I wanted a maple pecan cookie recipe that would make people pause and admire the flavor. That meant balancing the nutty and maple flavors, while making sure both of them tasted true to their original form.
It took a few tests to find the best dough and maple syrup icing. This recipe is the result of dozens of cookies and taste testers ratings.
The dough uses a fair amount of pecans that are toasted (which actually does bring out more flavor). They are finely chopped to distribute their flavor throughout the cookie and let their texture melt into the background.
The best maple icing uses pure maple syrup (nothing with corn syrup!). Everyone agreed it had the truest maple flavor. However, a sprinkle of maple sugar on top was preferred by those with a sweet tooth.
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Recipe
Ingredients
Cookies
- 8 tablespoon butter, room temperature 112 grams
- ¼ cup granulated sugar 50 grams
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or sub with maple extract!
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt or ½ teaspoon if using unsalted butter
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour 180 grams
- ⅓ cup pecans 40 grams (best to measure this one by weight!) see note for farmers market option
Maple icing
- 2 tablespoon butter 28 grams
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 1 cup powdered sugar 120 grams
- 1 pinch salt
Optional
- maple sugar for dusting, see note
- very finely chopped pecans for decorating, see note
Instructions
Prepare pecans & butter
- Bring the butter to room temperature (65℉) - cold butter won't combine with the sugar properly. It takes 30 minutes to an hour to come to room temperature (depending on how hot or cold your kitchen is). Forgot? Cut the butter into small cubes and it will soften much quicker.
- Toast the pecan halves: preheat your oven to 250℉. Spread the nuts on a baking sheet and bake until very lightly browned, about 5-15 minutes. Be careful of burning them (sometimes they taste off if they turn darker brown, instead of light golden). Turn off the oven (cookies need to chill before baking). Once cool enough to handle, finely chop the pecans by hand or in a food processor.
Make the shortbread cookie dough
- Cream butter & sugar.IN A STAND MIXER: Use the paddle to cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed. Mix until it's well combined and smooth (don't worry about over-mixing at this stage).BY HAND: use a wooden spoon or spatula and mix the butter and sugar together until creamy.
- Mix in the vanilla and salt, scraping down the sides as needed. (If using maple extract, use it here).
- Add flour & pecans: mix in the flour and pecans (by hand, or on low speed in a mixer). Stir until crumbly, but fully combined (no dry patches of flour). Then stop - don't overmix. (Overmixing makes the cookies tough, and is hard to overmix by hand).
- Remove dough from the mixer or your bowl. Place on a clean counter and kneed (smush) it by hand until it forms a cohesive ball. It will probably try to crack, keep kneeding it.
Cut out dough & bake
- Roll & cut out the dough: roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is ¼" thick. If the dough is really soft, put it in the fridge for 15 minutes, covered in plastic wrap. Once ready, using a cookie cutter and place the cookies on parchment-lined baking sheets. They don't really spread, so you can place them somewhat close.
- Combine dough scraps together and reroll, then continue to cutout cookies until all of the dough is used.
- Chill cutouts in the fridge for 30 minutes - this prevents them from spreading when baking.
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Bake cookies: when ready, bake the cookies for 8-12 minutes. They will turn golden around the edges, but not the centers. Let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Allow to completely cool before icing (or they might break).
Ice the cookies
- Make the maple icing: melt butter and maple syrup in a saucepan on the stove or in a bowl in the microwave. (When the mixture is warm, it is runnier and easier to coat the cookies with). Remove from heat and stir in the powdered sugar. Add in ¼ teaspoon maple extract, if using. (see note about flavors).
- Dip the cookies: dip the top of the cooled cookies into the icing, then set on a rack so extra icing drips off. If dusting with maple sugar or pecans, do that now while the icing is warm and runny.
- Let icing harden: the icing will harden in 15 minutes to an hour (depending on how warm your icing was and how hot your kitchen is). Once fully hardened, they can be stacked and stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
Working with the maple pecan cookie dough
These maple pecan cookies are more shortbread than they are sugar cookies. That said, they bake up crispy, not soft, with a good texture half way between traditional shortbread and sugar cookies.
If you're not used to working with this kind of dough, the dry texture of the raw dough might make you wonder if you did something wrong. Don't worry, it will come together!
I chop the pecans pretty small without worrying about a uniform size.
The finished cookie dough in mixer (or by hand) will be dry and crumbly.
Dump dough onto counter and kneed by hand until it comes together.
I like to work the dough in smaller chunks to help it come together.
Roll out the dough, if it cracks and looks like this, kneed it some more. This happens more if it's been chilled.
If the dough rolls out without cracking (or very few cracks), it's ready for the cookie cutters.
While these are shortbread cookies, there texture is half way towards a sugar cutout cookie. That said, Bonni Bakery has covers some common mistakes when working with shortbread dough.
Make ahead
Whenever I make cookies, I only bake the ones I'll be eating that day. I always put the rest of the dough in the fridge to bake later. Why? Freshly baked cookies always taste better!
The best way to make these maple pecan cookies ahead of time is to make the dough, but don't bake it! You have two options: refrigerate the dough balls, or refrigerate the cutouts.
To refrigerate the cookie dough balls: separate them into 2-3 balls, then flatten them and wrap in plastic (to prevent them from drying out). Flattening them makes them come to room temperature faster and it's easier to roll them out.
When you're ready to bake the cookies, you'll need to remove the dough balls 30-60 minutes ahead of time. The dough needs to come to room temperature in order to roll out, otherwise it will crack (like in the photo above).
Alternatively, you can refrigerate the cookie dough cut outs if you have the space. The best option is to cut them out and place on the parchment lined baking sheets right away. Tape a layer of plastic wrap to the sheet pan to keep the cookies from drying out. You can bake these right from the fridge.
How to get the best maple flavor
I wanted to make a cookie that tasted like fresh maple syrup and pecans. To do that, I tested several variations:
- 4 cookie doughs:
- with toasted pecans
- without toasted pecans
- with maple syrup
- without maple syrup
- 4 maple icings:
- with maple syrup
- with maple syrup & maple extract
- with maple syrup & dusted maple sugar
- with a boiled-down maple syrup (not pictured)
The results:
The cookie dough with toasted pecans definitely had a more pronounced pecan flavor, however including maple syrup in the dough had no noticeable effect on the flavor.
The plain maple syrup icing was universally agreed to have the most true maple taste. However, some preferred the cookies that were dusted with maple sugar for the extra sweetness. Tasters agreed the maple extract icing technically had more maple flavor, but it was almost too much.
The boiled maple syrup didn't add more flavor (surprisingly!) and made the icing consistency hard to work with.
Maple syrup, sugar, and extract
Let's talk about the specific maple ingredients, since they can definitely affect the final flavor of the maple pecan shortbread cookies.
Maple syrup
The better your maple syrup, the better the flavor of the icing. The flavor of the syrup really comes through beautifully in the icing.
At the very least, buy a maple syrup where the only ingredient is maple syrup. Some large brands don't even use maple syrup, instead they add flavor to high fructose corn syrup. Don't use that for these cookies!
If you can find locally made maple syrup at a farmers market, definitely buy it. I have a family friend who makes his own maple syrup in Wisconsin as a hobby and it can't be matched! Even the most expensive options at Whole Foods don't hold a candle to it.
However, for testing this recipe, I wanted to use something anyone could find at the grocery store. I used Spring Tree Maple Syrup from Jewel-Osco (same owners as Safeway on the West coast).
Lastly, I'd like to point out that a maple syrup aged in bourbon barrels is stunning for these cookies.
Maple syrup grading
Maple syrup used to be graded by letters, but it was confusing. That's because a grade A maple syrup seems obviously better than grade B. So no one would buy grade B syrups, thinking they were inferior.
But the grade had nothing to do with quality, it had to do with the color. So the grading system changed in 2016 to use colors, from light to dark, instead of letters. Darker syrups have a more pronounced flavor. Maple from Canada has a really helpful article discussing the different types of maple syrup.
Maple sugar
The maple sugar I tested was from Amazon and it was very fine, like a cross between brown sugar and powdered sugar. I tried to sprinkle it over the cookies, but it was too fine (so they look bad!). I should have used a sifter, like I would for powdered sugar.
The flavor was good and I use the extra sugar in oatmeal, coffee, and baking.
You could also try to find granulated maple sugar that you can sprinkle by hand. It would also look cute with little sparkling crystals on top of the maple icing.
Maple extract
I used the McCormick maple extract. It has an amazing aroma but ended up not tasting better than the maple syrup. I still use it in baking where it blends in fairly well, so it hasn't gone to waste.
I didn't try adding it to the cookie dough - I only had that thought afterwards. If I did, I'm not sure if it would overpower the pecans, but I'll try it at some point and update this post.
Pecans (and other nuts)
Almost any type of nut works in this recipe, it depends on what flavor profile you're going for.
- Pecans: rich & nutty flavor
- Walnuts: buttery, earthy and sometimes slightly bitter
- Almonds: mild, tending to slightly sweet
- Hazelnuts: buttery, earthy, hint of bitter chocolate
You can find fresh pecans (shelled or unshelled) starting around September or October. They are widely grown throughout the Southeast (like Georgia) and appear at farmers markets all over the region. The fresh nuts also make their way to the rest of the country throughout fall and last into winter.
If your farmers market has roasted pecans, they'd be delicious in these cookies. Even in the Chicago area, we have vendors selling nuts roasted on site. If you buy these, you don't need to toast them as the recipe states.
If you are lucky enough to have a source of black walnuts, chop those up and you'll bake up the best maple cookies! They are usually harvested in September and October, easily storing through Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Toasting pecans for maple pecan cookies
Why go through the trouble of toasting the pecans when you're just adding them to the cookie dough? You might be wondering if it makes a difference - the answer is that it does!
- Toasting nuts enhances their nutty, sweet flavors while also diminishing any bitter flavors.
- They become slightly softer and more buttery, blending into the texture of the cookie better.
- When toasted, it brings oils to the surface which mix into the cookie dough, distributing their flavor even more.
However, you want to be careful to not toast them too long or they'll turn bitter or even acrid. A longer toast, or a darker golden color does not make them tastier (like it does when caramelizing vegetables).
Take the pecans out when they just start to turn light golden brown. When you're unsure if the nuts are golden brown enough or not, err on the side of caution and take them out early.
The pecans don't even need to be burnt to taste bitter or acrid. If they turn a dark golden brown, that's usually enough to develop off flavors.
Low heat is best
Nuts should be toasted low & slow to prevent them from burning. Most recipes suggest toasting nuts in a 325-350ºF for 5-7 minutes, but I've burnt entire batches of nuts too many times.
What you should actually do: toast them at 250ºF for 5-15 minutes.
It turns out, burning the pecans isn't the only problem you can encounter - the actual temperature they are toasted at matters too. Toasting nuts at higher heat can cause them to taste bitter and rancid, even if they aren't over-toasted.
I was curious about the optimal temperature, so I dug through several academic studies on roasting different nuts (almonds, pistachios, and macadamia nuts) to understand what matters and why. I couldn't find studies that specifically singled out pecans.
The science, summarized:
Several independent studies tested various roasting temperatures: 50, 75, 100, 125, and 150ºC (or in Fahrenheit: 122, 167, 212, 257, 302ºF). Each study concluded the optimal roasting temperature was 125ºC, or about 250ºF and that roasting at or above 300ºF (150ºC) caused problems.
One study of macadamia roasting temperatures concludes: "...the judges said that roasted kernels at 125ºC [257ºF] had a perfectly crisp texture, a brown color, and were very nutty."
They continue on, stating the problems of the higher roasting temperature of 150ºC (302ºF): "However, a significant amount of rancidity; decreased content of flavonoids, phenols, and antioxidants; and an excessively crispy texture, a dark brown color, and a bitter flavor were present in kernels that were roasted at 150ºC."
In short: roasting at 300ºF, even when done by a professional, resulted in bitter and rancid flavors.
Here are a few other key finding from that study:
- Nuts roasted at 125ºC (257ºF) had the best texture
- Nuts roasted at 125ºC (257ºF) browned the best, whereas 150ºC (302ºF) were overly browned
- Nuts roasted at 50 and 75 were mildly nutty tasting, nutty at 100, and extremely nutty as 125 with "no discernible off-flavors." At 150 they were bitter or extremely bitter.
Before I dug into the science of it, I had started following the advice of several experts who suggest toasting nuts at 150ºC/250ºF. As expected, the nuts toasted more evenly and rarely burned. But surprisingly, they also tasted better.
I thought perhaps I just imagined the nuts tasted better (especially pecans). That is, until I read through the industry research. I feel so validated (and like I had been gaslit in the past!), especially when the vast majority of advice still suggests roasting nuts above 300ºF.
Toast nuts whole, then chop
Most experienced bakers advise toasting nuts whole, then chopping them. Chopped nuts are more likely to over toast, or toast unevenly if they aren't uniform in size.
It's also worth noting that not all nuts toast at the same speed, either. Pecans typically toast faster than almonds, for example.
Cookie exchanges
These maple pecan cookies are a great option for cookie exchange parties around Christmas.
- Use small cookie cutters (for easy sampling and sharing)
- The icing hardens, so they can be stacked and packed in containers
- Most Christmas cookies don't have maple syrup, so these add a nice variety
However, since they DO contain nuts, you'll want to check for allergies ahead of time. Another option is to pre-pack them in clear cellophane bags, along with a few pecans in the bottom. That will make it clear they contain nuts, but also keep them from contaminating other cookies.
Cookie cutters
I love a cute mini cookie cutter. Most of the time (at least around the holidays), people don't want giant cookies. They'd rather sample small ones (or keep coming back for the same ones). Basically, everyone loves a bite-sized treat.
I've also found them useful for making the cutest charcuterie boards, to cut out cheese shapes or mini sandwich shapes. Or to just add mini cookies to a regular charcuterie tray (trust me, it's adorable!)
Anyway, here are some that I've found on Amazon if you're interested. (These are affiliate links and I don't own any of these personally, just some that look extremely similar).
More recipes & resources
There are no shortage of maple pecan cookies out there. Here's a few I have my eye on:
- Maple brown sugar cookies from Sally's Baking
- White chocolate maple pecan cookies from Broma
- Pecan cookies with a maple cream cheese frosting from Domestically Blissful
- Maple pecan shortbread bars by Salt & Wind
Try another nutty cookie with my soft & chewy peanut butter blossoms.
If you want to use up some more pecans, my pecan cranberry bread is delicious. It uses up ¾ cup of pecans (84 grams). I specifically chop the nuts super small which actually makes a big difference. They distribute throughout the entire loaf for a much more pronounced pecan flavor.
It's a great bread to use up cranberries around Thanksgiving or for a red-studded Christmas treat with your morning coffee.
If you're wondering what else is currently in season, check out my calendars to see what produce is in season each month (and coming up soon).
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