I’m surprised I had many of these left. Every time I looked over, Chris was snacking on another one. At one point, with evidence of crumbs on the corners of his mouth, and cookie in hand, he looked at me and said, “These are awful!” If he was a winking kind of guy, this would have been the prime opportunity to implement one. I knew right away he’d like this cookie and it didn’t even have the frosting on it yet, not that it stopped him once it did.

Ingredients:

For the cookies:

• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup pecans, toasted & finely chopped
• 36 pecan halves, or chopped pecans

For the frosting:

• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tbsp. butter
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Preparation

For the cookies:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. On another smaller baking sheet, toast the 1/2 cup of pecans for 3-5 minutes. Once cool, chop.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add in the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Add in flour, baking soda, salt, & beat until combined. Stir in chopped, toasted pecans. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes or more. Preheat oven to 350. Shape into 1 inch balls and place a couple of inches apart on prepared baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes or until set (not glossy in the middle) and lightly browned at the edges. Cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting:

Combine brown sugar and milk in a small pot over medium heat. Bring to a boil and boil for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Stir in powdered sugar and whisk until smooth. The frosting will firm up dramatically within a few minutes. Spread each cookie with about 1 tbsp. frosting and then top with pecans. At about the halfway mark, I had to stir in a bit more of milk to smooth out the frosting. Allow the frosting to set before storing.

Source: http://www.thereciperebel.com/brown-sugar-pecan-cookies/

Note: One of the e-mail thank you’s I received about this cookie: “YUMMO!!!  The cookies with the carmel(?) and pecan on top are to die for!!”