Copycat Keebler Sandies Cookies are the melt-in-your-mouth buttery shortbread pecan cookies you love, easily made at home. Tastes like the original recipe!
We love making sweet Copycat Recipes just as much as savory. These fresh baked pecan-filled Shortbread Cookies taste even better than the store-bought Keebler Cookies!
Sabrina’s Keebler Sandies Cookies (Copycat) Recipe
Keebler Pecan Sandies are an old-fashioned and well-loved classic cookie that has been around since the 1950s. If you’ve never enjoyed a Keebler Pecan Sandie, you are in for a real treat. These crispy shortbread cookies are full of toasty pecan flavor and practically melt in your mouth. While they might not be as popular as say Oreos, one bite and you’ll have no doubt why they’ve been a hit for 70 years.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar , for inside cookies
- 1 tablespoon whole milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cups pecans , chopped
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar , for dusting glass
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Add butter to your stand mixer on medium speed until well creamed, about 30 seconds.
- Add in powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract and mix until light and fluffy.
- Sift the flour then add it to the stand mixer on the lowest setting until just combined.
- Stir in the pecans.
- Roll 1 inch balls of dough then press down slightly with a glass dusted with powdered sugar 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes or until edges just barely start to brown.
Nutrition
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Table of contents
About This Recipe
As tasty as the packaged cookies are, you can’t beat a freshly baked cookie. Since there are no real Keebler elves baking in trees, I’ve recreated their Pecan Sandies recipe for you to make at home. All you need are some common baking ingredients, like powdered sugar, flour, and butter, plus some chopped pecans. Powdered sugar in this recipe makes these extra dense, for a crumbly thick cookie that still melts in your mouth thanks to the cup of butter. Using this type of sugar may be your new favorite way to make cookies!
Can this be made ahead of time?
This is a big batch, and you can make this cookie dough ahead of time and freeze or refrigerate until you are ready to bake. Form the cookie dough into a log and wrap tightly in plastic wrap, then store in a freezer-safe bag for up to 3 months. Refrigerate cookie dough for up to 1 week. Bake sliced dough from frozen or thaw and shape into balls.
Recipe Tips & Tricks
- To keep the dough from spreading while it is baking, chill dough for about 30 minutes to an hour before shaping, pressing, and baking.
- If you don’t want to roll dough into balls and use a glass to flatten, roll dough into one log and refrigerate until firm. Slice chilled dough into rounds and bake as usual.
- For smooth, even-textured cookies and to prevent over-mixing, be sure to sift the powdered sugar and flour (separately) so there are no clumps.
- Out of powdered sugar? Make your own by grinding granulated sugar in a food processor or coffee grinder. You can also just swap in an equal amount of white sugar or brown sugar.
Serving Ideas
These cookies are easy to make all year round, but they make an especially good Christmas cookie recipe. Include these cookies on your holiday cookie platters or wrap them up to add to your gift baskets. For an extra special touch, dip half the cookie in Chocolate Ganache or drizzle with Salted Caramel Sauce. Allow toppings to cool and harden before enjoying with a cup of coffee or Cocoa!
How To Store
- Serve: These Cookies can be kept in a sealed container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
- Store: Store Cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks. You can refrigerate the unbaked dough for up to 1 week wrapped in plastic wrap.
- Freeze: Cool Cookies to room temperature and freeze for 1 hour on a baking sheet. Transfer frozen cookies to a freezer-safe bag and freeze for up to 6 months.
Variations
- Nuts: Instead of pecans, you can use any other nuts like almonds, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, or pistachios. Try toasted pecans by heating the nuts in a pan until they are toasted for more flavor.
- Dried Fruit: For a holiday cookie, add chopped dried cherries or cranberries. Other dried fruit to try are apricots, golden raisins, strawberries, mangos, or raspberries.
- Chocolate: Fold in some mini chocolate chips, chopped chocolate chunks, white chocolate chips, or semi-sweet chocolate chips for extra sweetness. You can also use other baking chips like peppermint chips, peanut butter chips, or butterscotch chips.
- Candy: You can add small candy pieces to your cookie dough like M&Ms, rainbow chips, mini chocolate nonpareils, caramels, or peppermint candies.
- Flavoring: Use almond extract instead of vanilla extract, or add a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, or Pumpkin Spice Blend. For a caramelly flavor, use brown sugar instead of powdered sugar.
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Have made these twice and they are delicious!! Only thing I did differently was toast the pecans in a little butter which made them even more delicious . They freeze nicely, since I’m the only one that eats them I freeze them and take one out every morning to have with my coffee
Sounds delicious Tara and thanks for the five star review 🙂
These cookies are good but they didn’t taste anything like Keebler’s Pecan Sandies. They lack that crispy texture too.
That being said, they taste more like Mexican wedding cakes (AKA Snow Balls or Russian Tea cakes.) I love Mexican wedding cakes but that wasn’t what I was aiming for.
They did have a great pecan flavor, which is hard to come by in Keebler’s version.
I made a second batch and baked it at 375?. I baked it on 2 cookie sheets to prevent the bottoms from over browning because I was trying to get a nice golden brown on the top and bottom. They did get a bit crisper which I really liked, but never achieved that golden brown color. (the original batch seemed underbaked to me.)
I’m thinking of toasting the pecans before adding them to the dough for a crispier cookie texture.