Brown Butter Pecan Cookies
Stovetop browned butter meets sweet, slow roasted pecan butter to produce the most satisfying melt-in-your mouth cookies you’ll have this year, promise.
Flavor Notes
graham cracker | buttered toast | vanilla
Pairing Suggestions
midnights | friends | campfires
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Why you’ll love these cookies
This recipe is the epitome of summer meets fall – fall ingredients like pecans and warm spices produce a flavor reminiscent of graham cracker cookies and summer campfire treats.
We don’t compromise on flavor nor on texture in this recipe. The crumb on these cookies is just waiting to melt in your mouth on impact. Toasted pecans are naturally a bit sweet and complement the rich, full-bodied notes from browned vegan butter.
Ingredients for Brown Butter Pecan Cookies
vegan butter – we’re going to brown the butter on the stove, then let it cool before incorporating.
pecan butter – this single ingredient pecan butter is super simple to make from scratch thanks to the fat composition of pecans. Due to their high unsaturated fat content, pecans are one of the fastest nuts to blend into a butter. It’ll take about 2 minutes, tops
ap flour – essential for holding all the ingredients together and giving that crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth texture. For gluten free cookies, swap in Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 GF Baking Flour.
brown sugar – the dark, rich, nutty flavor is perfect for this recipe
white sugar – a blend of sugars for the perfect, crispy edges
baking soda – one of two leavening agents required
baking powder – the second leavener to give us nice, rounded cookies
salt – an essential for almost every cookie recipe you’ll find on this site
pecan pieces – these add texture and interest, sub chocolate chips if you’re feeling it!
maple syrup – just a bit of maple to supplement the sugars in this recipe and keep everything bound nicely together
pumpkin pie spice – these cookies are simply asking for warming spices.
oat milk – the egg replacer for these cookies!
Recipe Card
Brown Butter Pecan Cookies
Equipment
- 2 baking sheets
- 1 Food processor
Ingredients
Wet ingredients
- ½ cup vegan butter
- ½ cup pecan butter (1 ½ cup pecan peices)
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- ⅔ cup oat milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
Dry ingredients
- 2 ½ cup all purpose flour for gluten-free cookies, use bob's red mill 1:1 gf baking blend
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Add-ins
- 1 ½ cup pecan peices or chocolate chips
Instructions
Pecan Butter
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat mats
- Toast the pecans for 7-8 minutes or until fragrant. Remove from oven and transfer to a food processor. Blend until a smooth butter forms, about 2-3 minutes.
Browned Vegan Butter
- Place the vegan butter in a medium saucepan and set the heat to medium-medium-low. Once the butter melts, start stirring with a wooden spoon. The butter will start to foam. Whenever this happens, lift the pan off the heat and wait for the foam to subside, then return to heat and keep stirring. It'll take about 5 minutes to achieve a nice dark amber color (and several rounds of lifting the pan off the stove).
Cookie Dough
- In a medium bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, pumpkin pie spice)
- In a large mixing bowl, add the white and brown sugars. Pour the cooled browned butter on top, then add the maple syrup and vanilla. Beat with a hand beater to combine.
- Add the pecan butter to the sugar mixture. Beat with a hand mixer for another minute or so.
- Add the dry ingredients and the oat milk to the sugar mixture in three rounds, alternating flour-milk-flour-milk-flour-pecans-milk. Keep using the hand beater, but on a low setting. Fold in the pecan pieces (or chocolate chips) using a spoon or spatula in the last flour addition.
- Roll into 1 ½ TBSP balls and space each cookie 2" apart on the prepared baking sheets. Feel free to keep using the ones that you used to toast the pecans.
- Bake at 350℉ for 8-10 minutes. Cool for at least 5 minutes. Enjoy!
