If you're having people over and need a big batch of crowd-pleasing Thanksgiving-themed cookies, here's an idea -- Brown Butter Maple Toasted Pecan Sheet Pan Cookies. How's that for a name? They're thin, chewy, bar cookies loaded with toasted pecans and maple flavor.
Brown Butter Maple Pecan Cookie Flavor
Brown Butter Maple Toasted Pecan Cookie Bars are a one-pan, dessert that combines everything great about fall baking: nutty brown butter, real maple syrup (plus maple flavoring) and toasted pecans. Think of it as a maple-pecan cookie pizza -- crisp at the edges, soft in the middle, and designed for slicing into squares or wedges.
Maple Flavoring & No Ick Factor
Maple syrup adds sweetness and very subtle maple flavor, but for more of a maple punch you have to bring in the big guns -- maple extract or maple flavoring. McCormick's is very potent. You have to be careful using it or you'll smell like pancakes all day, but it's good baked into cookies. I also love OliveNation's maple flavoring, which is less intense.
9x13 Inch Pan Size
This recipe fits a 9x13 inch sheet pan, but if you don't have that size you could use a regular 9x13 inch cake pan or even two 8-inch square pans. Here's a picture of the pan I used along with the dough. I covered my pan with foil for two reasons. First, my pans are not in the best shape due to constant use. Second, the foil makes it easy to lift the bars out and slice. For extra flavor, grease the foil with some salted butter.
Maple Glaze or Icing
I tested with a couple of different maple glazes and like my old standby (the one on the bottom) the best. It's similar to the one I use on these pumpkin cookies and on my pumpkin cake, but doesn't call for any maple syrup, just maple flavoring. It also calls for a bit of cream. If you don't have the cream, you can use a combination of whole milk and a tiny bit of butter.
Why Organic Powdered Sugar
One last note! You may notice I put "organic" powdered sugar. The reason is that I've found the organic kind tastes cleaner and doesn't develop that weird flavor regular powdered sugar sometimes takes on. If you know, you know. So far, the organic type has kept a very neutral. The brand I use is Simple Truth.
Recipe
Brown Butter Toasted Pecan Maple Sheet Pan Cookie
Ingredients
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter plus extra butter for greasing pan (170 grams)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar (150 grams)
- ¾ cup packed light brown sugar (150 grams)
- 1 large egg room temp
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon maple extract
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup (60 grams)
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (290 grams)
- 1 cup toasted pecans, chopped
Maple Glaze
- ¾ cup powdered sugar, preferably organic (90 grams)
- 3 tablespoons cream
- ½ teaspoon maple flavoring
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x13 inch sheet pan with foil. Grease using your preferred method, but I recommend usings a little salted butter for extra flavorful edges.
- Melt the 1 ½ sticks of butter in a saucepan over medium heat, swirling pan frequently, until it becomes fragrant, foamy, and golden brown with toasted milk-solids at the bottom.
- Pour it into a mixing bowl, scraping in the browned solids, and let cool for about 10 minutes while you toast the pecans.
- To toast the pecans, lay them on a baking sheet and bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes. The time will vary based on size of pecan halves and sometimes even the type of pecan. Check as early as 7 minutes if using very small pecans. Let them cool, then chop.
- Whisk the brown and white sugars into the melted butter, then whisk in egg, yolk, vanilla, maple extract and maple syrup until glossy.
- In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt, and baking soda.
- With a heavy duty scraper, stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture to make a soft dough. Stir in the toasted chopped pecans.
- Empty dough into the pan and press into the pan evenly. You may want to do this by laying a sheet of parchment over the dough and pressing down. If you have a second 9x13 inch pan, use it as a press to press evenly.
- Bake for about 24 minutes at 350F or until edges or golden and bars appear set. Let cool while you make the glaze.
Maple Glaze
- Sift the powdered sugar. This is important.
- In a small saucepan, preferably nonstick, warm the cream. Add the sifted powdered sugar and stir over very low heat with a heat-proof silicone scraper until smooth. Remove from heat, add the maple flavoring and stir until smooth. If the glaze is too soft and runny, let cool slightly, otherwise, drizzle it over the bars and let set.
- Note: If you don't have cream, you can use a combination of whole milk and a tiny bit of butter. 2 ½ tablespoons of milk plus a teaspoon of butter should work.
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