Welcome to the last day of #AKCookieWeek 2019! I hope you all have enjoyed the recipes this year and have made a few. And if you haven’t yet, you must. You can check out all my cookie recipes right here.
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Today’s recipe came from a love of pure maple syrup. It’s one of my favorite natural sweeteners to use and I pretty much love it on anything and everything: drizzled on my oatmeal, in maple granola, in the pockets of my grandma’s waffles, or even on salmon. And remember those Quarker oatmeal packets? Everyone knows the maple brown sugar was the absolute best.
So while dreaming up cookie week recipes, I somehow started to imagine that sweet maple syrup flavor infused into a cozy cookie that was made up of delectable brown butter, brown sugar and chewy oats. What could be better?!
Ingredients + tips to make these maple pecan oatmeal cookies
- Brown butter. The flavor profile is nutty, sweet, toasty and reminiscent of a caramel hazelnut flavor. If you aren’t sure how to brown butter, you can refer to my tutorial here. Tip: make sure your brown butter is cool enough to touch before using. I usually set it aside to cool for 10-15 minutes before making the recipe. Also, be sure to scrape every bit of brown butter from your pan.
- Dark brown sugar. This recipe calls for dark brown sugar. The brown sugar helps to keep the cookies softer and chewier in the middle, yet still allows for crispy, delicious edges. Normally I choose dark brown sugar because it has a tiny bit more molasses in the flavoring, which again, helps to achieve an out of this world cookie. Don’t worry though, light brown sugar also works.
- Pure maple syrup. Sweet maple syrup flavor takes these cookies to the next level! Make sure it’s PURE and not the fake stuff.
- Egg. Only one is needed.
- Pecans. I love the texture and crunch pecans bring to the cookies. SO GOOD.
- Oats. Make sure you use old-fashioned rolled oats in this recipe. Do not use quick oats or steel cut oats.
- Chilled dough. Yes, this recipe requires you to chill the dough, but only for for a little bit and I promise it’s worth it. Chilling cookie dough allows the cookies to create a smooth caramel flavor, with crispy brown edges, plus a chewy interior.
The addicting salted maple icing
The sweet salted maple icing truly makes these cookies AMAZING and I don’t recommend skipping it. It’s simple to make and will harden on the cookies after a bit.
How to freeze cookie dough for later
I LOVE freezing extra cookie dough because that way I can pop them in the oven whenever I want and it’s great when you want to bring something to a party or to a loved one’s house, but don’t feel like having a baking extravaganza. To freeze cookie dough for baking later:
- After dough is done chilling in the fridge for at least an hour, roll the cookie dough into balls and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Chill the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes. This is known as a flash freeze.
- Once the cookie dough balls firm up, you can transfer them to a reusable freezer-safe bag or container. Cookie dough will keep well for up to 3 months.
- When ready to bake, simply bake cookies as directed in the recipe. You’ll likely just need to add a few extra minutes of baking time! Enjoy.
How to freeze maple oatmeal cookies cookies for later
If you want to freeze the already baked maple oatmeal for later, simply wait for them to cool completely, then transfer them to a reusable freezer-safe bag or container lined with wax or parchment paper. I like to place them in a single layer to avoid any cookies breaking. Cookies will keep well for up to 2 months. Once ready to eat, simply thaw out at room temperature, and ice them.
If you make these cookies, please leave a comment and rate the recipe below! Thanks for participating in cookie week. xo!
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Iced Brown Butter Maple Pecan Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- Wet ingredients:
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Dry ingredients:
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- For salted maple icing:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon milk to thin icing, plus a teaspoon or two more if necessary to thin icing
- Pinch of sea salt, to taste
Instructions
- Brown your butter: melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Make sure you whisk constantly during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to brown on the bottom of the saucepan. Continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown and give off a nutty aroma. Transfer to a bowl to cool for 5-10 minutes, or until cool enough to touch.
- Add every last bit of the brown butter, brown sugar and pure maple syrup to the bowl of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and well combined. Next add in the egg and vanilla and mix again until smooth, creamy and well combined. It’s very important to make sure your egg is at room temperature (you can do so by running warm water over the egg for 1 min).
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low-speed just until combined. Next, add in chopped pecans and mix on low speed until combined. Chill dough in fridge for about 30-60 minutes.
- Once ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Use a medium cookie scoop or your hands to grab a large heaping tablespoon full of dough. Roll into balls and place on the prepared cookie sheet, leaving at least 2 inches of space between each cookie.
- Bake cookies 9-12 minutes. If you like cookies with a crispy edges, bake for about 12 minutes. If you like softer cookies, bake for 9-10 minutes.
- Remove from oven and cool the cookies on sheets about 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack. Repeat with remaining dough. Makes about 18 cookies.
- Once cookies have cooled you can make the icing: add powdered sugar, maple syrup, melted butter, milk and salt to a bowl. Mix to combine. Icing should be smooth and spoonable. Spoon 2 teaspoonfuls of icing onto each cookie and spread out a little. Return to wire rack to let the icing harden.
Nutrition
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
18 comments
What do you suggest is a good sub to make these GF? Thanks!
I would try chickpea flour or a gluten free 1:1 flour!
Added these to our family chistmas cookie bake fest this year..Yummy.yummy.Not just any cookie gets to be on the Reutimann Family first string cookie list, but these are legit! Well deserving right along with grandmas tried and true..
We followed the recipe to the T.
Amazing!! So happy to hear that, Lauri 🙂 it’s an honor to be on the cookie list!
These are definitely my new favorite! I followed the recipe exactly as written and they’re so simple and quick to make. The texture is perfect, baking for 11 minutes gave them a crispy edge with a soft middle. Delicious.
Amazing! So happy to hear that 🙂
these cookies are incredible! they are crazy delicious and they have been named the best cookies she’s ever had by my aunt, absolutely love!!
Amazing! So happy to hear that!
Honestly I’ll try this recipe this weekend and would let you know!
This covid time let me discover some amazing recipe, I’m glad I discovered your site, keep posting such awesome work!!!
So happy to hear that! I hope you keep finding recipes here that you love 🙂
Ooooo man! These are absolutely delicious! I didn’t even put the icing on it because the cookie itself was amazing!
Amazing! So glad you liked them 🙂
Simply delicious! I didn’t have pecans on hand, so unfortunately I had to leave them out. But they were still incredible! The brown butter makes all the difference. The dough was also quite yummy I must say… These were a wonderful addition to our Christmas cookie plates. I received lots of compliments! Thank you!
Amazing! So happy to hear that 🙂
This is going to be a little long, but my friend and I were talking about snacks our parents had growing up that we didn’t like. My mom always had those rock hard oatmeal cookies with the rock hard frosting. We had a laugh and I thought that since I’m going home for my mother’s birthday this weekend I can make her some homemade ones. I immediately rushed to Ambitious Kitchen because 99% of the things I’ve made here are delicious. Baking, cooking, our tastebuds are aligned. I followed this recipe to the T and I don’t know what I did wrong, maybe I left the cookies in the fridge too long? It was 60 minutes. I preheated my oven for 1 hour ahead of time because my oven tends to run cold and take longer. I rolled 18 balls onto the tray and after 12 minutes they were still pale balls. I’m not sure where I went wrong. Maybe my baking soda is old? I’m sure it is. I left them there several minutes longer until the edges started to brown and pulled them out. They never flattened out like the picture. Also I tend to forget how much things still bake outside of the oven while cooling. They definitely continued to brown while cooling and I poured the frosting on and tasted one. INCREDIBLE. The brown butter knocks it out of the park. I cannot imagine a world in which my mother will not like them. They have a lot of flavor so I won’t be eating more than one at a time, but they are so incredible. I would make them again in a heartbeat. Oh, my butter I browned was salted because it was all I had on hand, maybe that’s why they didn’t flatten out. They still taste pretty fantastic. Would fix my mistakes for next time! Thanks Monique!
I’m glad they were still delicious! I would suggest getting and oven thermometer to check the temperature – it sounds like it could’ve been colder than it should’ve been. Next time feel free to bring the cookie dough balls closer to room temp before baking, too. Double check your baking soda, and remember to measure your flour using this method! I hope those help!
The maple flavor is yummy, but I found 1 cup of flour to be insufficient! I am US-based but used butter from grass-fed NZ cows I bought at Costco, and I refrigerated the cookies overnight, so in theory, plenty of times for the oats and flour to absorb. The next morning, I pulled the bowl with the dough out about 15 minutes before scooping.
My cookies turned out flatter than the pictures, almost toffee-y in texture as they finished cooling. Still very edible, but would recommend other bakers perhaps err on the side of more flour than less as they’re working since the butter is melted and your particular butter may have different properties from that used in the recipe!
Thanks so much for your feedback! I’ll definitely take that into consideration the next time I make these.