Here’s a great way to enjoy a holiday classic in a smaller bite. Stuffed in the sweet and soft buttery cookie is a pecan pie filling made untraditional with some chocolate and a peek-a-boo surprise of cardamom for some added spice. While this is not a Southern classic, it is a new pecan pie classic amongst my friends and me.
Pecan Pie Cookies
Here’s the thing-I like tweaking traditional and classic things be it baked goods or pretty much anything. It might be because I have been gifted with impatience and I’ve been bestowed with easily getting bored.
Hmm . . . or maybe it’s all the coffee I drink that keeps me so amped I can’t focus on things like the “traditional”. Well, whether, its caffeine loaded hands or wandering hands, I like getting topsy-turvy with things.
Pecan Pie Cookies
Although I should mention I’ve never been a huge pecan pie fan. I generally find it tooth achingly sweet. That is unless it has chocolate in it to break up the heavy sweetness of the corn syrup. With that in mind I wanted to add one more dimension, a spiced layer-enter cardamom.
I’m glad I did and I think you will too.
Now drop the fork and get ready to go hand to mouth with this classic pie turned cookie with a few sideways tweaking. And since it’s a cookie you can totally have three of these babies before it equals a slice of pie.
A few notes:
- As always your palate your preference, skip the cardamom if it’s too untraditional for you. For those that don’t have or like cardamom but still want a spiced kick try replacing with cinnamon.
- Toasted nuts make a huge difference in baked goods, so don’t skip it or else you’ll miss out on some deep robust flavors. To toast the pecans: lay them on a bake sheet at 425 degrees for F for about 5-7minutes, tossing nuts half way through.
- For the chocolate, I used dark 65% cacao chocolate since that’s my preference, but milk chocolate will work just as well.
Pecan Pie Cookies
Makes approximately two dozen 2 inch cookies
Preparation: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line bake sheets with parchment.
Ingredients:
Cookie portion:
- ½ cup butter
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup confectioner sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups flour
Pecan Filling:
- 1 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
- 4 ¼ oz chocolate, 65% cacao, melted
- 1 tablespoon of corn syrup
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon cardamom
Drizzle Finish:
- 2oz. chocolate, melted
Instructions:
- Cream butter, brown sugar and confectioner sugar until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl lightly beat egg, vanilla, baking soda and salt. Add egg mixture to creamed butter mixture and mix to combine. Using a wooden spoon or sturdy spatula fold in flour. Chill dough for at least 45 minutes.
- While the dough is chilling, place pecans, melted chocolate, heavy cream, corn syrup, and cardamom in a bowl and mix to combine.
- To assemble: Scoop out approximately 1 ½ tablespoon of dough and flatten it into one hand, then scoop out one heaping teaspoon of pecan filling and place it in the center of flatten dough. Bring the edges of the dough to the center press dough together so that it seals the filling in. Place dough stuffed cookies, seam side down on parchment lined bake sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for about 10-12 minutes or until edges start to turn golden brown. Remove from oven and allow cookies to rest on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
- Using a mini whisk or spoon or fork, finish cookies with chocolate drizzle.
Welcome to my cozy corner where baking meets random thoughts and musings. I’m a self-taught baker sharing all things sweet (and some savory—okay, and cocktails) with a whisk in one hand and a camera in the other. 
love that you made this into a cookie, GENIUS!
You are so talented and your pics are always mouth-watering. These look great!
I’m not a huge fan of the pie version either, but I love this cookie twist!
oh wow love these!
The insides of those cookies is amazing!
They do look amazing! My FIL would call these sacrilege because he’s such a purist when it comes to pecan pie…you should have seen when I made a pecan pie for Thanksgiving…oh geez! I would call these wonderful!!
My family may love me or hate me for this one. . . we shall see. This look so good and I love this pecan pie cookie idea. Genius!!!
you are so creative! i’m always impressed with the new cookies/bark/everything you come up with! these cookies are no exception… love the look of them & they sound amazing
What kind of chocolate? Semi-sweet? bittersweet? Chocolate chips?
Naomi replied: — November 11th, 2011 @ 7:26 pm
Hey Paula | Salad in a Jar – I used dark, but that’s my personal preference. Milk chocolate will just as well.
the pie filling is INSIDE the cookie! you’re amazing! 😀 I want to gobble all of these up right now
These look amazing! I am pinning this so I have it for later. Perfect for Thanksgiving. You have a good point about eating more to equal a slice of pie! Have a great weekend
Love this recipe! Will definitely use this for a cookie exchange party coming up.
Aha! It’s the caffeine! Now I know your secret 😉
This is such a great idea. Too bad for my roommates, since I will probably eat more than I share.
The inside of those cookies looks so good! I adore pecan pie, but don’t always want an entire pie in the house. These cookies are the perfect solution!
They look so yummy! I can’t wait to try them out.
My favorite pie in the form of a cookie. What more could I ask for!?
I love pecan pie in any form. The addition to cardamom in these cookies is pure genius
Okay. Winner. These look incredible and the pictures too!
These look wonderful. Just like you, I’m not a huge pecan pie fan….but I’m “sold” on these cookies. Gotta try your recipe soon.
Have a good weekend.
Yum. I love this idea! Pecan pie and cookies together. My dreams have come true.
Pecan pie and cookies in a small irresistible bite! Who could resist them!
So its caffeine. he he, who knew? I love everything you put in cookie form and this one is one of the best. That cookies stacked up shot is so close and crisp. Love it
Cardamon sounds like a really interesting addition to the flavours. Lovely inversion with the cookies too – very inventive!
Absolutely love this idea and cannot wait to try it myself!
I don’t bake a lot and really wanted to add some variety to my old standard Christmas cookies so I was really excited to try these. I think they turned out pretty well, but I was wondering if you could troubleshoot a few things for me. First I was not able to assemble them according to the directions, the dough kept cracking and I ended up patting out 2 circles of dough and sealing the edges together. I am wondering if my dough was too dry, although it felt pretty soft and pliable. I live in Colorado and sometimes the flour here is just so dry. If I am making bread I often have to add more liquid. With cookie dough I am not sure how to adjust for that and I was afraid to add anything. The cookies came out very pretty at first but they were also quite large, I ended up getting 18 out of the batch. The last batch browned a little too much even though I cut the baking time to about 9 minutes. Do you think that is because the dough warmed up too much from handling it? Also the filling seemed a little dry, not like the picture you have. Finally, I never seem to be able to get chocolate melted to the right consistency for drizzling. I have read dozens of instructions for drizzling chocolate and it just never works for me. I use a metal bowl over a pan of water and I am careful not to let the steam come up and seize the chocolate but the only thing I can think of is that I am heating it too fast or using the wrong chocolate. I use Ghiradelli semi sweet chips most of the time. It melts to a smooth consistency but will not drizzle so I end up with large globs. Any tips on how I can get a pretty drizzle? I am making another batch of these tomorrow because I had a lot of extra filling. I would love to get these perfected so I can include them in my gift boxes. My family are big pecan pie fans. We have a bourbon chocolate pecan pie recipe that is a favorite, what do you think about adding some bourbon to that filling? Would that be possible? Love your site!