Thick and chewy Butter Pecan Cookies... made with brown butter! YUM.

Ingredients

For the Buttered Pecans:

1 and 1/2 cups pecan halves, finely chopped

1 and 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

For the Butter Pecan Cookies:

2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 and 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, melted until browned

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large eggs, at room temperature

16 pecan halves, for decoration, optional

Instructions

For the Buttered Pecans:

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add in chopped pecans and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 to 5 minutes, or until lightly toasted. Set aside until needed.

For the Butter Pecan Cookies:

In a large bowl combine flour, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, and baking soda; whisk well to combine then set aside until needed.

Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat; continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. Remove pan from heat and pour butter into a large, heatproof mixing bowl. Add in both sugars and whisk well to combine. Add in vanilla. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating until eggs are just combined.

Using a rubber spatula, fold in the flour, stirring until just combined. Fold in the buttered pecans.

Cover bowl and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, and up to 2 days. If you refrigerate for more than 4 hours, you'll need to let the dough sit at room temperature until it's scoopable.

To Bake:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Scoop 3 tablespoon sized rounds of dough onto the prepared sheet, leaving 2 inches in between each cookie for spreading. Firmly press a pecan half on top of each ball of cookie dough, if desired, then bake in preheated oven for 9 minutes, or until edges are set and the center is still a little jiggly. Sprinkle warm cookies with a little granulated sugar, if desired. Allow cookies to cool on the pan for 15 minutes, then carefully transfer to a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining cookie dough.

Notes

Cookies will stay "fresh" for 3 days when stored in an airtight container.

Cookie dough will keep in the fridge for 48 hours. Alternatively, you may scoop and freeze the cookie dough for up to 2 months. You will need to add an extra minute or two to the bake time if baking frozen dough.

You can make smaller sized cookies, but you'll need to decrease the bake time by a minute or two.

For decoration, you may sprinkle granulated sugar on the cookies right when they come out of the oven.

source: bakerbynature.com