Chicago Magazine Maple-Pecan Cookies

I’ve been in a bit of a Christmas cookie rut, but thanks to Chicago Magazine, I have an interesting Christmas cookie to share. In fact, it just might be the best snowball type cookie ever! The recipe is Sandra Holl’s Maple-Pecan Cookies, and it’s featured in the December issue in an article about Nielsen-Massey vanilla.

There were a couple of things that drew me to this recipe. First, it’s from the pastry chef at Floriole, one of my favorite bakeries in town. Second, because I’m on a pasture butter kick and it seemed perfect for showcasing it. And finally, because my husband recently brought back a bunch of Berdoll pecans from Austin. They’re so good! I miss Texas pecans.

Here’s the recipe as I made it. The original recipe didn’t call for toasting the pecans, so you can skip that if you prefer. I always like them toasted. The flavors of the toasted pecans, orange, vanilla and maple were just perfect.

Print Recipe

Chicago Magazine Maple-Pecan Cookies

These light, crumbly, pecan, orange, vanilla and maple flavored cookies are from Sandra Holl, the pastry chef at Chicago's Floriole.

Prep Time45 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Total Time1 hr 5 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 24

Author: Cookie Madness

Ingredients

• 2 sticks 232 grams good quality butter, unsalted (I used lightly salted), room temperature
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar plus more as needed for rolling
• Zest of half an orange I used 2 teaspoons and would not use more
• 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour I used 250 grams
• 1 1/2 cups ground pecans toast before grinding (140 grams)

Instructions

• With a hand-held mixer, beat the butter and powdered sugar until creamy. Beat in the orange zest, maple syrup, vanilla and salt.
• By hand, stir in the flour until fully blended, then stir in the pecans.
• Cover bowl and chill dough for about 30 minutes.
• Using a rounded tablespoon OR a medium size cookie scoop, scoop out 24 rounds.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and bake cookies for 20 minutes or until they are golden.
• I baked the cookies in a convection toaster oven and they were done in 18 minutes.
• Remove cookies from the tray and let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Roll cookies in reserved powdered sugar.