Soft, Brown Butter, Pecan Cookies
This recipe isn’t a quick one, in fact it takes hours to make sure the batter is set enough before they even go in the oven. But once baked, they are absolutely worth the wait and effort needed
On occasion, more than I’m willing to mention here, I have eaten the dough straight from the fridge to satisfy my sweet tooth.
When out of the oven, even when completely cold, these are never going to be crunchy. They are more cake like so best eaten with a good cup of tea and a good book.
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
Lots of sugar on top of the warm Soft, Brown Butter, Pecan Cookies
What You Need
Buttered Pecans
125g Pecan – Finley Chopped
50g Butter
Dough
300g Plain Flour
230g Butter – See Tip Box
200g Dark Brown Sugar
100g Castor Sugar
3 Large Eggs
1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
1 tbsp Cornflour
½ tsp Baking Soda
Pecan Halves – Approx. 16 – See Tip Box
Granulated Sugar for decoration – Optional
How It’s Done
Buttered Pecans
To make the buttered pecans, place the chopped pecans into a small frying pan along with the 50g butter and heat to let the butter melt.
Once the butter is melted, stir and let the chopped nuts cook for 4-5 minutes until they become toasted and have soaked up all the butter.
Once cooked, remove them from the hot pan onto a plate to cool until needed.
Cook the chopped pecans in the butter until they are toasty
Dough
First thing to do is to brown the butter.
Place the butter into a shallow frying pan and heat until the butter melts, bubbles form on the top and the butter becomes a nutty brown colour.
While this is happening, never take your eyes off it and keep swirling the pan so that the butter is being mixed around. – See Tip Box
Once a nutty aroma comes from the pan, and the butter turns a deep brown, pour it into a cold bowl and let it cool or ten minutes before using it -
Don’t take your eyes off the butter
In a large bowl, mix together the sugars, vanilla, and add the cooled brown butter. Mix it very well to combine.
Add the three eggs and the buttered pecans, and once again, mix it really well.
Once everything is really well mixed together, add the flour, baking soda and gently mix this in until the flour disappears.
Once mixed, place in the fridge for no less than 4 hours.
Place the bowl in the fridge for around 4 hours, or over night – This allows the butter to set completely.
Once the dough is set, heat the oven to 180c.
Line a couple of oven trays with non-stick baking parchment.
Scoop out dough to the size of a golf balls, put them on the tray with a good space of 3 inches between them – they will spread while baking.
Press one pecan half into each of the balls, flattening the ball a little.
Depending on the size of the ball, bake for between 10-13 minutes – Until the centres are firm
Sprinkle granulated sugar over each of the cookies while they are still hot – Optional
Let them cool completely on the tray
Store in an air tight container.
Scoop out as big as a golf ball
Tip Box
Butter – I always use salted butter when baking, but if your butter is unsalted, add ½ tsp of salt to the flour mixture.
Pecan Halves – How many you need will depend on how many cookies are scooped from the batch.
Browning the butter – Browning butter is really easy, but it’s important not to take eyes off it while it’s happening. Swirling the melted butter is the tick to making sure the butter becomes brown in a n even way, and this is important to keep the rich nutty flavour that is the hallmark of a good brown butter.
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