These vegan butter pecan cookies are soft, buttery, and perfectly nutty! Easy to make and loaded with toasted pecans, they’ll be your new favorite treat for any occasion.
If you’re on the hunt for a rich, buttery, and irresistibly nutty cookie, you’re in for a treat! Our vegan butter pecan cookies recipe is everything you love about the classic vegan butter cookie recipe. They’re soft and chewy, with the delicious addition of toasted pecans.
These vegan butter pecan cookies are a true crowd-pleaser. They’re super easy to whip up, making them perfect for holiday baking, afternoon cravings, or even gifting to friends. Trust me, one bite, and you’ll be hooked!
And if you love delicious vegan cookies, then we recommend you try out our vegan brownie cookies, vegan funfetti cookies and vegan lemon poppy seed cookies.
Ingredients you’ll need for vegan butter pecan cookies
Ingredients notes
- Raw Pecans – For this recipe we chose to chop and toast raw pecans to enhance the flavor of the nuts as much as possible. If you’d prefer to skip this step, then you can use already roasted pecans. However, make sure the nuts are only roasted and not salted.
- All purpose flour – should be measured correctly. If you accidentally over-measure your flour in this recipe, the dough will be too thick. So either weigh it out on a food scale, or use the spoon and level method. Spoon it into your measuring cup (don’t scoop it, and don’t pack it into the cup) and then level it off with a knife.
- Cornstarch – is great for making ultra soft cookies.
- Soy milk – can be switched for a different non-dairy milk.
How to make vegan butter pecan cookies
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Line two baking trays with parchment paper and set aside.
- Place the chopped pecans in a dry pan over medium heat. Cook the pecans, stirring frequently to prevent burning, until they are a deep golden brown color and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate and allow to cool completely.
- To the bowl of your stand mixer, add vegan butter, white granulated sugar and brown sugar and cream them together until light and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla extract and mix in.
- In a separate mixing bowl, add all purpose flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix together.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix by hand until crumbly
- Add the soy milk and mix into a thick cookie dough.
- Add the completely cooled pecans to the cookie dough and mix in by hand. The dough will be soft, but still manageable.
- Break off pieces of the dough and roll it into balls and place them on the parchment lined baking sheets. Aim for 10 balls per sheet.
- Place into the fridge to chill for 30 minutes while you preheat the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Bake the cookies, one tray at a time, at 350°F (180°C) for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden on top. Repeat with the second tray.
- Optional: While the cookies are baking, toast 20 whole raw pecans in a dry pan over medium heat, until they are a deep golden brown color and fragrant. Transfer to a plate and allow to cool completely.
- Let the cookies cool down and firm up directly on the baking trays.
- Optional: Add a whole toasted pecan to the top of each cookie as they come out of the oven and then sprinkle them with salt flakes for a sweet/salty flavor.
Baker’s tips
Spread the cookies over two trays. This prevents them from baking together and needing to be separated.
Bake the cookies one tray at a time. Bake one tray of cookies, and then when that’s finished, bake the second tray of cookies. Don’t bake both trays at once, or they will bake unevenly.
Chill the cookies before baking. This allows the vegan butter to harden again after being mixed in with the ingredients, which makes the cookies puff up and not spread as much.
Make your vegan butter pecan cookies gluten free
We haven’t tried these vegan cookies as gluten free yet. However, a helpful tip is to use a gluten free all purpose flour blend as a substitute in the same amount as shown on the recipe card.
Storing and freezing
Keep the cookies stored in an airtight container at room temperature and enjoy within a week. They can also be stored in the fridge.
They are freezer friendly for three months. Thaw overnight in the fridge. You can also freeze the cookie dough balls for up to 3 months before baking, and then you can bake them directly from frozen. Allow an extra couple of minutes of bake time to account for them being frozen to start with.
More delicious vegan holiday cookies
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Butter Pecan Cookies LIV Final:
Ingredients
- 1 cup Pecans raw, chopped (130g)
- 1 cup Vegan Butter (225g)
- ½ cup White Granulated Sugar (100g)
- ½ cup Light Brown Sugar (100g)
- 3 tbsp Soy milk or other non-dairy milk
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 ¼ cups All Purpose Flour (281g)
- 1 tsp Corn Starch
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Salt
Instructions
- Line two baking trays with parchment paper and set aside.
- Place the chopped pecans in a dry pan over medium heat. Cook the pecans, stirring frequently to prevent burning, until they are a deep golden brown color and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate and allow to cool completely.
- To the bowl of your stand mixer, add vegan butter, white granulated sugar and brown sugar and cream them together until light and fluffy.
- Add the vanilla extract and mix in.
- In a separate mixing bowl, add all purpose flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix together.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix by hand until crumbly.
- Add the soy milk and mix into a thick cookie dough.
- Add the completely cooled pecans to the cookie dough and mix in by hand. The dough will be soft, but still manageable.
- Break off pieces of the dough and roll it into balls and place them on the parchment lined baking sheets. Aim for 10 balls per sheet.
- Place into the fridge to chill for 30 minutes while you preheat the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Bake the cookies, one tray at a time, at 350°F (180°C) for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden on top. Repeat with the second tray.
- Optional: While the cookies are baking, toast 20 whole raw pecans in a dry pan over medium heat, until they are a deep golden brown color and fragrant. Transfer to a plate and allow to cool completely.
- Let the cookies cool down and firm up directly on the baking trays.
- Optional: Add a whole toasted pecan to the top of each cookie as they come out of the oven and then sprinkle them with salt flakes for a sweet/salty flavor.
Notes
- Prep time – This is for hands on time only and doesn’t include time spent chilling in the fridge (30 minutes).
- Raw Pecans – For this recipe we chose to chop and toast raw pecans to enhance the flavor of the nuts as much as possible. If you’d prefer to skip this step, then you can use already roasted pecans. However, make sure the nuts are only roasted and not salted.
- Soy milk – can be switched for a different non-dairy milk.
- Cornstarch – is great for making ultra soft cookies.
- All purpose flour – should be measured correctly. If you accidentally over-measure your flour in this recipe, the dough will be too thick. So either weigh it out on a food scale, or use the spoon and level method. Spoon it into your measuring cup (don’t scoop it, and don’t pack it into the cup) and then level it off with a knife.
- Storing and freezing – Keep the cookies stored in an airtight container at room temperature and enjoy within a week. They can also be stored in the fridge. They are freezer friendly for three months. Thaw overnight in the fridge. You can also freeze the cookie dough balls for up to 3 months before baking, and then you can bake them directly from frozen. Allow an extra couple of minutes of bake time to account for them being frozen to start with.
These turned out super well on the first attempt! The butter makes them really moist and melty without being oily, which is lovely. I used walnuts instead of pecans because that’s what’s available here, and it worked out perfectly – maybe even better since the walnuts are so flavourful? Anyways, I’d make these again anytime 🙂
That’s awesome Alison! Happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe. Thanks so much for sharing and for your great review!