- Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper
- Scoop and roll balls of dough, about 1½ tablespoons each
- press a pecan half on top of each ball of cookie dough
- Bake for 10 minutes
- The baked cookies will look extremely soft in the centers when you remove them from the oven. Gently press down on them with the bottom of a glass, the back of a spoon, or a flat spatula. This will give them that perfectly round and flat shape!
- Transfer to a cooling rack so the cookies do not continue to bake on the hot cookie sheet
- Cool for 5 minutes (or dive in and enjoy the cookies warm, like we do!)
Notes
- Be sure you don’t overbake these cookies! They only need 10 to 12 minutes in the oven and will firm up quite a bit as they cool. Overbaked cookies will be dry hard, not soft and chewy
