Rich & Chewy Butterscotch Cookies with Pecans

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This recipe for chewy Butterscotch Cookies with pecans is delicious! Brown sugar and butter combine with butterscotch chips to give the cookies a delicate and rich taste. These are perfect for a holiday cookie exchange and sure to make your friends ask for the recipe.

Butterscotch is a traditional flavor that is usually seen in hard candies or ice cream syrup. But it also makes a delicious cookie that is one of my family’s favorite holiday cookie recipes.

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Butterscotch cookies on a cooling rack.

Reader Review

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Just made these and my daughter (10) LOVES them! “They’re SO GOOD!!” They’re something she’s going to be asking me to make again and again!
— Amanda

Chewy Drop Cookies

There are so many delicious kinds of cookies that it can be difficult to pick favorites. I don’t do much baking in the summer, but as the fall weather gets colder there are many kinds of cookies that my family enjoys baking and eat.

These drop cookies with butterscotch chips are easy to make so they are perfect for making with kids.

Peanut butter butterscotch cookies on a red plate.

Making Butterscotch Cookies

The recipe for Butterscotch Cookies is a simple cookie recipe in which the combination of butter and oil is used to give the cookies their rich delicious texture.

The other key ingredient is brown sugar. Butter and brown sugar are the essential ingredients in butterscotch, so they are necessary to getting the delicate flavor of the cookies. Butterscotch chips and pecans are folded into the batter before baking.

Peanut butter butterscotch cookies on a cooling rack.

Even with all the butter and oil the batter for these cookies is somewhat dry and shortbread like because of all the flour that is added. This makes the batter easy to scoop out and flatten slightly on cookie sheets before baking.

They won’t spread much on the cookie sheets, so they will hold the shape that you give them. This means they will be prettier and rounder after baking if you use a cookie scoop instead of spoons to put them on the cookie sheets – but either way they will taste delicious!

Once baked for 7-8 minutes the resulting butterscotch cookies are soft and chewy and sort of melt in your mouth. You can bake them for a few extra minutes if you prefer a crunchier cookie.

Butterscotch peanut butter cookies on a cooling rack.

Excellent Cookie Recipe for Freezing

This butterscotch cookie recipe makes a lot of cookies, at least 4 dozen with normal sized cookies. I’ve never tried to halve it because I know I’d forget about the half bag of butterscotch chips that would be leftover and it would sit in my pantry for months and end up being wasted.

Luckily this cookie freezes very well, so if you don’t need a large batch of cookies to feed a crowd or use for a cookie exchange you can just freeze the extras for later.

I package the cookies in freezer bags and they keep well for a few months. These cookies can be quite addictive to eat, so I always make sure I package up and freeze extras right away before I can “accidentally” overindulge.

Butterscotch peanut butter cookies on a red plate.

Recipe Tips

  • If you prefer crispier cookie simply bake these a little longer, for 10-12 minutes. That will make them crispy on the outside but still moist and chewy inside.
  • In most recipes, especially cookies, it is fine to substitute walnuts for pecans – but not this one. In my opinion walnuts don’t go nearly as well with these cookies as pecans and I’d advise leaving the nuts out if you don’t have pecans. The pecans really accentuate the butterscotch flavor.

Cookies Make the Perfect Gift

I love to share homemade cookies with my friends and family! Food is a great way to bring people together during the holiday season, either in person or from a distance.

Why not bake some cookies this year and put together a cookie gift box for your friends? Here are some cookie recipe ideas for gift giving!

Peanut butter butterscotch cookies on a red plate.
4.52 from 45 votes

Butterscotch Cookies

Published By Anne
This delicious butterscotch cookies are crispy outside and chewy inside.
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time8 minutes
Total Time23 minutes
Servings: 48
Print Save Rate Pin

Ingredients
 

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup cooking oil
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 4 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 package butterscotch chips
  • 12 ounces pecans chopped

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 F.
  • In a mixer cream together the butter with both the brown and white sugar until creamy.
    1 cup butter, 1 cup brown sugar, 3/4 cup white sugar
  • Beat in the oil, egg and vanilla and mix until well combined.
    1 cup cooking oil, 1 egg, 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • In a small bowl mix the flour with the baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl and mix until just combined.
    4 1/2 cup flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, 1 teaspoon salt
  • Mix in the butterscotch chips and chopped pecans.
    1 package butterscotch chips, 12 ounces pecans
  • Use a cookie scoop or spoons to drop the batter onto greased cookie sheets and bake for 7 minutes.

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Nutrition Information

Calories: 198kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 14mg | Sodium: 105mg | Potassium: 61mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 127IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 12mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutrition facts are estimates.

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Peanut butter cookies cooling on a rack.
anne

Hi, I’m Anne!

I love to cook and I want to share my recipes with you. I believe cooking should be approachable and fun, not a chore. I want to make simple recipes using everyday ingredients that you can make again and again, whether it is for a busy weeknight, a summer cookout or a special dessert. Read more...

11 thoughts on “Rich & Chewy Butterscotch Cookies with Pecans”

  1. 5 stars
    This is my first time to your blog. I found this recipe on Pinterest and just made them for a bake sale. Super easy to make, every sheet came out perfectly. I LOOOOVE butterscotch, so thank you very much. It will be a much loved recipe. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Just made these and my daughter (10) LOVES them! “They’re SO GOOD!!” They’re something she’s going to be asking me to make again and again!

    Reply
    • I made these but they didn’t turn out chewy I think I’m confused about how much flour the recipe calls for 4 1/2 cup (singular) of flour
      vs 41/2 cups (plural) so is that 2 cups total or 41/2 cups

      Reply
      • These cookies are extremely sweet. I thought about cutting the sugar back and now I wished I had. Also found the dough a bit watery. Maybe a half cup more flour. But honestly probably wouldn’t use this recipe again.

        Reply
  3. This recipe was amazing! I had to cook a little longer than suggested (More like 11-12 minutes) and they are still chewy and delicious! Thanks for the great recipe!

    Reply
    • Did you use 1 cup of cooking oil? That seems like a lot for a cookie recipe. I was wondering if I could use less, like maybe 1/2 cup?

      Reply
  4. I made these using 4 and 1/2 cups flour and the dough was so dry It couldn’t be formed into cookies I did use a whole cup butter and whole cup oil as well as the egg. Not sure what went wrong but I pressed the dough into a 9 by 13 pan and am hoping to have butterscotch bars they are currently baking

    Reply

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