Soft & Chewy Gluten-Free Butter Pecan Cookies
yields: 18 -20 cookies
These gluten-free butter pecan cookies are rich, buttery, and packed with toasted pecans in every bite. With crispy edges and a soft chewy center, they’re the ultimate holiday cookie.
Ingredients
- 112 g (1 cup) super-fine blanched almond flour
- 84 g (¾ cup) Bob’s Red Mill tapioca flour
- 70 g (¼ cup + 3 tablespoons) sweet rice flour, also called mochiko; do not substitute white or brown rice flour
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 78 g (¼ cup + 2 tablespoons) granulated sugar
- 100 g (½ cup) light brown sugar, preferably organic
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 4 oz (1 cup) toasted pecan pieces
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a medium bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a medium bowl with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract, mixing until just combined, scraping down the sides as needed. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing until combined. Add the pecan pieces and mix until just evenly distributed.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, drop 2 tablespoon-size balls of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart. Chill the cookie dough balls while you preheat the oven.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Working in batches, bake the chilled cookies on the middle rack for 8-9 minutes, until the edges are just set but the centers still look underbaked. Note: if you chill the cookie dough for longer than an hour, you'll need to add 1-2 minutes to your bake time.
- For perfectly round cookies, place a round cutter or the rim of a large glass over each cookie and gently swirl it around. This helps reshape any uneven edges into perfect circles while the cookies are still soft, and, in my opinion, makes the edges taste even better.
- Let cool on the baking sheet for 2-4 min before using a thin metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Video
Notes
Dairy-free
Simply replace the butter with a firm plant-based butter, such as Miyoko’s or Country Crock plant butter.If your cookies spread too much:
I always bake off 1 or 2 tester cookies first so I can make adjustments as needed. If your cookies spread too much, there are two likely culprits. If your flour was not measured properly or you used a different brand of gluten-free flour, your cookies may spread. I recommend always measuring by WEIGHT not volume and using any specific flour brands listed here. Alternatively, they could spread because the cookie dough was too soft. Make sure the butter isn’t overly soft or melted when adding it to the cookies, or if it is, chill the dough in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking to help prevent excessive spreading.Butter Pecan Cookie Variations
Here are a few additional ways I've baked these cookies before if you want to mix things up a bit!
- Maple Icing: Drizzle the cooled cookies with an icing made my mixing 1 cup powdered sugar, ¼ cup maple syrup, and 1 tablespoon melted butter.
- Chocolate Pecan Cookies: Add 1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate to the dough for a chocolatey twist.
- Toffee Pecan Cookies: Add 1 cup toffee chips to the dough.
- Cinnamon Sugar Coating: Roll the cookie dough balls in a mixture of ¼ cup granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon before baking for a buttery snickerdoodle-like twist.
- Pecans on Top: Press 2-3 pecans or large pecan pieces into the top of each cookie dough ball before baking. This will add even more toastiness and crunch to every bite.
