Butter Crunch Cookies are perfect holiday cookies, with delicious toffee bits and crunchy pecans in a buttery melt-in-your-mouth cookie base.
This sweet, buttery Cookie Recipe is perfect when you want to add a simple cookie to your holiday baking but want something other than chocolate chip cookies! For more easy cookies without chocolate chips, try my Chocolate Chip-Less Cookies and Butterscotch Chip Cookies.
Table of contents
Sabrina’s Butter Crunch Cookies Recipe
If you like classic Chocolate Chip Cookies, then this is an equally simple option to try out. This recipe has the same melt-in-your-mouth cookie base, but swaps the chocolate chips for buttery toffee and pecans. The sweet butter-caramel flavor plus crunchy nuts are a delightful spin on the classic cookie! It only takes a few minutes to prepare the cookie dough, then you’ll just add the mix-ins, refrigerate and bake.
Chef’s Note: Elevate your Cookies
Before adding the toffee bits and pecans to the cookie dough, set aside ¼ cup of each. That way, you can roll cookie dough balls in the toffee and nuts. This a great trick to make your cookies look bake shop quality snack because some of the mix-ins will sit on top instead of being sunk into the cookies and covered by dough.
Ingredients
- Unsalted butter: Place 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature for 20-30 minutes before preparing the cookie dough. That way, it has time to soften. It’s important to use room temperature butter, so that you can easily cream butter and sugar.
- Sugar: Use half white sugar and half brown sugar for this recipe. A lot of cookie recipes use both types of sugar to achieve the right texture. The brown sugar makes the cookies rich and chewy, but the white sugar makes the recipe airier, so the cookies aren’t too dense.
- Eggs: You’ll need 2 large eggs, also at room temperature. Eggs are an important wet ingredient to soften the dough and help everything bind together.
- Extracts: I use vanilla extract and almond extract in this cookie dough. The vanilla gives it that classic warm cookie flavor and the almond gives them a light, sweet nutty flavor.
- Flour: All-purpose flour is the best option for this recipe. Sift the flour with the baking soda and salt before adding it to the mixing bowl.
- Toffee Bits: These cookies are made with regular Toffee Bits, which is basically the brittle part of peanut brittle. This is not the same as English toffee, which is toffee covered in a chocolate coating. If you want chocolate in your cookie, feel free to use English toffee bits.
- Pecans: The pecans go great with the buttery toffee flavor and make these cookies perfect for fall and the holidays!
How to Make
Time needed: 1 hour.
- Cookie Dough Base
Add softened butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar to your stand mixer. Then use the paddle attachment to mix for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and the almond extract and vanilla extract. Then sift the flour, baking soda, and kosher salt together in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the stand mixer, and mix at low speed until the dry ingredients are just combined into the dough.
- Stir in Mix-Ins
Add ¾ cup toffee bits and ¾ cup pecans, saving ¼ cup of each for after you shape them. Gently fold the toffee bits and nuts into the cookie dough until they are evenly mixed in without stirring too much.
- Refrigerate
Cover the mixing bowl in plastic wrap and refrigerate the cookie dough for 30 minutes.
- Shape Cookies
Preheat your oven temperature to 350 degrees, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Then put the remaining toffee bits and pecans into a medium bowl. Then use a 1 tablespoon-sized cookie scoop to roll dough balls. Place each ball of dough in the mixing bowl and roll gently to cover the exterior with the pecan and toffee mixture.
- Baking time:
Place the cookie dough balls on the prepared baking sheet with 2-inches between each one. Then bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges start to turn a brown color. Place on a cookie tray or an airtight container when cooled.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar , packed
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup toffee bits , divided
- 1 cup pecans , chopped (divided)
Instructions
- To a stand mixer cream together the butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add in the eggs one at a time along with the almond extract and vanilla extract.
- Sift the flour and baking soda and add it to the stand mixer along with the salt on low speed until just combined.
- Stir in ¾ cup toffee bits and ¾ cup pecans.
- Cover and refrigerate the cookie dough for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Put the remaining toffee bits and pecans in a bowl.
- Using a cookie scoop (just over 1 tablespoon), scoop the dough into the topping mixture and roll gently, covering the exterior of the ball in some of the toffee bits and pecans.
- Place dough 2-inches apart and bake for 12 minutes.
Nutrition
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Can this be made ahead of time?
Absolutely! If you make the buttercrunch cookie dough in advance, you can keep it covered in the fridge for five days, or freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months. To easily freeze the dough, roll it into dough balls and place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Then lay the sheet flat in the freezer for 1-2 hours. When the dough balls are frozen solid, you can place them in a freezer bag or another freezer container to keep them frozen. Place the frozen cookie dough balls on a baking sheet, and add a few extra minutes to the baking time to cook frozen cookie dough into fresh, buttery delicious texture cookies.
Nutritional Facts
Baking Recipe Tips & Tricks
- If you like a softer texture, slightly reduce the baking time by 1-2 minutes. They should still be firm around the outer edges and golden brown though to know they cooked.
- For a chewy cookie texture you could slightly increase the butter from 1 cup to about 1 ¼ cups. You can also melt the butter before mixing, which helps with spreading and results in a chewier, denser cookie.
How to Store
- Serve: After the cooking time, let the cookies cool on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes before transferring them to wire racks to finish cooling or serving them.
- Store: To keep your cookie recipe fresh, wait for them to cool completely. Then you can cover the Butter Crunch Cookies in plastic wrap or foil, or place them in an airtight container to keep them fresh. As long as they’re sealed, the cookies can stay good for up to 5 days at room temperature.
- Freeze: To freeze the cookies, put them in a freezer bag or another freezer-safe airtight container with parchment paper between layers to stop the cookies from freezing together. The frozen cookie dough balls keep best in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can let them thaw at room temperature or reheat them in the preheated oven before serving.
Frequent Questions
This is also an easy cookie recipe to double up and make several batches. You can do this if you need enough homemade toffee cookies for a bake sale, party, or another large event. It’s also a good option, if you want to bake half the cookie dough now and save the other half for later. That way, you can have this amazing recipe, but only have to prepare the dough once.
Continue to bake the cookies until the center is set and the edges are turning a light, golden brown. The edges and bottom will be more browned than the center, but you want to take the cookies out before they’re too crisp. Leave the cookies on the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes after baking. This gives them time to set. However, you don’t want to leave them on the sheet much longer than that, or the hot pan can burn the bottom of the cookies.
Sifting the flour removes any clumps and aerates the dry ingredients. This is important because it helps get an accurate flour measurement, and the sifted flour is easier to mix with the other ingredients. Because it mixes in more smoothly, you’re less likely to overmix the cookie dough.
Variations
- Nuts: You can add different kinds of nuts to these cookies. If you prefer, swap out the chopped pecans for chopped almonds, walnuts, or pistachios. You could also use a combination of mixed nuts.
- Chocolate Chip Butter Cookies: Look for chocolate covered toffee bits (English toffee bits) instead of plain ones so you get a chocolate chip-toffee combo! You could also just swap ½ the toffee bits with mini-chocolate chips.
- Chocolate Cookie: Another way to add tasty chocolate flavor is to replace ¼ cup of flour with ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder for a chocolate cookie dough.
- Spiced butter cookies: To add a little extra comforting, warm flavor to the cookie recipe, you can add baking spices like ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, or allspice. Only add 1/2-1 teaspoon of any spice ingredient. You don’t want to add too much, or it can overpower all the other delicious flavors in the recipe.
- Salty Flavor: For a salty snack cookie add a light sprinkle of flaky salt on top of each cookie before placing them in the oven should do the trick—about a pinch or two per cookie for a delicious treat.
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