These salted caramel pecan pie cookies are so easy and so delicious! I made them on the weekend for a dear family member’s birthday party. Tom, the birthday boy, thought they were one of the yummiest things he has ever eaten and as this man has a sweet tooth I take that as high praise.
They have the taste and look of pecan pies but in cookie form – how great is that?
These cookies would be lovely served with coffee after Thanksgiving dessert, or at Christmas a dollop of rum-spiked cream would finish them off perfectly.
Feel free to change the nuts around – I had walnuts in the pantry so that’s what I used but I imagine pecans or macadamias would also taste amazing.
I was inspired by a recipe online at Spoon University but try as I might I couldn’t find the link. The original recipe was for a muffin but I thought these would work really well when baked in a whoopie pie pan- I was right. I also reduced the sugar and added vanilla and cinnamon.
Another touch I created was to turn this already delicious dessert / pie / cookies hybrid into salted caramel, simply by sprinkling the tops of the unbaked cookies with vanilla salt. I have written about my fondness for vanilla salt before. If you can get your hands on the stuff I highly recommend it. The word ‘life-changing’ is thrown around a fair bit but in the case of this sweet yet savoury salt it is justified.
GATHER:
¾ cup brown sugar
1 ¼ cups broken pecan or walnut pieces – I used walnut
½ cup plain flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
150 grams melted butter, slightly cooled
2 eggs
vanilla salt
LET’S GET TO IT:
Grease a whoopie pie tin with non-stick baking paper and preheat oven to 170C.
In a large bowl stir together the sugar, flour, ginger and nuts.
Melt the butter then whisk in the eggs and vanilla and pour into the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.
Scrape into whoopee pie tin and sprinkle with vanilla salt.
Bake for around 13-15 minutes – they should be light golden and starting to pull away from the edges.
Remove from oven and immediately tip out to wire rack to cool completely.
