Enjoy these pecan pie thumbprint cookies all year long or add them to your holiday traditions like I did this year!
I was baking my traditional Christmas cookies and candies this past week and I couldn’t stop thinking about pecan pie cookies. I got totally, helplessly hooked on pecan pie this past year when I made chocolate pecan pie, which won pecan pie a place at every holiday gathering/party/meal from now on (heck, who needs a holiday as an excuse to make pecan pie?).
So I googled pecan pie cookies to see what I could find (because that’s what you do when you have a random craving for a new cookie you’ve made up in your mind, right?) and kept running into recipes that called for whipping cream in the filling, which just wasn’t going to cut it for me. I had my heart set on a filling that tasted like pecan pie, and pecan pie needs corn syrup (I know…it’s so bad but oh, so good!).
I finally found a recipe on All Recipes that called for corn syrup and no whipping cream and all ingredients I already had in my pantry (yay!) and started baking. I made a few changes to the recipe that I found – I made thumbprint cookies instead of the muffin tin cookies that the original recipe described and in doing so found that I needed to double the cookie dough to have the filling at cookie dough match up (I did have a little dough left over at the end, which I used to make some plain cookies for my son who doesn’t like nuts). I also added some cinnamon to the dough, which I think was a good call.
The end result? I think we may have found our newest cookie plate. I have eaten at least a dozen of these myself and I’ve already gotten some praises from the people we delivered our goodies to. These cookies are delicious, whether you’re a fan of pecan pie or not. Yum! I have been pleased to find that the cookies have stayed moist and chewy, even 2 days later.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 cups brown sugar, packed
- 1 1/2 cups salted butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Melt 1/4 cup butter in a saucepan. Stir in powdered sugar and corn syrup until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the pecans. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate the mixture for 30 minutes to chill.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a separate bowl, stir together flour and baking powder, and set aside.
- In a large bowl, stir brown sugar, 1 1/2 cups butter, eggs and vanilla extract together with a wooden spoon. Gradually add the flour mixture until well mixed. I like to knead the dough by hand a little at the end.
- Using a cookie scoop or a tablespoon, form the dough into balls and place onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Make a thumbprint in the middle of each dough ball, making sure that you don't press too far down (it makes the bottom of the cookie too fragile).
- Fill each thumbprint with about 1/2 a teaspoon of the pecan mixture. I scooped it up with my half-teaspoon and pinched each portion into a little ball which fit perfectly into the indentations I had made.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 1-12 minutes (11 minutes was the sweet spot for me). Let cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet and then remove to a cooling rack.
Enjoy!
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They look great, lots of yummy filling :)
These look delicious I love pecan snacks!
It’s 1 1/2 cups of butter. I apologize! I doubled the cookie dough and apparently missed changing the butter amount in the directions. I’ve fixed it now. :)
Recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups butter for cookie dough but in directions for preparing the dough it calls for 3/4 cups butter. Which is the correct amount please? They sound wonderful!! Thank you ??
Those look wonderful and I like pecan pie so I’m sure I’ll like these cookies.
These look amazing! I love pecan pie so I know these would be really good. My sister makes thumbprint cookies and uses jelly on hers which I don’t care for, would love to try these.
Pecans are my favorite! These look delicious and would be a huge hit on our dessert table at our family gatherings!
I made pecan pie bars today but I might have to give these a try too :)
I really think that these Pecan Pie Thumbprint Cookies are so pretty and fun to make for the Holidays. I need to make these and give as gifts. i like this type of cookie.