Brown Sugar Pecan Cookies

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Brown Sugar Pecan Cookies are soft cookies made with pecans and brown sugar then topped with an easy brown sugar frosting and a pecan half.

A green glass dish turned to look like a diamond piled with brown sugar cookies with a light brown frosting and pecan half on a yellow background with red, green, and yellow Christmas bulbs on it.

With the holidays coming up I’ve been working on my cookies.   The best part of the holidays is the amount of cookies I bake.   I always make my old favorites like thumbprints, gourmet oatmeal cookies, and cranberry bliss bars.

Then I start my new baking.  This year I was super excited by these Brown Sugar Pecan Cookies.   I try to make a cookie with either pecans or walnuts and these were screaming my name.   Mounds of brown sugar and pecan pieces combine into soft and tasty cookies.

Pin Image: A green glass dish piled with brown sugar cookies with a light brown frosting and pecan half on a yellow background with red, green, and yellow Christmas bulbs on it, text overlay, a cutting board with a bag of pecans, a cup of flour, an egg, a bottle of vanilla, a stick of butter, a cup of brown sugar and a cup of white sugar.

I mixed up the dough using Adams Best Twice as Strong Vanilla because it adds a huge punch of vanilla flavor.  Then I grabbed a bag of Millican Pecan pieces.    I like using Millican Pecan because they are already chopped into pieces but they aren’t so tiny that you can’t see them.  They really are the best pecan!

After mixing up the dough it is rolled into balls and placed on a baking sheet.   I used an Anolon Advanced cookie sheet with silicone grips.  I love these pans because they are easy to put in and take out of the oven without sticking my oven mitt into the cookies.  Plus they clean up easily and nothing sticks to them!

After baking the cookies I pulled them out of the oven to cool.   Then I made the frosting.   This is not your traditional frosting as it’s a cooked frosting.

A cookie sheet with 12 cookies spaced out on it on a blue background.

A cooked frosting is great for cookies because it goes on the cookies easily but then firms up so that the cookies can be stacked or packaged.   I also think that in this case the brown sugar frosting takes on a caramel flavor from being cooked.   I add sea salt to my frosting for the sweet and salty combination but you can certainly leave it out.

To finish the cookies off I used a single pecan half on each one but a sprinkle of pecan pieces would be great as well.   These cookies taste like the holidays.  They are soft with flavors of brown sugar and pecans.  I could seriously eat about a half dozen of these!

A green glass dish turned to look like a diamond piled with brown sugar cookies with a light brown frosting and pecan half on a yellow background with red, green, and yellow Christmas bulbs on it.

Brown Sugar Pecan Cookies

Yield: 3 dozen cookies
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Brown Sugar Pecan Cookies are soft cookies made with pecans and brown sugar then topped with an easy brown sugar frosting and a pecan half.

Ingredients

For the cookies:

  • 1 c. (2 sticks) butter, softened
  • 1/2 c. sugar
  • 1/2 c. brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 t. vanilla
  • 2 c. flour
  • 1/2 t. baking soda
  • 1 t. salt
  • 1/2 c. chopped pecans
  • 36 pecan halves

For the frosting:

  • 1 c. brown sugar
  • 1/2 c. heavy cream (or whole milk)
  • 1 Tablespoon butter
  • 2 c. powdered sugar

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar.
  3. Add in the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.
  4. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix until combined.
  5. Fold in the chopped pecans.
  6. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls and place them 2-3 inches apart on a baking sheet.
  7. Bake for 10 minutes or until set (not glossy) and lightly browned.
  8. Remove from oven and cool for 2-3 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely.
  9. To make the frosting combine the brown sugar and cream in a small pot over medium heat. Bring the mixture to a low boil, stirring constantly, for 3-4 minutes.
  10. Remove the pot from heat and stir in the butter.
  11. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar and beat until smooth. If frosting is too thin add more sugar while keeping in mind the frosting will harden as it cools.
  12. Spread each cookie with 1 tablespoon of frosting and top with a pecan half.

Notes

Recipe from The Recipe Rebel

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 36 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 127Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 10mgSodium: 90mgCarbohydrates: 22gFiber: 0gSugar: 17gProtein: 1g
A green glass dish piled with brown sugar cookies with a light brown frosting and pecan half on a yellow background with red, green, and yellow Christmas bulbs on it.

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14 Comments

  1. I love baking with Pecans especially around the holidays. These cookies will definitely be on my list to bake this season.

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