Pecan brittle & oat cookies

Hello, it’s been a very cool summer but some friends were brave enough to host a BBQ on the long weekend at the end of May. I had a bag of unopened pecans and I knew exactly which recipe I wanted to try – Dessert Person’s pecan brittle & oat cookies. It starts with a pecan brittle (basically making a caramel with toasted pecans and get it to harden) and it could end there, to be honest – it is absolutely delicious and took all my willpower not to snack on it.

It is then blitzed with oats in a food processor, so there is pecan brittle in the batter itself, on top of bits of it being added to the cookie. I knew this was going to be a long process, so made a larger recipe because the dough can be refrigerated / frozen so there was fresh cookies all week long.

This is worth the faff, but I previously made a less faffy chocolate & pecan oat cookies (tastes different as it doesn’t have pecan brittle).

• Servings: 40
• Time: 4 hours
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• Note that this batter has brown butter but instead of browning ALL the butter, half the butter is browned and the other is cubed and cold. The butter needs to be set aside to cool – so you can make the brown butter first and while it’s setting aside to be cooled, make the pecan brittle.
• The eggs have to be cold, as it helps to bring the temperature of the butter down, so keep it in the fridge.
• I read various comments about the cookie spreading way too thin, so I added 10% more flour to the mixture. Note that the cookie batter is very soft, so I refrigerated it for about an hour before shaping into dough balls.
• I would strongly recommend refrigerating the dough balls overnight before baking as the flavours will meld more and it gets more butterscotch-y.
• Recipe adapted from Dessert Person

Ingredients

Pecan brittle:

• 200g (1½ cups) whole pecans, coarsely chopped
• 210g (1 cup) granulated sugar
• 80g (¼ cup + 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons water
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon flaky sea salt

Cookie:

• 320g (2¾ stick) unsalted butter, divided (half should be cold) and cubed
• 265g (2 cups + 3 tablespoons) flour
• 2 teaspoon flaky sea salt
• 1½ teaspoon baking soda
• 280g (3 cups) old-fashioned rolled oats – not instant or quick-cooking
• 180g (¾ cup + 2 tablespoon) dark brown sugar
• 120g (½ cup + 2 tablespoon) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, cold
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

Pecan brittle:

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF) and line a small baking sheet with parchment paper, a silicone baking mat, or lightly greased foil. Spread 200g (1½ cups) chopped pecans on another baking sheet and toast in the oven, stirring midway during baking until they’re light golden brown and smell toasty, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
2. In a small or medium saucepan, combine 210g (1 cup) granulated sugar, 80g (¼ cup + 2 tablespoons) butter, and 3 tablespoons water. Have ¾ teaspoon of baking soda and ½ teaspoon salt measured out and close by. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a heatproof spatula, until the sugar is dissolved. Continue to cook, without stirring, but swirling the pan to keep the mixture cooking evenly until it turns a deep amber color, similar in color to a cup of coffee with a touch of milk added, which will take 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and immediately stir in the pecan pieces until well coated, then quickly stir in the baking soda and salt. Still working quickly, scrape the mixture on the prepared baking sheet and spread it as evenly as possible. Set aside to cool completely. Once cool, chop the brittle into pieces the size of large peas with a chef’s knife. (If you plan to finish making the cookie dough later, store the brittle bits in an airtight container. Scrape all the tiny bits of the brittle left on the cutting board too.

Cookie:

1. Place half (160g) of the cold cubed butter in a large bowl and put the other 160g in a medium skillet or saucepan. Melt the butter over medium heat, stirring and scraping the bottom and sides of the pan frequently with a heatproof spatula. The butter will start to sputter and foam, and then begin to brown. Keep cooking the butter just until you see browned bits floating it in. Remove from the heat and pour it over the cubed butter in the mixing bowl, scraping any and all brown bits in the pan into the butter. Let cool for about 30 minutes, until the two butters start to become solid again.
2. While the butter is cooling, put 265g (2 cups + 3 tablespoons) flour, 2 teaspoon flaky sea salt and 1½ teaspoon baking soda in a food processor. Pulse it once or twice then add 140g (1½ cup) of the oats and half of the chopped pecan brittle. Pulse until the ingredients are finely ground together.
3. To the large bowl of butter, add 180g (¾ cup + 2 tablespoon) brown sugar and 120g (½ cup + 2 tablespoon) granulated sugar. Mix for two minutes at medium speed until thoroughly combined and smooth, but don’t overwhip the mixture as it cause the cookies to spread too much.
4. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula then add 2 eggs and 2 teaspoon vanilla and mix 1 minute more, then stir in the flour/oat/brittle mixture and continue to mix until there are no dry spots. You may want to stop the mixer and do this final step by hand so the ingredients get combined properly. Add the remaining pecan brittle bits and oats and stir until they are well-combined with the dough.
5. If the dough is very soft, refrigerate for about an hour then scoop the dough into ¼ cup rounds (about 45g each) on a parchment covered small baking sheet. Cover the dough tightly and refrigerate for 12 hours, or up to 4 or 5 days.
6. To bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Place the oven racks on the bottom and top third of the oven and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 6 rounds of dough evenly spaced apart (by at least 3-inches/7cm) on the baking sheets and bake the cookies, rotating the baking sheets midway during baking, turning them from front to back, and switching the baking sheets from the top to bottom racks in the oven, until they are light golden brown across the top and deep golden brown around the edges, about 10 – 12 minutes.
7. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire cooling rack. Bake the rest of the cookies on the baking sheet – it’s okay if it’s still slightly warm.