Butter Pecan Cookies are chewy cookies full of real butter pecan flavor, with toasted pecans that have been bathed in brown butter.
Reader Review:
I'm so in looooove with this recipe!! Pecans usually aren't my favourite but these cookies taste so amazing I'd choose them over chocolate chip cookies!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Leonie
These butter pecan cookies always have people asking for the recipe. This isn't just another cookie with some nuts tossed in - every element is designed to bring out the best flavour and texture. The butter is browned to just the right point for deep, nutty richness without any bitterness; the pecans are toasted and bathed in brown butter for that indulgent butter pecan flavour; and the ratios are carefully balanced so the cookies bake up chewy in the centre with golden, crispy edges.
After testing countless batches and drawing on my years of bakery experience, I've developed a method that delivers consistent, bakery-quality results every time. In this recipe, I'll walk you through the exact steps - from browning the butter to knowing the perfect moment to pull the cookies from the oven for the ultimate pecan cookie texture.
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Butter Pecan Cookies Recipe Ingredients
The ingredients for these brown butter pecan cookies are similar to many other cookie recipes, but the magic is all in the method we use to bring them together!
- Butter - You can use salted or unsalted butter for these cookies, depending on how salty you want them to be. There is no need to bring the butter to room temperature, as we will be melting it into a lovely nutty brown butter anyway.
- White Sugar - Regular granulated sugar gives a good base for flavor and helps the cookies to have perfect crisp edges.
- Light Brown Sugar - Brown sugar adds a deeper, caramel flavor to the cookies and helps to keep them soft and chewy. You can use dark brown sugar if you prefer, but I think the molasses flavor can overpower the butter pecan flavor a little.
- Egg - Use large eggs in baking and always free-range if you can. Make sure the egg is room temperature.
- Vanilla - Use a high-quality vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste.
- Flour - All-purpose flour works best for these brown butter cookies.
- Baking Soda - Make sure you use baking soda and not baking powder, the acidity of the brown sugar reacts with the baking soda and helps the cookies to spread.
- Pecans - Of course, we need pecans! We'll be mostly chopping them up, but make sure you find a few pretty ones to go on top of the cookies.
See recipe card for measurements and the full recipe.
Recommended Equipment
- Cookie Sheet
- Saucepan (to make brown butter)
- Frying pan (to toast the pecans)
- Cookie Scoop
- Cookie Lifter
- Large Mixing Bowl - or stand mixer / electric mixer
- Chopping Board
How to Make Butter Pecan Cookies
This butter pecan cookie recipe has three stages: browning the butter, toasting the pecans, and making the pecan cookie dough. The buttery flavor of the cookies comes from the browned butter, but the pecans themselves are also bathed in the brown butter to get that butter pecan flavor. (This is why these are my favorite cookies!)
Brown the Butter
Browning the butter is a quick and easy step that adds so much flavor to these butter pecan cookies! It's absolutely worth it to add that deep, nutty flavor. I have a whole post about how to make brown butter if you'd like a more in-depth guide about the best way to do this.
- Heat butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once it melts, it will begin to bubble and make a 'crackling' sound; this is the water coming out of the butter. Just stir occasionally and keep going.
- After the crackling subsides a little, the browning will happen fairly quickly, so keep a close eye on the color of the butter. It will start to darken in color quickly. Once the butter has turned brown and you can smell a wonderful nutty aroma, remove the pan from the heat.
- Pour the butter into the bowl of your stand mixer or a large bowl to cool while you prepare the pecans. As it sits, it will separate into brown melted butter and a lot of little brown bits on the bottom of the bowl - this is good! These are the milk solids, and they are what will give the cookies their amazing, rich flavor.
Toast the Pecans
- Add the pecans to dry frying pan over medium heat and let them toast in there, stirring occasionally, for 5-7 minutes or until you smell a delicious nutty pecan smell.
- Remove from the heat, then add in 2 tablespoons of the browned butter and toss the pecans in it to coat them. Let them sit in there for a few minutes to cool slightly and let the butter flavor soak into the pecans.
- Reserve a handful of good-looking pecans to put on top of the cookies later, then roughly chop the rest into chunks with a sharp knife.
Make the Pecan Cookies
Unlike my brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe, these pecan cookies can be made right away without waiting for the brown butter to solidify. It's the same method used in my classic chocolate chip cookie recipe.
Mix Butter and Sugars
By now, the brown butter should have cooled almost to room temperature. if it's still slightly warm, that's okay, as long as it isn't hot.
Add both sugars to the mixing bowl and beat to combine. You can do this by hand with a wooden spoon or in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment.
Wet Ingredients
Add the egg and vanilla, and then beat vigorously for one minute until thick and pale in color.
Dry Ingredients
Sift in the dry ingredients, including flour, baking soda, and salt, and mix until combined.
Add Pecans
Add the toasted pecans and mix them in until they are evenly distributed.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place the cookie dough in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes (or up to 48 hours).
Once you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C (160° fan-assisted) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Scoop Cookie Dough
Scoop even-sized cookie dough balls onto the prepared baking sheet with enough room to spread.
You can use a medium cookie scoop for this, or just use large tablespoons of dough and roll them into balls with your hands.
You can also make smaller cookies if you like, just reduce the baking time by a few minutes.
Decorate
Press the cookie dough balls down slightly to flatten them a little.
Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with a little extra brown sugar and a sprinkle of sea salt if you like. Then press one or two of the reserved pecan halves into the top of the cookie.
Bake
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown around the edges.
This bake time will give you the perfect texture of chewy butter pecan cookies with crisp edges - but if you like more crunchy cookies than chewy pecan cookies, then give them an extra minute in the oven.
Remove from the oven and let the warm cookies sit on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then use a cookie lifter to transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Butter Pecan Cookie Recipe Variations
These are honestly some of the best cookies I have ever tasted, but there are still plenty of ways you can customize them or make them even more special.
Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies - Add your favorite chocolate chunks or chips to the cookie dough at the same time as the chopped pecans. Milk, dark, or white chocolate chips would all go well with these pecan cookies.
Other Nuts - This brown butter cookie recipe would also work really nicely with other nuts, try walnuts or even almonds.
Coconut Pecan Cookies - For the holiday season, try coconut pecan cookies.
Chocolate Drizzle - For extra indulgence, drizzle or dip your baked cookies in melted dark chocolate.
Iced Pecan Cookies - Drizzle your butter pecan cookies with a little cream cheese glaze or vanilla glaze for extra sweetness.
How To Store Butter Pecan Cookies
Store your brown butter pecan cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They will be good like this for up to a week, though cookies are always best when eaten within 3 days.
Pecan Cookies FAQs
Creaming and melting the butter in cookie recipes has two different results. Creamed butter cookies tend to be lighter and fluffier, with a more cake-like texture. Melted butter cookies are more dense and chewy.
These pecan cookies take it one step further by browning the butter first - adding loads of extra flavor into the cookie dough.
Toasting the pecans before adding them to the cookie dough draws out the nutty flavor of the pecans, as well as helping them to stay crunchy in the baked cookies.
While you can technically skip this step, the result is a much more flavorful cookie with crunchy texture variations.
More Cookie Recipes
If you love these buttery cookies, give some of these other cookie recipes a try:
Recipe
Butter Pecan Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ sticks Unsalted Butter 170g
- ½ cup Granulated Sugar 100g
- ½ cup Light Brown Sugar 110g
- 1 Large Egg
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 ½ cups All-purpose Flour 180g
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 1 ½ cups Pecans 170g
Equipment
Instructions
- Start by browning the butter, I have a whole blog post about how to brown butter if you'd like more information. Put the butter in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat. Once it has melted it will start making a 'crackling' sound, keep going, stirring occasionally.1 ½ sticks (170 g) Unsalted Butter
- When the crackling subsides a little, the butter will quickly start to turn a toasty brown color. Once the butter is brown and you can smell a lovely nutty aroma, remove the butter from the heat.
- Pour the butter into your mixing bowl and set aside to cool while you prepare the pecans. Make sure you get all the little brown specks at the bottom of the pan - those are the toasted milk solids that add all the nutty flavor!
- Put the pecans in a dry frying pan and heat over medium heat. Let them toast, stirring occasionally until you can smell a lovely toasted pecan smell (about 5-7 minutes). Remove from the heat.1 ½ cups (170 g) Pecans
- Take 2 tablespoons of the browned butter and add it into the pan with the pecans, toss the pecans to coat them in the brown butter and then let them sit in it while they cool for a few minutes.
- Reserve a handful of pecans for decorating later, then transfer the rest to a chopping board and roughly chop them into small chunks.
- The browned butter should have cooled slightly by now, it may still be slightly warm, but as long as it's not hot that's okay. Add both sugars to the browned butter and beat together until combined.½ cup (100 g) Granulated Sugar, ½ cup (110 g) Light Brown Sugar
- Add your egg and vanilla and then beat vigorously for one minute (medium-high speed if using an electric or stand mixer).1 Large (1) Egg, 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- Sift in the dry ingredients, including the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until combined.1 ½ cups (180 g) All-purpose Flour, ½ teaspoon (½ tsp) Baking Soda, ½ teaspoon (½ tsp) Salt
- Put the chopped pecans into the cookie dough. Mix them in by hand until evenly distributed.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put the cookie dough in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C (160° fan-assisted) and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Scoop balls of cookie dough with a medium cookie scoop onto the cookie sheet and then flatten them slightly with your hand. If you don't have a cookie scoop, you can use a tablespoon and roll into balls in your hands.
- Press one or two pecans into the top of each cookie for decoration.Optional: Sprinkle with a little brown sugar and sea salt.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. Remove from the oven and let sit on the baking sheet for five minutes before transferring to a wire rack with a cookie lifter - or munch them while they are still warm and gooey!
Leonie
I'm so in looooove with this recipe!! Pecans usually aren't my favourite but these cookies taste so amazing I'd choose them over chocolate chip cookies (at least in December ;)) since I'm German and not used to the amount of sugar I reduced it by 35%- still sweet and gorgeous! Thanks so much!
Jules Grasekamp
I'm so glad you love the pecan cookies Leonie!
Thank you for trying my recipe and taking the time to let me know 🙂
Jules
Meg
Easy and delicious! Yummy salty nutty flavor. If you enjoy pecans, this is a must-try.
Mare
Made these last night. Solid recipe!
Jules Grasekamp
Thanks Mare, so happy you enjoyed them! 🙂
Jules
Tania Burningham
LOVED these! It was my first experience making brown butter and I’m now a huge fan!! I also substituted Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Baking flour and they were perfect! ❤️
Linda R
Is there a way you can use less butter ?
Maybe 1/2 cup ?
Grandma
Love these cookies, any recipe with a crunch is my downfall! Too much choice, every recipe is a cake lovers dream, keep baking juliane!
Diane
Can you just delete the sugar from a recipe to make it sugar free, or do you have to add something else?
Kitty
I was gifted a few by a coworker. They were divine <3. I’ll be trying this recipe myself!
Jules
Aw I'm so glad to hear that! Thank you 🙂
Maryeileen
I will be making these sugar free and can't wait to try them!
Jules
Yay! I really hope you love them! Happpy baking 😀
TessaLander
Been thinking Keto version from the beginning.
Chris Radwanski
I always enjoy some sort of nut incorporated into baked goods like cookies, and this one was the perfect match. The browned butter, the pecan, the brown sugar, the pinch of salt. mmm great combination.
Jules
Thank you! Glad you liked them. I love pecans in everything! 😀