This buttery, chewy pecan cookie recipe is a copycat version of your favorite mall cookie shop: Great American Cookie Company Chewy Pecan Supreme Cookies!
I partnered with Imperial Sugar on this recipe. Click here for the FULL RECIPE.
These pecan cookies are incredibly underrated. I mean, no chocolate, no frosting, no sprinkles…they would be an easy one to pass over on a cookie platter. I totally understand. I mean, all I see here is a a brown cookie with …. nuts? No thanks, pass me the whoopie pie. Turns out, that is exactly the wrong move. These chewy, sweet butter pecan cookies with crispy edges and soft centers are the type of cookie that keep me coming back for “just one more”. A classic is a classic for a reason, and these taste like pure comfort!
A Great American Cookie Company Copycat Recipe!
TheseCopycat Great American Cookie Company Chewy Pecan Cookies are an absolute dream! I found many versions of the recipe when I was doing my cookie research and came up with a version that holds true to the original, while also incorporating a few of my own tweaks. What I landed on is a delicious and easy cookie recipe with the flavor as close to the original as I could get!
Pecan Cookie Ingredients:
For the full recipe and ingredient like CLICK HERE
Room temperature butter.I prefer using salted butter in this recipe because there is no additional salt added, except in the self rising flour. You can absolutely use unsalted if you are salt-sensitive, or watching your sodium intake.
Light brown sugar
Vanilla extract
Large eggs
Crushed corn flakes.You will want to finely crush the corn flakes, with no large pieces. The corn flakes add texture to the cookie, so don’t crush them into a dust, but you don’t really want to “see” the flakes.
Self-rising flour. I don’t normally bake cookies with self-rising flour, but as I did research on this recipe, all the versions that I came across used self-rising. And since this is essentially a “copycat” cookie recipe, I wanted to keep the integrity of the recipe intact.
Chopped pecans. You can buy the pre-chopped pecans at the supermarket, but I would give them another chop. You don’t want very large pieces of pecans in the cookie.
Why Self Rising Flour?
As I stated above, this is a copycat cookie from the Great American Cookie Company. In all the research I did for the recipe, every version I saw included self-rising flour instead of all purpose. I wanted my interpretation to be as authentic as possible, so I chose to use self-rising flour as well. However, you can absolutely sub out all purpose flour for the self rising. Here are two options how:
1 cup all purpose flour + 1/2 teaspoon baking soda + 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup all purpose flour + 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder + 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together for 2 minutes on medium speed, creaming until pale in color and fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary. Alternately you can do with this a hand mixer and a large bowl.
Turn the mixer to low and add in the corn flakes and flour until just combined.
Add in the pecans and mix until evenly incorporated.
Using a medium (2- tablespoon) sized cookie scoop, portion the dough out and place onto the lined baking pan 3- inches apart. The cookies will spread while baking. If you don’t have a cookie scoop, roll into balls and place on the baking sheet. You don’t need to chill the dough, but you can if you would like to!
Bake for 9 – 11 minutes, until the edges are golden and the tops are set.
Allow the cookies to cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Equipment Needed:
No special equipment is needed for this recipe, here’s what you will need:
Baking Sheet
Parchment Paper
Stand Mixer
Paddle Attachment
Rubber Spatula
Cutting board and Chefs Knife to chop the pecans
Blender or Food Processor to crush the corn flakes.
These cookies are very straightforward, and you should have great success, but here are a few tips to make them perfect:
Using a cookie scoop is key to ensure all the cookies are the same size. This is great for aesthetics, but also ensures even baking.
Taking cookie size to the next level, you can use a food scale to weigh your dough out when portioning it for the cookies. 45 grams of dough is what I would recommend for each cookie.
If you don’t have a cookie scoop, roll the dough into balls and place on the baking sheet. This helps as they bake and spread to stay in that perfect circular shape.
As soon as they come out of the oven you can use a spatula to shape the cookies back into perfect circles if they appear misshapen.
Can You Freeze These Cookies?
Yes absolutely! You can either freeze the cookies are they are baked, or you can freeze the dough before baking. Check out my fill post onhow to freeze cookie dough. It will change your life!
More Pecan Recipes:
My MEGA popularPecan Pie Recipe! It’s always a hit!
Cornstarch helps product soft and thick cookies. Using more brown sugar than white sugar results in a moister, softer cookie. An extra egg yolk increases chewiness. Rolling the cookie dough balls to be tall and lumpy instead of wide and smooth gives the cookies a bakery-style textured thickness.
White sugar creates crispier cookies and brown sugar creates chewier cookies. Why use melted butter? Melted butter creates cookies with a different texture compared to cookies made with softened or creamed butter. When butter is melted, it coats the flour more evenly, resulting in cookies that are chewier and denser.
“You can count on [it for] a softer and more tender crumb.” “A bonus benefit is it prevents the cookie from spreading too much while baking,” he adds, noting that a more compact, thick cookie typically yields a chewier outcome. But incorporating cornstarch isn't the only tip to make a cookie more palatable.
Using too much flour will make your cookies too cakey, so try reducing the flour amount by two tablespoons. Avoid using cake flour instead; try a mix of all-purpose flour and bread flour for a more dense and chewy texture. Using too much baking powder. According to the science geeks at Serious Eats—we love you!
Salted butter, softened – I prefer salted butter but you can also use unsalted and add an extra pinch of salt to the dough. Brown sugar – Just brown sugar because we will get the 'granulated sugar' flavor from the corn syrup. Corn syrup – The corn syrup is what makes these cookies CHEWY FOR DAYS.
For soft cookies, use: Brown sugar, as it has a high moisture content and retains moisture better than white sugar. Also, when combined with eggs, brown sugar can prevent spreading (taller cookies tend to be softer and fluffier). Shortening instead of butter or in addition to butter.
Cookies that are dense and chewy incorporate more moisture into the batter. This can be achieved by making substitutions with wet and dry ingredients, or even just changing the way you incorporate certain ingredients. Plus, your particular baking technique and your method of storing cookies can also play a role.
Eggs bind the ingredients and make for moist, chewy cookies. Adding too many eggs can result in gummy, cake-like cookies. Adding too few eggs can result in dry, crumbly cookies.
Hard cookies: you are over mixing, baking too long, baking at too high a temperature, or some combination of these. Cakey cookies: not enough brown sugar, too much or too little egg, too much flour, maybe you used baking powder instead of baking soda?
Here's a baker's trick you'll find in our new Monster Cookies recipe: Adding a piece of fresh white bread to the storage container will keep cookies from becoming hard or stale.
Cream of tartar makes cookies chewy, as it precludes the sugar in the dough from crystalizing, which would lead to crispiness (ie: the opposite of chewiness).
Melted butter is important in cookie making because it helps create a unique texture and flavor that cannot be achieved with solid butter. During the melting process, the butter's water content evaporates, leaving only fat behind. This results in a more concentrated flavor and a softer texture in your cookies.
Refrigerate the remaining dough until it feels firm to the touch, one to two hours. This chills the butter, so it won't spread rapidly in the oven. Although your cookies won't be as fluffy as they might have been, they won't turn into pancakes.
Bread flour contains a higher protein content (around 12-14%), leading to more gluten development. This makes it ideal for bakers seeking a chewier texture in their cookies. The extra gluten can help retain gas and moisture, producing a denser and chewier result.
The easiest way to soften cookies with bread is to place the cookies in an airtight container with a slice of bread and leave them for a few hours. The bread will release moisture and help to rehydrate the cookies, making them soft and chewy once again.
Chilling your cookie dough for at least 24 hours or up to 72 hours does magical things to your cookies. Think of this like a “marinating” period. Not only will the flavors intensify, but the texture will also improve, so your cookies will bake up nice and thick and chewy.
Brown sugar is also hygroscopic (more so than granulated sugar) and will therefore also attract and absorb the liquid in the dough. The difference is in the molasses that makes brown sugar brown: It adds moisture and slight acidity, resulting in a moist and chewy texture.
The type of leavening you use in your cookies doesn't just help them rise while baking, it affects their texture and structure too. Baking soda in cookies yields a denser cookie with craggy tops, while baking powder causes cookies to rise higher during baking for a cakier texture.
Want to know what makes chocolate chip cookies even better? More butter, of course! The extra butter in these cookies makes them super tender. Everyone will wonder about your “secret ingredient,” but only you'll know the reason for the popularity of your easy chocolate chip cookies.
In cookies, softened butter will result in a cakier and airier cookie than using melted butter. This is due to the fact that softened butter will create air bubbles that expand in the oven during baking. Melted butter will make your cookies delightfully dense on the inside and crisp on the edges.
There's an ingredient that will make your cookies extra flexible and soft. It's corn syrup. That's it! That, my friend, is the secret ingredient to the best SOFTEST chocolate chip cookies.
The easiest way to soften cookies with bread is to place the cookies in an airtight container with a slice of bread and leave them for a few hours. The bread will release moisture and help to rehydrate the cookies, making them soft and chewy once again.
Add two tablespoons of light or dark brown sugar to your cookie recipe. Brown sugar can hold extra moisture because of its molecular structure (science!). The glucose and fructose found in it are hygroscopic, which means they suck up and hang onto moisture and moisture = soft, chewy cookies.
Eggs bind the ingredients and make for moist, chewy cookies. Adding too many eggs can result in gummy, cake-like cookies. Adding too few eggs can result in dry, crumbly cookies. Beat each one in separately and thoroughly.
Baking soda is typically used for chewy cookies, while baking powder is generally used for light and airy cookies. Since baking powder is comprised of a number of ingredients (baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch, etc.), using it instead of pure baking soda will affect the taste of your cookies.
Introduction: My name is Van Hayes, I am a thankful, friendly, smiling, calm, powerful, fine, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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