Festive Holiday Ginger Butter Pecan Cookies Recipe

Our traditional, homemade Ginger Butter Pecan Cookies are perfect for the holiday season with their melt-in-your-mouth soft and chewy centers and golden crispy edges. They are so buttery, flavorful, and festive with a beautiful white chocolate drizzle on the top. Be it for a Christmas bake sale, holiday gathering, or delicious homemade gifts, these pecan cookies are perfect for all your seasonal festivities.

Baking holiday cookies for Christmas is our favorite family tradition, and sometimes, we like to keep it on the healthier side to balance. Check out our wonderful gluten-free s’mores cookies recipe and keto peanut butter cookies for guilt-free holiday indulgences.

Why your eggs and ingredients should be at room temperature

There is a scientific reason behind the importance of using room temperature ingredients when specified. Many people ignore this suggestion while baking if there is a time crunch, but please don’t! At room temperature, the eggs, butter, and other dairy ingredients form an emulsion that traps air.

While baking in the oven, that trapped air expands and produces a perfectly textured baked good. Room temperature ingredients also bond together very easily since they’re warmer, creating an evenly textured batter. Cold ingredients do not incorporate together as easily resulting in crispy and hard cookies.

Take the ingredients out of the refrigerator one hour before preparing the batter to bring them to room temperature. To test if your butter is at room temperature, press your finger into it and make an indent easily, without your finger sliding anywhere. It should be slightly softened without being melty or greasy.

The benefits of chilling your dough overnight

Butter Pecan Cookies made from chilled dough are much more chewy and flavorful. Chilling overnight allows the cookie dough to thicken, allows the flour to hydrate absorbing all the butter and ground ginger flavors, and enhances the brown sugar, and pecan flavors. While baking, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt making the cookies expand more slowly, resulting in a soft and chewy texture.

How to make Ginger Butter Pecan Cookies

Start with creaming the butter and white and brown sugars using an electric mixer in a large mixing bowl. Make sure to mix until smooth and creamy before proceeding further.

Next, add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after adding each egg. It is very important to use room temperature eggs or they will break the butter emulsion and result in crispy and hard cookies. Now, add vanilla extract and mix well to combine.

Then, measure out the dry ingredients into a separate bowl before adding them to the creamy batter.

Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients well using a spatula until you get a soft batter.

Finally, add the chopped pecans into the batter and gently fold them in.

Afterward, cover the bowl and chill the batter in the refrigerator for a minimum of 2 hours if possible overnight. The chilling process is the key to the flavor and perfectly chewy texture.

After the chilling process, preheat the oven to 350F and line two cookie trays with parchment paper.

Using an ice cream or cookie scoop, scoop the batter into the prepared cookie tray leaving 2 inches between each cookie. Flatten the top slightly using the bottom of a glass. Make sure to scoop and bake while the cookie dough is still very cold. This helps the cookies not spread too much and maintain the texture.

Now, bake the cookies for 13 to 16 minutes or until the edges are set and are lightly golden in color. Rotate the tray halfway through for even baking. Longer baking time will result in crispy cookies and shorter baking time will result in chewy cookies. I baked them for 16 mins, rotating the tray halfway through resulting in delicious cookies which are chewy in the center and crispy on the edges.

Then, take them out from the oven and let them cool on a cooling rack. Cookies will slightly harden while cooling.

Optional Step: Melt ⅓-½  cup of white chocolate in the microwave for 60-90 seconds and drizzle on top of these buttery pecan cookies to take them to the next level.

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Storage Tips

These Ginger Butter Pecan Cookies keep well up to 5 days in an airtight container at room temperature. You can also freeze them for up to a few months in an air-tight bag with parchment paper in between the layers. Make sure to cool the cookies until room temperature before freezing. When you want to serve them, just thaw them on the counter until they are at room temperature.