Crinkly Butterscotch Pecan Cookies is a recipe I've used for many years now. The first time I made them mainly because I needed to finish off some butter flavored Crisco, and I think I had an open bag of butterscotch morsels as well. These days I buy those ingredients so I can make the cookies.
They're also a good cookie to make when pecans are in season, which reminds me I need to try them with some Georgia pecans! I've always used Texas pecans, but I guiltily admit I've become partial to a certain brand called South Georgia Pecan Company which I found at Publix.
Butter Flavored or Regular Crisco
For the shortening, you can use regular or butter flavored Crisco. I don't particularly care for the butter flavored type, but I needed to use some up and found it worked really well in the cookies. The artificial butter flavoring wasn't overpowering.
Butterscotch Chips
The other key ingredient in these pecan cookies is a bag of butterscotch morsels (butterscotch chips). I used to always use Nestle, but one day I found some Hershey's butterscotch flavored morsels and liked them better. I don't care much for Aldi's butterscotch morsels, and have get to try Guittard's, which I've only seen on Amazon.
More Recipes With Butterscotch (or Crisco)
Recipe
Crinkly Butterscotch Pecan Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups unbleached AP flour (220 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 4 oz unsalted butter, cold and cut into chunks (114 grams)
- ½ cup shortening (96 grams)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar (150 grams)
- ½ cup firmly packed brown sugar (100 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 ¾ cups butterscotch chips
- ⅔ cup pecans toasted and chopped
Instructions
- Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
- Beat the cold butter and shortening with an electric mixer until creamy. Add both sugars and continue beating for another two minutes. Beat in the vanilla. Scrape sides of bowl. Add egg and beat for about 30 seconds or until egg is incorporated.
- By hand, stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture—dough will be pretty thick. Mix in the butterscotch chips and pecans. Chill the batter for ½ hour or until ready to bake.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Scoop dough by generously rounded tablespoons and shape into large balls. Space about 3 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Bake one sheet at a time for 12-15 minutes or until cookies are brown around the edges. They won’t be extremely brown when they come out of the oven, but if the edges are browned at all they’ve probably baked long enough. Mine took 15 minutes.
- With the edge of a spatula, gently nudge cookies into neat circles. Doing this will enhance the wrinkles and folds in the cookies
- Let cool on the cookie sheet for about 3 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool.
- Makes about 28 cookies
Anna says
Thanks!!! Also, I think butter would make a good tasting cookie, but the shortening is what gives these a great texture. You could go ahead and use butter or you could try one of the non-hydrogenated shortenings like Nutiva or Spectrum.
M. Peterson says
Would butter work in place of Crisco shortening? I don't like to use transfats when I bake? Thank you. LOVE your blog!
Sue says
These went over SO well...friends as well as hubby LOVED them. I am usually not a fan of butterscotch chips, but these were outstanding with the toasted pecans. Thank you for posting a fabulous recipe!
Sarah E. says
I love me some butterscotch. They look super delicious 🙂
Stopping by from the Cookie Party
Anna says
Thanks for the review!
Dazzled says
Made these for the boy because of his love of pecans (which i hate!) I must say they were pretty awesome pecans & all! Great recipe!
Katherine says
As an update, I just made these again with coconut... Amazing.
Katherine says
I finally got around to making these today. I made them for my husband for his birthday. Really good with a nice texture. I think these would be good with some coconut thrown in. Thanks for the recipe!
Katrina says
The dough for these is chillin' right now. Making cookies to take to some neighbors and realized I was almost out of butter. I used chocolate chips and butterscotch chips as I didn't have enough butterscotch.
Jannett says
look yummy... 🙂
Jennifer says
I agree with Joan, very similar to the Best Yet M and M's. I made these last night, and did brown the butter. The batter tasted really great and my family likes the cookies a lot. I also used toasted walnuts instead of pecans, as that is what I had on hand.
joan says
Whoa, Nellie! I baked these today and they were fabulous. I used plain shortening (I'm out of butter-flavored stuff), and used half chocolate chips. Delicioso! They kind of reminded me of your Best Yet M&M cookies. There is something about the shortening that makes the cookie texture so excellent. You are the best, Anna!
Janet says
I made these last night and they are AWESOME! Thank you again!!!
DPLK says
Anna, just posted about them. Got a few decent photos, enjoy! I am interested in trying them again with toffee bits instead of butterscotch chips--I've got a bag of toffee bits but have never used them before. How do they taste in cookies? I can imagine them either blending into the dough a little bit and becoming crispy, or staying intact and sticking to the teeth still...
Julie says
I made these and my four-year-old son declared them the best cookie he's ever had in his life.
Anna says
Jennifer, I love the browned butter idea.
DPLK, I hope you post a photo on your blog :).
DPLK says
Hi Anna, I wanted to let you know I tried this recipe too this weekend to try to use up some of the Crisco I have, and it turned out great! That's a great tip to poke the cookies to encourage wrinkling, although I think the healthy dose of baking soda tends to help do that too by making the cookies puff in the oven so they deflate once they come out. Loved the crunchy sandiness of the edges that the shortening gives these cookies. Thanks for the recipe!
Jennifer says
I have what may (or very well may NOT) be a good idea. I don't have butter flavored shortening (only regular) so I'm going to use that and browned butter. I think the browned butter will make them have a stronger flavor and will hopefully go well with the butterscotch chips.
Jennifer says
Those look delcious. I don't like butterscotch chips, so I think I'll make these (all the better that they won't be tempting.) I wonder how walnuts would work instead of the pecans? (I love pecans the most but am out).
Looking at this recipe, I think it's very close to you favorite m&m cookie reicpe.
Amy says
Mmmmm... these cookies are right up my alley. I'm definitely going to be making these soon!
clumbsycookie says
I love a cookie that has "crinkly" in its name 🙂
Anna says
Claire, thanks for trying the cookie recipes! They reminded me of your Sharpei cookies as well.
Claire says
I just made these and they are great! They really remind me of the Sharpei cookies I make. Another good way to wrinkle the cookies is to use the backs of two spoons and push together.
Janet says
Thanks for another great looking cookie recipe to tempt us! I, too, have bits and pieces in the pantry to use it and this recipe looks perfect for "the big clean out"! Don't you love a new year;-)
Katrina says
I need to do some serious food cleaning out. All my stuff would make quite a cookie!
And don't you go gettin' all ahead of me with cleaning things out! 😉
Cheryl says
don't you love when you can just use what you have and make something great? love it!
snooky doodle says
these look ultra good. yummy 🙂