Brown Butter Pecan Cookies
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These are the coziest Fall cookie in my repertoire…
We used to make hundreds and hundreds of these every Thanksgiving at the bakery - they make the perfect after-Thanksgiving-dinner sweet treat!
These cookies get their flavour from pecans toasted in browned butter, along with a dose of vanilla bean paste for a warm vanilla flavour. They have an extra chewy texture that comes from a combo of icing sugar & dark brown sugar. They’re amazing and you should definitely make them right now, ok? You don’t even need a mixer for these ones!
What do I need to make them?
Here’s your grocery list:
-Raw Pecans
-Sea Salt
-Salted Butter
-Baking Soda
-Icing Sugar
-Dark Brown Sugar
-Granulated Sugar
-Eggs
-All purpose flour (I like to use unbleached)
You will also need the following equipment:
You will also need a kitchen scale, a pot, a couple bowls, a spatula, a whisk, a couple baking sheets, parchment paper, and a #24 cookie scoop (which is approximately 3 TBSP) if you want to make perfectly uniform cookies.
Notes
You’ll need to have a little patience after you brown your butter because you want it to be completely cool and starting to solidify again before you use it for your cookies, otherwise your cookies will spread too much! The picture on the far right below shows what your butter/pecan mixture should look like when ready to use.
Make sure you buy raw pecans because they will get toasted in the butter. If you buy already roasted pecans they will get too dark when you add them to the butter.
You can swap the vanilla bean paste for the seeds of 1 vanilla bean, but I wouldn’t suggest swapping it for vanilla extract because it won’t give you the same flavour.
Ready to make them??
Grab all your tools & ingredients & start browning that butter!
Brown Butter Pecan Cookies
The coziest chewy cookies with brown sugar, vanilla bean, and butter toasted pecans.
Ingredients
- 225g Salted Butter
- 100g Raw Pecans, Coarsely Chopped
- 305g All Purpose Flour
- 8g (1 1/2 tsp) Baking Soda
- 3g (1/2 tsp) Fine Sea Salt
- 110g Icing Sugar
- 165g Brown Sugar
- 8g (2 tsp) Vanilla Bean Paste, or the seeds from 1 Vanilla Bean
- Granulated Sugar, for rolling
Instructions
- Melt your butter in a pot over low heat. Once melted, turn the heat up to medium-high and cook until the butter stsrts to brown. You will know that it is about to start browning when it gets realy foamy. Once you see the first hint of brown, add your pecans and stir until your butter is a light golden brown and the pecan pieces look toasted. Pour the butter/pecan mixture into a large heatproof bowl and set aside to cool. You can put it in the fridge or freezer to cool but you need to keep a very close eye on it and stir it every 10 minutes or so. You want it to just solidify again, but still be very very soft for this recipe.
- Once your butter/pecan mixture is cooled, preheat yor oven to 350 F and whisk together your flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.
- Add your sugars and vanilla bean paste to the butter/pecan mixture and use a silicone spatula or a wooden spoon to combine.
- Add your eggs one at a time, stirring the first one in completely before adding the second and stirring it in completely.
- Add your flour mixture and stir until just incorporated, making sure to get down to the bottom of the bowl so that your batter is uniformly mixed.
- Prepare 2 baking trays with parchment paper & put some granulated sugar in a small shallow bowl.
- Scoop your cookies with a #24 cookie scoop, scooping each one into the bowl of sugar and rolling it in the sugar completely before place it on your baking tray. Leave a couple of inches of space between each cookie (On a standard half sheet tray, I put 12 cookies 3 x 4.)
- Bake your cookies on the middle rack of your oven one tray at a time for 9-11 minutes, just until there are not wet spots on the tops and the edges are just starting to brown.
- Let the cookies cool on the tray on a wire rack.
- You can store the cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature or in an airtight container in the freezer for several months.
