These pecan pie cookies are made with a soft butter cookie and topped with gooey, delicious pecan pie filling. Make these cookies when you want the flavor of pecan pie without the effort!
Why these are the BEST Pecan Pie Cookies
Pecan pie has always been my favorite pie flavor and since it’s cookie season I thought I would combine these two great desserts to create these pecan pie cookies! The recipe is pretty straightforward. The soft cookie base comes together in minutes and the pecan pie filling cooks on the stovetop while the cookies bake.
I’m a big fan of creating a no-bake version of a pie filling because sometimes you want that same flavor atop a cookie, or to fill a cake or macaron. This pecan pie filling couldn’t be easier to bring together! While the cookies cool from the oven, the pecan pie filling cools and thickens so that everything is ready at the same time for assembly.
If you’re eager to make them go ahead and press the “jump to recipe” button. For tips on how to make the best pecan pie cookies, read below!
The Cookie Base
For the base of these pecan pie cookies we are using a super simple short cookie dough. This cookie is packed with buttery sugar cookie flavor but doesn’t spread too much in the oven. It’s the perfect base to hold our spiced pecan pie filling!
In order to create an indent in the cookies to hold the pecan pie filling, you’ll need to follow a few steps:
- Scoop a larger amount of cookie dough than normal—roughly three tablespoons of cookie dough. This is a large cookie people!
- After placing the dough on the baking tray, take a 1/4 cup measuring cup and press down until an indent has been created. I recommend dipping the bottom of the measuring cup into a bit of flour to keep it from sticking to the dough. The cookie dough should be roughly 3” in diameter before you put it in the oven.
- After pressing an indent into each ball of dough, I like to pinch the sides to close any cracks that were made when I pressed the dough.
- During baking the cookies will puff up ever so slightly so once you remove them, take the 1/4 cup measuring cup and LIGHTLY press the centers down again. Don’t press too hard or the texture in the center of the cookie will be wrong.
The Pecan Pie Filling
This pecan pie filling is so good, you will definitely try to find as many foods as possible to dip in it or put it on! We make it by combining the following ingredients in a saucepan:
Unsalted Butter
Brown Sugar
Dark Corn Syrup
Heavy Cream
Cinnamon
Salt
Corn Starch
Pecans
We make the pecan pie filling while the cookies are baking and allow it to cool for about 20 minutes before topping the cookies with it. The more the filling cools, the more it will thicken. You want to add it to the cookies when it’s still easy to scoop with a spoon, which is why I recommend about 20 minutes after you’ve taken it off the heat.
Top with Flaky Salt!
Not because it’s trendy, but because we want to cut through the sweetness of the pecan pie filling and balance all of the flavors in these pecan pie cookies!
If you like these pecan pie cookies you’ll love my Butter Tart Cookie Bars, they earned me a Hollywood Handshake from Paul Hollywood on The Great American Baking Show and they have a lot of similar elements to these cookies!
Happy Holiday Baking!
Can baking be therapeutic?
I often talk about baking being a therapeutic hobby but I’d like to share more about why I feel that way as well as how it can become a relaxing hobby for you!
When I bake, it’s my creative time. I may put on my favorite nostalgic movie or tv show in the background, or a Spotify playlist titled “French café” and leave my troubles behind.
Sometimes I pour myself a glass of wine and light a candle. Then, with the mood set, the mixing of batter, kneading of dough and smoothing of icing is my only care in the world.
When I say baking is therapeutic, sometimes people respond saying “not for me it isn’t!” I completely understand why someone might feel that way. There have been plenty of times where I spend hours on something only for it to fail or something breaks that shouldn’t or I forget to clean as I go and am left with a disastrous kitchen to clean.
So I should in reality, have a caveat to my “baking as therapy” claims…
Baking is therapy when you curate the experience to be relaxing.
How do you curate that relaxing experience for yourself, you ask?
How to make baking therapeutic…
- Prepare your mind–know that it’s okay if the cake doesn’t rise, or the butter wasn’t chilled enough. Shift your mindset from seeing your failures as mistakes to seeing them as opportunities for learning.
- Prepare your space–I cannot and will not bake on top of a messy kitchen. If I were to do this I would be starting from a place of stress! Take an extra 10 minutes to clean any dishes in the sink and wipe down the counters, this small effort will pay you back greatly in brain space and clarity.
- Clean as you go! I’ll tell you the one way to make baking stressful and tiresome, is to not clean as you go! After I use each ingredient that I no longer need, I put it away.
After each major step in the process, I wipe down the counters and put dishes that are no longer needed in the sink. If there is chill time or baking time I don’t sit, I do the cleaning then. Make this shift and you’ll really notice the difference!
By the way, this last tip really helped me when I was on The Great American Baking Show–and the crew that cleaned up behind us made a point to tell me that my workspace was always so clean they didn’t have much to do!
I would reply by saying “it’s how I stay sane in this tent!”
Additional suggestions:
*Maybe try printing off the recipe instead of looking at it on your phone, tablet or laptop and use this time to unplug from technology for a few hours
**Invite friends or family over to share your creation with you. Time spent with loved ones over food is a universally special experience
And that’s how I discovered baking for my mental health. If you try any of these suggestions, let me know how it went for you! I’m really invested in spreading this message to others in hopes that baking will enhance your lives more than it already does!
Pecan Pie Cookies
Ingredients
For the Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter 226g, 2 sticks, room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar 100g
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour 320g
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the Pecan Pie Filling
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter 113g, cold
- 3/4 cup brown sugar 156g
- 1/4 cup dark corn syrup 80ml
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1/4 cup heavy cream 50ml
- 3/4 cups roughly chopped pecans 100g
- flaky salt to garnish
Instructions
For the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (roughly 180°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, mix 1 cup (226g) of room temperature butter with 1/2 cup (100g) of granulated sugar using a spatula.*
- Once combined, add 2 1/2 cups (320g) of all purpose flour, 1/2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of vanilla and mix again until just combined.
- Scoop balls of cookie dough, 3 Tbsp each, roll them into a ball and place on a cookie sheet. These cookies are large, you may want to bake in two batches.
- Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, press an indent into the center of each cookie dough ball, dipping the bottom of the 1/4 cup measuring cup into some flour so it doesn't stick.
- Once you've created an edge, pinch together any cracks that were created when you made the indent so that there is a smooth border.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes or until the bottoms start to brown slightly. These cookies are large, so their bake time is longer than normal.
- Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool.
For the Pecan Pie Filling
- In a small saucepan, add 1/2 cup (113g) of cold unsalted butter, 3/4 cup (156g) of brown sugar and 1/4 cup (80ml) of dark corn syrup and heat over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to bubble slightly.
- Add 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of cornstarch directly to the pan and stir well. The mixture will start to thicken, keep it moving.
- Add 1/4 cup (50ml) of heavy cream and 3/4 cup (100g) of slightly chopped pecans and stir. Once the filling has thickened slightly, remove it from the heat to cool for about 20 minutes.
For the Assembly
- Spoon the cooled pecan pie filling into the indents in the cookies, sprinkle with a bit of flaky salt and enjoy!
- The longer the cookies sit, the more the pecan pie filling will thicken.
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