Autumn Cookies with Pumpkin Spice, Oats, Pecan Nuts and Raisins
Spicy, nutty, oaty, chewy, crunchy cookies with little bursts of juicy caramel sweetness oozing from the raisins, sultanas and maple syrup.
Ingredients
- 125g unsalted butter, at room temperature (NB if you would like to use brown butter, see Recipe Notes below)
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 125g soft brown sugar
- 50g maple syrup or runny honey
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract/paste
- 150g plain/all-purpose flour
- 70g jumbo oats
- 50g desiccated coconut
- 4 teaspoons Autumn/Pumpkin spice (see Recipe Notes)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 100g chopped pecan nuts
- 100g raisins and/or sultanas
Topping:
- 28 complete pecan halves
Instructions
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Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.
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Preheat oven to Fan Oven 160°C/180°C/350°F/Gas 4
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Chop the pecan nuts which are going into the cookie dough (not the whole ones for the tops). Scatter on a baking sheet and cook in the centre of a preheated oven for 5 minutes. Take out of the oven and tip into a bowl. Set aside to cool.
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Put the butter, salt and the sugar and maple syrup or honey into a large bowl and using an electric whisk mix until fluffy. This should take 3-4 minutes.
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Add the egg and vanilla extract/paste and continue to whisk until thoroughly mixed.
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Add the flour, oats, coconut, spice and baking powder to the butter mixture and either:
- Fold in briefly by hand – this is merely to prevent a cloud of flour in your kitchen! Use your electric whisk on a medium speed to beat until fully incorporated, OR
- Alternatively, fold in completely by hand.
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Fold in the chopped pecan nuts and raisins and/or sultanas until evenly mixed throughout. The dough will be quite soft and sticky at this stage. (NB hold a few nuts/raisins back, just 4-5, to add into the last cookie.)
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Divide the dough into balls, (I use 30g/1 large tablespoon.) Roll gently into a neater shape (the dough will be very soft at this stage). Top each dough ball with a complete pecan nut half.
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Place the dough balls spread out on a baking sheet – I get 8 per sheet depending on the size of the baking sheet. They do not spread that much, so you should be able to get more on your baking sheet than the Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Baking one tray at a time: bake for 10 - 12 minutes. (I cook mine for 11 minutes.)
Baking two trays at a time: add one minute to the total time to cook. Bake for half this time and then quickly swap the trays over i.e. put the top tray on the lower shelf and the tray from the lower shelf and on the higher shelf and cook for the remaining time.
(So for one tray I cook for 11 minutes and 2 trays for 6 minutes, swap the trays and then another 6 minutes = 12 minutes on total.)
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The cookies are cooked when: they have spread out, are starting to brown on the edges and look ever so slightly underdone. They should still be soft in the middle. Let them cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.
Recipe Notes
Equipment:
- Kitchen scales and measuring spoons
- Electric whisk and mixing bowl
- Chopping board and knife
- Baking sheets lined with baking parchment, if necessary
- Ice cream scoop/tablespoon measure
Brown Butter: if you would like to replace the unsalted butter with brown butter, you should use 105g brown butter and add 20ml milk. For more information on Brown Butter, please see my post.
If you do not have any of this spice, you can use:
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
- ⅔ teaspoon ginger powder
- ⅔ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅓ teaspoon ground cloves
- ⅓ teaspoon all spice
Cooking from frozen: allow 1 – 2 minutes extra cooking time.
Weighing the ingredients:
You can either weigh your ingredients and then add them to the mixing bowl or you can weigh your ingredients directly into your mixing bowl. Simply put the bowl on the scales and zero the scales. Make sure you remember to zero them in between adding each new ingredient.