Chewy Pecan Cookies - A Great American Cookie Company Copycat Recipe! (2024)

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.

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Soft and Chewy Pecan Cookies!

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!

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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
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Instructions:

Click HERE for the full recipe.

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
  2. 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.
  3. Turn the mixer to low and add in the corn flakes and flour until just combined.
  4. Add in the pecans and mix until evenly incorporated.
  5. 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!
  6. Bake for 9 – 11 minutes, until the edges are golden and the tops are set.
  7. Allow the cookies to cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
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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.
  • Cookie scoop

Tips for Success

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!

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More Pecan Recipes:

  • My MEGA popularPecan Pie Recipe! It’s always a hit!
  • Pecan Pie Bars
  • Southern Pecan Bread
  • Sour Cream Candied Pecans
  • Candied Pecans
  • Chocolate Pecan Pie
  • Pecan Pie Brownies
  • Pecan Sour Cream Coffee Cake
  • Pecan Pie Muffins

PIN for later:

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Chewy Pecan Cookies - A Great American Cookie Company Copycat Recipe! (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to chewy cookies? ›

Cornstarch gives the cookies that ultra soft consistency we all love. Plus, it helps keep the cookies beautifully thick. We use the same trick when making shortbread cookies. Egg yolk: Another way to promise a super chewy chocolate chip cookie is to use an extra egg yolk.

What makes cookies chewy vs crunchy? ›

The ingredients you use and how you shape your cookies both play an important role in whether your cookies turn out crispy or chewy. The type of flour and sugar you use, if your cookie dough contains eggs, and whether you use melted or softened butter all factor into the crispy-chewy equation, too.

What adds moisture to cookies? ›

Use a higher ratio of brown sugar to white sugar. Brown sugar contains molasses, which adds moisture to the cookie dough and helps create a softer texture. Use melted butter instead of room-temperature butter. Melted butter incorporates more easily into the dough, creating a more cohesive and pliable dough.

How do you make cookies fluffy instead of flat? ›

Try using baking powder instead of baking soda. Baking soda encourages spreading while baking powder puffs the cookies up. If your recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of baking soda, you would use 3 to 4 teaspoons of baking powder.

What are 3 factors that contribute to a chewy cookie? ›

There are a few things you can try to get soft, chewy chocolate chip cookies:
  • Use a higher ratio of brown sugar to white sugar. ...
  • Use more egg yolks and less egg whites. ...
  • Add a bit of cornstarch to the dough. ...
  • Make sure you're using the right type of flour. ...
  • Don't over-bake the cookies.
May 17, 2018

Should I use baking soda or baking powder in cookies? ›

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.

What ingredient contributes most to the texture of a crisp cookie? ›

Fat is a very important ingredient in cookies – it tenderizes, crisps and browns, adds color and a wonderful flavor that is impossible to duplicate. Butter, our fat of choice, ensures good baking results and adds the most desirable taste, texture and appearance.

What does brown sugar do in cookies? ›

Brown sugar, meanwhile, is dense and compacts easily, creating fewer air pockets during creaming—that means that there's less opportunity to entrap gas, creating cookies that rise less and spread more. With less moisture escaping via steam, they also stay moist and chewy.

What does adding cornstarch to cookies do? ›

Cookies. Cornstarch does kind of incredible things to cookies. I mean not only does it give them soft centers, prevents them from spreading, and makes them somewhat thick (in a good way), but it also contributes to the chewiness factor, which, in my opinion, is the most important cookie attribute.

What is the secret ingredient to keep cookies soft? ›

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.

What makes a cookie dense and chewy? ›

Well, the long and short answer to chewy cookies is it's all about the moisture content. 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.

Does adding more baking powder make cookies fluffier? ›

In this series of photos, you can see that as we increase the baking powder, the cookies tend to rise a little more, but only to a certain point. Eventually, the reaction is so strong and violent that it will actually cause those air pockets to rupture and collapse, delivering a denser, squatter cookie.

What makes cookies chewy butter or shortening? ›

Cookies Made with Butter vs Shortening

Those made with only shortening bake higher and spread less during baking. The butter cookie provides better flavor and a crispier exterior with browning around edges and a chewy interior; the shortening cookie spreads less, holding its shape better while baking.

Why does melted butter make cookies chewy? ›

This simple switch frees up the water content of the butter so that it can freely interact with the flour in the dough or batter. This allows gluten—the protein that gives baked goods their chew—to develop.

What makes cookies chewy baking soda or baking powder? ›

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.

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