I know it’s the day after Christmas but I can’t resist posting at least one more great cookie recipe!
I made these Pecan Pie Cookies for the first time a couple of days ago. I converted them to gluten free at the same time and it worked out perfect!
These cookies taste like pecan pie, but without all of the excess sugar! They are a thumbprint type of cookie and I used a tip that I just read about which was to use a new style capsule wine cork (plastic) to make the indention instead of your thumb. It worked great!
This recipe was from a Land O Lakes butter package insert. Thanks Land O Lakes! From reading the comments about these cookies on their website, it looks like lots of people have been making these for years and love the recipe.
I did reduce the sugar in the original recipe from 1 cup to 3/4 of a cup and I think it is just right now. I use unsalted butter so I had to add 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the original recipe.
When I converted to the gluten free flour mix I also added 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum.
I also increased the amount of filling a little bit from the original recipe- we decided the cookies tasted best when the indentation was larger and the sides of the cookie were thinner.
I shared this recipe with Monday Mania at The Healthy Home Economist, Homemaker Monday at 11th Heaven’s Homemaking Haven, Meatless Monday at My Sweet And Savory, Mouthwatering Monday at A Southern Fairy Tale, Twelve Days Of Bloggie-mas at A Moderate Life, Tasty Tuesdays at 33 Shades Of Green, Delicious Dishes at It’s A Blog Party, Friday Favorites at Simply Sweet Home, Sweets For A Saturday at Sweet As Sugar Cookies, Culinary Smackdown Battle- Cookies at U Try It
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Stir together GF Flour Mix, baking powder, salt and xanthan gum and set aside
2 cups GF Flour Mix*
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
In large mixing bowl beat brown sugar, butter, egg and vanilla until creamy.
3/4 cup brown sugar packed lightly
3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 and 1/2 sticks)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Add flour mixture to butter and stir until well mixed.
Shape dough into 1- 1/4 inch balls. Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets that have been lined with parchment paper.
You can either make the indentation for the filling with your thumb, rotating to hollow it out as wide as you can without the sides breaking, or you can use a wine capsule cork (the plastic kind that are shaped like a real cork).
Combine filling ingredients in a small bowl and fill each cookie with a rounded teaspoonful (or as much as you can pile in there!).
Bake for about 10 minutes, switching the 2 cookie sheets top to bottom halfway through the baking time.
Filling
1- 1/4 cups chopped pecans
1/2 cup plus 2 Tblsp lightly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup plus 1 Tblsp heavy whipping cream
1- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Makes 3 dozen cookies
*GF Flour Mixture
The GF flour mixture that I use is pretty standard. I use Authentic Foods gluten free flours because they are ground more finely than commercial brand GF flours that you can buy off the shelf. This results in wonderful baked goods that do not have that “gritty” feel when you chew them like so many products that we all tried in the beginning!
GF Flour Mixture
2 cups AF Superfine Brown Rice Flour (available in the amazon.com store on my blog)
2/3 cup AF Potato Starch Flour (available in my store)
1/3 cup AF Tapioca Flour (available in my store)
I make up several batches of this mixture at a time and keep it in a canister. I keep all of my other GF flours in the freezer.
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Pecan pie is my all-time favorite dessert (which is saying something because I LOVE eating dessert)! I’ll have to try it in cookie form now
. I am following you from the H&S hop and I hope you can follow me back at Meatless Meals For Meat Eaters
Hi Miriam! Thanks for your comment! I am thinking about trying these thumbprint cookies in other pie flavors- sounds fun! I am also brainstorming on doing a savory thumbprint version for an appetizer!
Pecan pie…..what more is there to say?? Except that as much as I love them a whole piece is a little too much sweetness for me to handle…to say nothing of a whole pie. I looove the look of your bite sized pies and can’t wait to try them!! Thanks so much for sharing with the Hearth and Soul hop.
Hi Jason! I feel the same way about pecan pie as you do- my teeth hurt just thinking about it! Not to mention all of the calories and the fact that you use corn syrup in the pie too. I love little individual bites of things for portion control, whether it be cookies, mini muffins or small individual desserts.
Hi Andrea,
Just wanted to come by and thank you for the tip on freezing the chipotles. Great idea! I will try it:) Happy New Year!
Hi Andrea – These cookies look fantastic! My Dad loves pecan pie so I think I will have to make these cookies for him sometime. Thanks so much for linking up to Tasty Tuesdays.
Alissa
Pecan Pie is one of my all time favorites! I’ve never made it in a cookie form, though. I love the reduction is the sugar, too–it’s usually pretty sweet on it’s own. Beautiful!
Hi Kari! Thanks for coming by and checking out my blog!
Hi Alissa and Elle! Thanks for your nice comments! Please let me know if you make these cookies!
Thank you for participating the Smackdown Battle. Best of luck to you. These pecan pie cookies sure sounds amazing!
If you haven’t done so, please sign up as a follower on my blog so you won’t miss out on the winner announcement and latest post. Thank you again and hope to see you again soon.
Amy
http://utry.it
pecan is really a wonderful nut, you could make a lot of pecan pie recipe , an example of many things you could do with it is this amazing pecan pie cookies, although as i see the procedure, its not the way i made my cookies, I think your cookies are amazingly delicious especially that my favorite pecans are in there.. Thank you..
Harvey you have a very interesting website with all different kinds of pecan pie recipes! Here is his link http://www.mypecanpierecipe.com/ Thanks for your comment.
thanks Andrea, you too have a great website, keep up the good work
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Looking forward to trying these! However, what are your thoughts on using a dairy free/soy free butter substitute along with a stevia blend sugar substitute? Hoping to make these for my diabetic mom and I’m also lactose intolerant. Thanks!
Hi Rebecca,
I haven’t had a chance to convert this recipe to stevia yet but I think you could convert at least part of the sugar to that. I would still use some coconut palm sugar in place of the brown sugar, especially in the filling. The glycemic hit is only 50% of regular sugar.
I have not used any non dairy substitutes for butter but I read about people using them. I think the one I have read about the most is sticks of Smart Balance or is it Earth Balance? Anyway, that is the one that a lot of other bloggers use if they don’t want to use dairy.
I haven’t really baked anything since earlier this year because it gets so hot here in Arizona in the summer. I also have just started chemotherapy treatments and so far I still have my sense of taste- I’m hoping that I won’t lose that and will still be able to bake this winter so I can convert a lot of my recipes to stevia and coconut palm sugar. I have had barely any side effects (after 1 treatment) so hopefully that will continue. I’m sure some of the stuff will be cumulative, but I only have to have 8 total treatments so my fingers are crossed!
Best wishes to you and your Mom!
Andrea