Pecan Streusel Cookies. Soft, cake like, caramel flavored cookies with a hint of vanilla and cinnamon. Topped with brown sugar, pecan, cinnamon streusel.
I’m a big fan of coffee cake. Sweet, moist, delicious cake topped with a rich crumble topping prepared from butter, brown sugar cinnamon, and handfuls of chopped nuts.
The simple, airy cake batter is spread into the baking pan. Cold butter is cut into the mix of brown sugar, cinnamon, and nuts to create pebble size chunks of crumble goodness. The massive mound of crumble gets spread over the cake batter. Into the oven. That’s where the magic happens. As the cake bakes, it pops up through the crumble, while some of the crumble makes its way down to the bottom of the pan. The result is a cake with ripples of buttery brown sugar cinnamon running randomly from top to bottom, side to side.
Its breakfast cake. The perfect snack cake. You don’t need a knife to cut it, you can just sort of grab at it. And it begs for a cup of coffee or milk. Its comfort food. It’s fall season food. It’s also a cake you can riff on a thousand ways to accommodate your mood or taste.
These pecan streusel cookies have a soft, cake like texture and a nice brown sugar cinnamon flavor. They’re like portable coffee cakes. Streusel inside, streusel on top.
Our cookie starts with butter. And 3 sugars. Dark brown sugar, light brown sugar, and what I like to call superfine sugar. Granulated sugar tossed in the blender for 10 seconds to make it a bit less grainy. Not quite confectioners’ sugar.
A single egg, Greek yogurt and mascarpone add moisture and create that tender bite. To round out the signature coffee cake flavor profile, we add vanilla bean paste, cinnamon, and a touch of fine sea salt.
The cookie dough gets scooped onto the baking sheet, and the brown sugar cinnamon pecan topping generously adorns each cookie. Baked golden, they are incredible warm, and still amazing several days later.
It’s a cookie worthy of your holiday cookie assortment.
Find Tartistry on: Pinterest Instagram and Facebook. Please feel free to leave comments and questions below. I would love to hear from you.
Pecan Streusel Cookies
Ingredients
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pecan Streusel
- 150 grams whole pecans (1-1/4 cups)
- 50 grams dark brown sugar (1/4 cup), packed
- 100 grams light brown sugar (1/2 cup), packed
- 3 grams ground cinnamon (1 teaspoon)
- 1 pinch ground nutmeg
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 42 grams unsalted butter (3 tablespoons), melted
Cookie Dough
- 113 grams unsalted butter (1 stick OR 1/2 cup)
- 50 grams egg (1 large)
- 50 grams dark brown sugar (1/4 cup), packed
- 50 grams light brown sugar (1/4 cup), packed
- 50 grams granulated sugar (1/2 cup), blended fine
- 140 grams Greek yogurt (1/2 cup)
- 56 grams mascarpone cheese (2 tablespoons), softened
- 10 grams vanilla bean paste or extract (2 teaspoons)
- 3 grams ground cinnamon (1 teaspoon)
- 5 grams baking powder (1 teaspoon)
- 5 grams baking soda (1 teaspoon)
- 3 grams sea salt (1/2 teaspoon)
- 325 grams all-purpose flour (2-1/2 cups)
Instructions
Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pecan Streusel
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Place pecans on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake in preheated oven 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool. Chop half the pecans in pieces.
- Add pecans, dark brown sugar, light brown sugar, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, and sea salt to small bowl. Stir to combine. Stir in melted butter.
Cookie Dough
- Add butter to saucepan. Heat over medium heat until butter begins to brown, swirling occasionally. Set aside to cool.
- Add egg, dark brown sugar, light brown sugar, and blended granulated sugar to stand mixer. Beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.
- Add Greek yogurt, mascarpone cheese, vanilla bean paste, ground cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt to sugar mixture. Mix about 1 minute to combine.
- Add browned butter to mixer. Beat just until combined.
- Remove bowl from mixer. Add flour to sugar mixture and fold flour in with spatula or wooden spoon.
- Add roughly half the pecan streusel mixture to cookie dough. Fold in with spatula.
- Using a 1-1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop cookies into small balls, place on cookie sheets, about 3 inches apart. Press down only slightly.
- Sprinkle streusel over cookies. Press lightly to adhere.
- Bake cookies in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden.
- Remove cookie sheets from oven and place on wire racks to cool.
Storage
- Delicious warm, cookies can be stored for several days in airtight container. Freeze up to 1 month.
