Oat and Pecan Brittle Cookies

The Oat and Pecan Brittle Cookies recipe is the only one I attempted before taking on this Dessert Personproject, so I already knew these were what I call “commitment cookies”. This is probably the most complex cookie recipe I’ve ever done, but like Claire, I definitely think it’s worth the effort.

This recipe doesn’t really involve any ingredients that are hard to find. I bought whole pecans because they were cheaper and just chopped them myself. I toasted the pecans for about eight minutes. While the pecans were cooling, I melted sugar, butter and water together in a saucepan. After about ten minutes, it boiled into an amber tone. I knew from my first experience doing this that you really have to be ready for all the next steps, because once that sugar mixture turns amber, it’s game time. The first time I did this, I waited a tad too long, unsure of how amber it should look, and it ended up tasting a little burned in the cookie later on. This time, I took it off the heat at the right moment and added the pecans, baking soda and salt. After getting it all mixed, I laid it on parchment paper and got it smoothed out into a beautiful brittle! Once it was cooled down, I chopped half the brittle into very small pieces.

I reused the same saucepan to brown some butter (not sure if I was supposed to use a different pan, but hey, it’s all going in the same place in the end). I added this and the rest of the solid butter for the recipe into the stand mixer, and let it cool for a while. It seemed from the directions that I needed to wait on this to solidify, but surprise, surprise, I don’t have that kind of patience. I think I waited 15 minutes and it was fine.

While I waited for the butter to solidify, I blended the dry ingredients with half of the brittle bits in my food processor. Had I never made this recipe before, I would have been worn out by now, but last time I made this recipe I only had a blender, so it was actually kind of enjoyable having all the right tools to make this recipe now (full circle moment).

Once it was time to return to the butter, I added the sugars and blended until it was mixed and smoothed out. I then added the eggs and vanilla, then the blended flour mixture. Once this was all combined, in went the rest of brittle bits chopped up and oats. I was left with a somewhat sticky cookie dough that still held together well with brittle and oats.

Similar to what I did with Claire’s Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe, I used a ¼ cup measure to scoop the batter on to a baking sheet. While Claire recommends keeping these in the fridge for at least 12 hours, I gave them three. They were fine. I definitely had a small concern that I’d run into a similar issue with these expanding and not cooking well since they were so big in size, but I knew from making this recipe before that this one tends to cook better than the chocolate chip cookies did. I still only placed four to six on a baking sheet, and they definitely touched after baking for about 16 minutes. You really have to watch these in the last few minutes, as some are good to go, and others need a little extra time to get the middle cooked.

While I don’t think the Oatmeal and Pecan Brittle Cookies are very visually pleasing, I will probably continue making these for years to come. It’s a different take on cookies and pleases a lot of taste buds; I’ve had several relatives try these now, and they all really enjoyed the brittle crunch with the oats and sugar. In the future, I’ll probably try to make them smaller, but if you’re looking for a baking challenge in the cookie department, you will find a lot of satisfaction with this recipe.

Check out Claire’s video on this recipe; I agree, it makes for a great holiday cookie!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGBC4-CsXOM