This butterscotch cookies recipe make the most perfectly soft, buttery and crumbly cookies with a delightful combination of rich butterscotch flavor and satisfying crunch of pecans. With their delicate and melt in your mouth shortbread-like texture, these cookies are a true delight for butterscotch cookie lovers.
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❤️Why you will love this recipe
- This is an easy cookie recipe with fairly simple and basic ingredients.
- The cookies have a perfect combination of butterscotch flavor and pecan nuts.
- These homemade cookies have the most perfect cookie texture with their soft and crumbly, melt in your mouth texture.
- The recipe makes absolutely delicious cookies, they will become your next family favorite.
- The cookies make great festive treats for the holiday season, as gifts and they are also great as an everyday snack with a cold glass of milk.
Like this recipe? Here are my other cookie recipes you might want to check out:
📋Ingredients
- All purpose flour + baking powder + salt - combine and sift these together to break any lumps before mixing into the cookie dough.
- Butter - I used salted butter, but if you prefer to use unsalted butter, add a small pinch of extra salt in the recipe.
- Soft dark brown sugar -adds a lovely depth in flavor in the cookies.
- Egg yolk - helps to hold the dough, the butterscotch chips and pecans together.
- Vanilla extract - adds a lovely flavor to the cookies.
- Chopped pecan nuts - The pecan nuts I had were whole unroasted ones, so I chopped them into large chunks (into halves and thirds) and dry roasted them for a few minutes. I let them cool down before adding them to the butterscotch sugar cookie dough.
- Butterscotch morsels (chips) - contribute to the lovely butterscotch taste and flavor in the cookies.
*Refer to the recipe card below for full list of ingredients and exact quantities. For best results, use a digital kitchen scale where applicable*
🧾Substitution and Variations
- Dark brown sugar can be replaced with light brown sugar or even granulated sugar (white sugar). Use the exact same quantity as indicated in the recipe card below.
- Pecan nuts can be replaced with any other nuts of your choice. Macadamia nuts are a good choice.
- In addition to the sweet butterscotch chips, you can also include chocolate chips (milk chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips or dark chocolate chips) to make butterscotch chocolate chip cookies. If you wish to include chocolate chips, reduce the butterscotch chips to 50g or 75g and replace the balance with the chocolate chips.
This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you do try, please let me know in the comments section below!
👩🍳How to Make
Mixing the dough
If you are using whole unroasted pecan nuts, you will need to chop them into small pieces and dry roast them in a pan over low heat. Keep the heat low and keep stirring the nuts to avoid them from browning too much. Remove the nuts from the heat when they are have browned lightly and set them aside in a large bowl to cool down completely.
- To mix the cookie dough, start by creaming the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer (stand mixer or hand mixer) in a mixing bowl. Do not overbeat, suffice if the mixture appears creamy. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and continue beating until all traces of the egg and vanilla are no longer visible.
- Combine flour, baking powder and salt and sift them. Fold these dry ingredients (flour mixture) into the creamed wet ingredients mixture.
- Mix until the dough comes together.
- Add in the butterscotch chips and chopped pecans and mix until they are well incorporated.
Shaping the cookies
- Scoop cookie dough into 1 tablespoons sizes. I used my measuring spoon to scoop the dough so that my cookies are of consistent size, but you can also do it free form by pinching the dough via estimation. You can also use any cookie scoop with a 1 tablespoon capacity. Shape the cookie dough into round balls.
- Drop the cookie dough balls into a round cookie cutter.
- And flatten them with your fingers.
- Carefully remove the butterscotch cookie dough from the round cutters by pushing them out gently with your thumb or the ends of a small rolling pin.
- Place the cookies onto a parchment paper lined (or baking sheet or cookie sheet lined) baking tray, and position them slightly apart from one another. The cookies do not spread during baking and they only puff up very slightly.
- Bake cookies at 160°Celsius for a bake time of 15 minutes. The cookies will turn golden brown on the sides and edges when done.
- Remove the butterscotch brown sugar cookies from the oven and let them rest on the tray for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely to room temperature.
- Store the butterscotch chips cookies in an air-tight container or cookie jar. This recipe makes about 35 butterscotch sugar cookies.
🍽️Serving & storage
- These butterscotch sugar cookies can last for a good 2 to 3 weeks, provided they are kept in an airtight container. This will ensure they remain crumbly and the nuts remain crunchy.
💡Expert Tips
- Use high-quality ingredients. Opt for real butter and pure vanilla extract to enhance the flavor of the cookies.
- Toasting the pecans before adding them to the cookie dough brings out their natural oils and enhances their nutty flavor. Simply chop the nuts and dry roast them over low heat until they become crunchy and fragrant. Let them cool before incorporating into the dough.
💭FAQs
Can you adjust the amount of butterscotch chips and pecan nuts in this recipe?
Yes, you can.
While reducing the butterscotch chips and pecan nuts in the recipe is perfectly fine, do note that increasing too much might render it hard to shape the cookies. You will need sufficient dough to hold these chips and nuts together, so if you add too much, the cookie dough might not be sufficient to hold them together to form into the round cookies.
Can you omit the pecan nuts in the recipe?
Yes, you can. You can totally omit them or you can replace them with any other nuts you like.
❤️More Recipes You Will Love
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📖Recipe
Pecan Butterscotch Cookies
Butterscotch cookies with a perfectly buttery, soft and crumbly texture. These thick pecan filled cookies make great holiday gifts too!
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Yield: 35 cookies
For best results, use the metrics measurements. US customary measurements have not been tested and are only meant for guide.
Ingredients
- 200 g all purpose flour
- 150 g butter (salted)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 100 g soft dark brown sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 100 g pecans
- 100 g butterscotch chips
Instructions
- Pre heat oven to 175℃. Spread the pecans onto a parchment paper lined baking tray and dry roast in the oven for 7 minutes. Check halfway through and turn the nuts over if they are browning too much on the top.
- Remove the nuts from oven and let them cool slightly before chopping into small pieces. Set aside to cool completely (see Note 1).
- Adjust the oven temperature to pre heat at 160°Celsius. Line baking trays with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, measure butter and brown sugar and beat until creamy. Scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and continue beating until all traces of the egg are no longer visible and the vanilla is well incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Mix with a hand whisk.
- Sift the dry ingredients (flour mixture) into the creamed mixture. Mix on low speed until well combined. Use a spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Add the chopped pecans and butterscotch chips. Mix with a spatula to distribute the nuts and chips and then press the dough together into a ball (see Note 2).
- Pinch small amounts of the dough and press it into a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon. Scoop the dough out and form into a ball (see Note 3 for other options).
- Drop the dough balls into a round cookie cutter (1.5inches or 4 cm in diameter) and press to level it with your fingers or the end of a small rolling pin.
- Gently push the shaped dough out of the cutter and place on the prepared baking trays (see Note 4 for other shaping options).
- Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes until they golden brown on the edges.
- Remove cookies from oven and let them cool on the baking tray for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store the cookies in an airtight container.
Notes
- If using chopped pecans, reduce the oven time to half. You can also roast the pecans over the stove. Place them in a dry skillet and cook them over low heat for about 5 minutes or until fragrant. Keep stirring to avoid them from burning and for even roasting.
- It is not advisable to use the cake mixer when mixing the butterscotch chips to prevent the chips from breaking.
- You can also use a cookie scoop to portion the dough but it may not be easy with the pecans in the dough. Other alternatives include pinching the dough into small balls by hand (by estimation), though you might end up with uneven cookie sizes.
- Other alternative shaping methods include rolling the dough into balls and flattening with a fork, your palms or the back of a glass.
Nutrition
Calories: 95.3kcal | Carbohydrates: 10.2g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 5.8g | Saturated Fat: 2.5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.8g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2.2g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 15.1mg | Sodium: 65.6mg | Potassium: 23.5mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 5.2g | Vitamin A: 119IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 10.4mg | Iron: 0.4mg
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