Today’s pecan sugar cookies are delicious in a totally unforgettable way. Let’s combine brown sugar, toasted pecans, and a hint of cinnamon to create a flavorful upgrade to traditional cut-out sugar cookies. Plus, we’ll swap royal icing for unfussy brown butter icing, which, clearly, is the right move. Another reader, Amber, commented: “THESE ARE FANTASTIC! 10/10! The brown butter frosting has so much flavor. The dough is easy to work with as well. These will be a new annual Christmas cookie in my house. ★★★★★“ I asked around and all other cookie icings are jealous. 😉
Why You’ll Love These Toasted Pecan Sugar Cookies
Extra flavorful cookies with toasted pecans and brown butter. Brown sugar + cinnamon complement these flavors. Soft in the middle with crisp edges + extra texture from the nuts. Easy icing requires zero decorating skills. Ditch the piping tips and steady piping hand! Perfect when you want a festive cut-out sugar cookie, but crave more flavor. Not strictly a holiday cookie—enjoy any time of year using any shape cutter.
You’ll find an ordinary gang of baking ingredients in today’s recipe. Isn’t it incredible how many ways you can use these same ingredients? Heck, you use many of them to make wildly different treats like banana bread and pecan pie bars. Just another reason why baking is the best. 🙂
Grab These Ingredients:
Most of the ingredients are for the cookie dough, and some are repeated in the brown butter icing. Success Tip: Pecans can be a little greasy when mixed into cookie dough, so it’s especially important that your butter isn’t greasy. Make sure you start with proper room temperature butter, which is cool to the touch and about 65°F (18°C). Room temperature butter should not be melted in the slightest.
Start by Toasting the Pecans
How to Make Toasted Pecan Sugar Cookies
After you chop the toasted pecans, make the cookie dough. You’ll use about 3/4 cup (90g) of pecans in the dough and reserve the rest for garnish on the iced cookies. Popping pecans in the oven for a brief 8–10 minutes elevates their flavor, and is a welcome step in my snowball cookies recipe. All you do is scatter them on a baking sheet and bake them until you smell that toasty goodness. It’s that easy. After they’ve cooled enough to handle, give the toasted nuts a fine chop, or pulse a few times in a food processor. You want them chopped pretty fine, as if you were making pecan shortbread, so the dough is easy to cut with cookie cutters. Just like when you’re making chocolate chip cookies, to prevent the cookies from over-spreading, the dough must chill. But I roll the dough out BEFORE chilling it and I’ll explain why this is so successful. Divide the dough in half, roll out each portion, and then chill: Arrange cookies on a lined baking sheet. I usually get about 2 dozen 3-inch cookies from this recipe. Most sugar cookie doughs require chilling so the cookies hold their cookie cutter shape in the oven. But if you’ve ever tried rolling out chilled sugar cookie dough, you may remember how difficult it is to flatten cold, stiff dough. So, roll out the dough while it’s still soft (right after making it), and then chill the rolled-out dough. Here’s my exact method, and it works for chocolate sugar cookies, too: After the rolled-out dough chills for at least 1–2 hours, use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, and re-roll your scraps.
Brown Butter Icing (No Decorating Skills Required)
Browned butter is a massively underused ingredient. Like toasting the pecans, browning the butter takes 5–10 minutes and the result promises extra flavor. And it’s not just more butter flavor; brown butter has a deep toffee-like, nutty flavor that pairs wonderfully with toasted pecans. This brown butter icing is also delicious on peach Bundt cake, and you’ll find a thinner version on apple blondies, pumpkin oatmeal cookies, and pistachio cookies. Here is my full tutorial on how to brown butter. You’re gently melting and cooking it on the stove. It’s all very easy. Once browned, let it cool for a few minutes and then whisk in sifted confectioners’ sugar, milk, vanilla, and a pinch of salt. Since butter is solid at room temperature, the icing thickens as it cools. You can drizzle it on or dip the tops of the cookies into it while it’s still warm and fluid, or you can wait about 10–15 minutes to spread it on with a knife or icing spatula. No special cookie decorating supplies needed here! If you prefer a thicker frosting, my chai spice buttercream frosting is a fantastic alternative.
Favorite Cookie Cutters to Use
In general, I like Ann Clark brand cookie cutters. Not sponsored, just a genuine fan! For the cookies pictured here, I used the star, mitten, and tree from this cookie cutter set. The set would be great to add to your holiday wish list—or gift a batch of these cookies with the matching cookie cutters! And while you’re at it, be sure to check out my Holiday Gifts for Bakers guide. Lots of fun ideas in there, either for yourself or other baker friends. This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page including:
Chocolate Ginger Cookies Candy Cane Kiss Cookies Peanut Butter Blossoms Gingerbread House Recipe Chocolate Crinkle Cookies Hot Cocoa Cookies
and here are 75+ Christmas cookies with all my best success guides & tips.
