Butter Pecan Cookies are soft, chewy, and filled with pecans, white chocolate, and butterscotch. This crowd-pleasing cookie is the perfect addition to your next holiday cookie tray.
These butter pecan cookies are the perfect fall cookie. With flavors reminiscent of butter pecan ice cream, these cookies are filled with chopped pecans, butterscotch chips, and white chocolate chips.
Drop cookies are an easy cookie to make at home. Simply scoop your dough and drop it by the spoonful onto a prepared baking sheet.
Make these cookies for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any time you need a sweet treat. They' always go quickly on a holiday cookie tray!
Refrigerating your cookie dough
Refrigerating your cookie doughI like to refrigerate my dough before baking for several reasons.
First, a chilled dough will not spread as much when baking. If you bake a warm or room temperature dough, your cookies are more likely to spread together.
Second, the ingredients in your dough will have time to meld and incorporate. I find that the flavor and texture both improve with this method.
I like to make my dough the day before I intend to bake. This way, it has an entire day to rest. If you don't have time, an hour in the refrigerator is fine. Try it out and see what you think!
Tips for baking cookies
Tips for baking cookiesRoom temperature ingredients will help your cookies have a consistent, creamy, and even dough. When beaten, the eggs and butter form an emulsion, which traps air in the dough, which bakes up into a soft and fluffy cookie.
Properly measuring flour is an issue I see frequently. If you have issues with your cookies not spreading, or turning out extra thick and tall, you probably measured too much flour into your cookie dough.
To properly measure flour, use a spoon to add flour to your measuring cup, then level off with a knife. By scooping flour directly from a container with your measuring cup, you're compacting the dough into the cup. This can add up to 25% more flour to your dough.
Using parchment paper helps prevent your cookies from spreading too much while baking. A greased baking pan will guarantee your cookies spread more than they should, so I always suggest parchment paper (or a reusable baking mat) instead.
Butter Pecan Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 ¾ cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- ½ cup white chocolate chips
- ½ cup butterscotch chips
Instructions
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla extract and beat until fluffy, about one minute.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda.
- Gradually stir dry ingredients into butter mixture until just combined.
- Add chopped pecans, white chocolate chips, and butterscotch chips and stir until just combined.
- Cover bowl or wrap dough in wax paper. Chill for at 1 hour (up to 24 hours) in the refrigerator. Refrigerating will help the flavors meld and also create a firmer dough to roll into balls.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Remove dough from refrigerator. Scoop dough using a 1.5 tablespoon scoop or shape by hand into 1.5 inch balls.
- Place cookie dough balls 2 inches apart onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned around edges. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Equipment Recommendations
Notes
- Your cookies will keep for 5-7 days in a sealed container. To help keep cookies fresh, you can place a slice of bread in the container with the cookies. Replace the bread slice as needed.
- You can keep raw cookie dough in the refrigerator for 3 days. Cookie dough balls (and baked cookies) freeze well, up to 3 months in a sealed plastic container or freezer bag. Allow frozen balls to thaw for up to 10 minutes on the baking sheet before baking, or add 1-2 minutes to the baking time.
- Pecans can be substituted with almonds, walnuts, pistachios, or peanuts.
- Be sure to check out my 10 tips for baking cookies, based on reader comments and questions!
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