Pecan crisp cookies are made with just seven ingredients that you can find in your pantry. A batch of these crispy cookies is made in less than 30 minutes. Buttery and crunchy, these pecan cookies are a crowd-pleaser.
This delightful vintage cookie, often called Pecan Crispies, is one of the most delicious ways to fill the cookie jar.
These crispy cookies are great for dunking, have a caramel and brown sugar flavor, and are studded with chopped pecans.
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Pecan cookies are a delicious and easy cookie to make all year. Ideal for beginner bakers, they are foolproof and easy to master with just seven ingredients that are in probably in your pantry.
These pecan crisp cookies have similar ingredients to chocolate chip cookies, but go heavy on the brown sugar and butter, making them bake into crunchy cookies, perfect for dunking and dipping.
Ingredients
These crispy-yet-chewy pecan cookies are made with just seven basic ingredients that you probably have in your pantry and fridge:
- Unsalted Butter: This is the rich, creamy base of your cookies, providing flavor, moisture, and that melt-in-your-mouth texture.
- Light Brown Sugar: Brown sugar adds a warm, caramel-like sweetness to your cookies. It also contributes to their slight chewiness.
- Eggs: Eggs serve as a binding agent, helping to hold your cookie dough together. They also add moisture and structure.
- All-Purpose Flour: Flour is the primary dry ingredient that gives structure to your cookies. You can substitute gluten-free all-purpose flour.
- Salt: A pinch of salt enhances the flavor of your cookies, balancing the sweetness and adding depth.
- Baking Soda: Baking soda is the leavening agent. It helps the cookies rise and become light and airy.
- Chopped Pecans: These are the star of the show! Pecans bring a delightful nuttiness and crunch to your cookies. They're not only in the name but also provide that satisfying crisp texture.
Pro Tip: Be sure to set your butter out on the counter about an hour before making the cookies. The butter must be softened to room temperature, otherwise the cookies won't bake up crisp and chewy.
How to make pecan crisp cookies
In addition to the short ingredient list, these pecan cookies take all of 10 minutes to prepare! The dough doesn't need to be chilled or rolled out, it's that simple of a recipe.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs and mix well.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking soda. Stir into butter mixture.
- Fold in chopped pecans.
- Spoon 1½-inch balls of dough onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets and bake until golden, 12 to 15 minutes.
Vintage Pecan Crispies cookies
I was inspired to create this crispy pecan cookie recipe from one of my favorite bloggers, Susan LaRosa, who writes about classic and rare recipes. I was lucky enough to meet Susan LaRosa when I covered her story at Ladies' Home Journal. (I used to be the Food Editor there).
A Cake Bakes In Brooklyn blog came about when Susan found a box of old recipes at an antique store. She began collecting vintage cookbooks and boxes of old, often handwritten recipes.
Along with pecan crispies, she also shared a classic spice cake, with a caramel icing that I have made my own tried-and-true version of time and time again.
You'll find a pecan crispies recipe in vintage cookbooks, old magazines, and probably your grandmother's recipe box. This classic crispy cookie recipe with pecans is buttery and the best when dunked in a cold glass of milk or into a hot coffee or tea.
Tips for crispy cookies
- Be sure to use raw, unsalted pecans to make this recipe. You can even buy the pecans pre-chopped.
- Make sure both the eggs and butter are at room temperature before beginning the recipe, this ensures that the cookies are crispy on the edges and chewy in the center.
- Using brown sugar with baking soda and no baking powder or granulated sugar makes these cookies very crispy on the edges but chewy in the center.
- These would make great pecan Christmas cookies! They're a fairly sturdy cookie, so they'd be perfect for gifting or including in cookie boxes.
Storage instructions
Store the pecan crisp cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to four days. Or, freeze the cookies for up to three months.
You could also freeze the balls of cookie dough to bake off later. Thaw them in the fridge or on the counter before baking. If they are cold, you need to add a minute or two to the total bake time.
FAQs
Yes, you can try this recipe with other nuts. Walnuts, pistachios, or hazelnuts are all great choices.
Using a high volume of sugar in a cookie as well as baking soda and no baking powder makes a cookie crispy throughout. The sugar crystallizes on the edges to become crispy. If you use brown sugar the center of the cookie will be chewy, if you use white sugar then the cookie will be crispier in the center as well, and lack caramel flavor.
Avoid using baking powder in a crispy cookie recipe. This causes a cookie dough to rise and tenderizes the cookie dough to become soft rather than crisp.
Over-baking cookies makes them too crispy. Be cautious of the cook time to ensure the cookies are perfectly golden brown.
More of the best cookies in the world
- Honey Cut Out Cookies
- Blossom Cookies with Cashew Butter and Chai Spice
- Black Sesame Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Crunchy Pecan Cookies
- Pistachio Lace Cookies
- Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies
Fill your cookie jar with more tasty treats like my classic Iced Oatmeal Cookies.
Bake a skillet chocolate chip cookie to share with everyone.
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📖 Recipe
Crispy Pecan Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter (softened)
- 2½ cups light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup (4 ounces) chopped pecans
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment; set aside
- In a mixing bowl beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and mix well.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt and baking soda. Stir into butter mixture. Fold in chopped pecans.
- Spoon 1½-inch balls of dough onto baking sheets and bake until golden, 12 to 15 minutes.
Video
Notes
- These cookies are meant to be crisp. If you under bake them, they will be thin and slightly chewy.
- Be sure to use raw, unsalted pecans to make this recipe. You can even buy the pecans pre-chopped.
- Using brown sugar with baking soda and no baking powder or granulated sugar makes these cookies crispy on the edges but chewy in the center.
- These would make great pecan Christmas cookies! They're a fairly sturdy cookie, so they'd be perfect for gifting or including in cookie boxes.
- Make sure both the eggs and butter are at room temperature before beginning the recipe, this ensures that the cookies are crispy on the edges and chewy in the center.
Nutrition
Newest recipes from Tara Teaspoon!
Tara Teaspoon
I’ve been in food publishing for over 25 years, creating recipes & food-styling for magazines, books, television, food brands, & advertising. With two cookbooks under my belt and thousands of my recipes at your fingertips, I hope you'll be inspired to spend more time in the kitchen!
Recipe from Susan LaRosa at acakebakesinbrooklyn.com Originally published in LHJ 03/12. Updated 10/23. Photography Seth Smoot and Tara Teaspoon Inc.
Mary Bench says
I'll have a hard time venturing away from your famous chocolate chip cookies but these look pretty darn good!
Brittany Smart says
Cookies are my favorite, and this recipe is so crispy and delicious!
Doyle R. says
My mother made these cookies every Christmas since I was a little kid. She has the cookbook with this recipe. It’s been updated a little since the cookbook was printed. The original called for 1/2 cup of shortening and 1/2 cup butter and the flour was sifted. Other than that, it is exactly the same.
Tara says
Oh that is so cool!! I love recipe history! How fun that only slight changes were made on this version. I hope you enjoy these.
Maggie says
Baked my first batch yesterday. They turned out soft and cakey with only slight crispness on the edges. I followed the bake time recommendations. What could I have done wrong? I love crispy cookies.
Tara Teaspoon says
Oh no! I’m sorry. Let’s see if I can troubleshoot a bit.
For this recipe things that could possibly cause this are 1- too much flour. I didn’t give a weight, but everyone does scoop flour differently. You could try weighing your flour. A cup should weigh between 120 and 125 grams. That may be significantly less than your scooped cup and would lessen the chance of a cakey cookie.
2- The other option is to whip the butter and sugar a little less. While this step doesn’t make as much of a difference, incorporating less air pockets into this step may help depending on the other steps you take.
Lastly elevation may be taking a toll. See if the flour amount helps, and don’t underbake them as my recipe note says, then we could talk about elevation as these were tested at sea level.
Thanks for writing in! Tara
Carol says
I baked the cookies as per your recipe though I put the pecan pieces in the oven for 2 minutes with a sprinkling of brown sugar then let cool before adding to the mixture and the cookies turned out exceedingly well. Crisp on the outside and slightly soft on the inside. They taste great too! Will definitely make them again. Thanks
Evelyn says
the cookie has a very nice, intensely buttery flavor that makes the pecans sing, but unfortunately i didn't find them to come out crisp at all, only chewy and very slightly crisp along the edges. not crispy enough for the name of this recipe to include the word crispy. imo crispy invokes the snap of a tate's cookie, which these definitely don't have. i feel like it's due to all the brown sugar and that there is two eggs in the recipe versus one.
the only thing i "changed" about the recipe was freezing portioned dough and baking from frozen. i also weighed all my ingredients (125 grams per c of flour!). i've tried baking at various temps and baking for longer, but i cannot get them to crisp at all.
i used:
- all brown sugar
- king arthur all purpose flour
- about 125 grams of pecans
- large eggs
- kerrygold butter
i can't figure out if this is actually how they're supposed to be or i did something wrong.
Tara T. says
Hi Evelyn,
Thanks for your feedback. The quality of your ingredients are great! I find the cookies get fully crisp, and snap like a Tate's cookie after they are completely cool and have cooled for several hours.
There will always be a bit of chew to them when you bite them.
This is a classic vintage recipe as noted in the blog post and I did VERY little as far as adjusting the original version. They have always crisped for me in my tests but with any baking, environment, humidity, altitude, and different ovens can affect baked goods and the results.
Feel free to try the recipe with ingredient adjustments if you'd like.
Also baking from frozen or chilled dough will also make a difference. Chilling and freezing gives the flour in the dough the opportunity to absorb any moisture from the eggs and butter and will ABSOLUTELY change the crisp texture.
All the best!
Tara