Maple Pecan Sourdough Oatmeal Cookies
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There’s nothing quite like the cozy combination of maple, pecans, and oats, especially when you add the tangy depth of sourdough starter (or discard if you prefer). These sourdough maple pecan oatmeal cookies are chewy in the middle, crisp at the edges, and full of nutty crunch and maple sweetness.
And just when you think they couldn’t get any better, they’re finished with a luscious maple butter glaze that takes them over the top (seriously, I make them just so I can eat this off the spoon). Perfect for fall baking, holiday cookie trays, or simply a sweet treat with your afternoon coffee, these sourdough cookies are as comforting as they are delicious.
Speaking of holiday cookie trays, if you're looking for a few other cookies to pair with these sourdough maple pecan oatmeal cookies, you could try these sourdough gingerbread cookies, sourdough sugar cookies or these sourdough ginger molasses cookies.
Why You'll Love This Recipe!
Simple Pantry Ingredients - if you're like me and always have a big bag of rolled oats in the pantry, you'll only need a few other pantry staples to bring these special fall sourdough cookies to life, just like these sourdough oatmeal raisin cookies!
Fermented Overnight with Sourdough Starter - This cookie dough needs to be fermented in the fridge overnight, giving your sourdough starter (or discard) time to work its magic. This overnight chill time creates the soft, chewy cookies that are truly worthy of the wait!
Maple Butter Glaze - this might just be my favorite thing about fall. Honestly, I want to spread this maple butter glaze on everything right now, it's that good! It actually goes really well with these sourdough maple pecan muffins too!
Ingredients
- Sourdough Starter – you can use sourdough starter or sourdough discard for this recipe, it won't make any difference to the final outcome. I prefer making them with active starter, but honestly as long as your discard isn't too sour, it's fine to use either.
- Rolled Oats – you'll need old fashioned oats, not quick oats. This is really important!
- All Purpose Flour
- Maple syrup – Make sure you're using real maple syrup, not maple flavored syrup. If you really want to up the maple flavor, you can add some maple extract along with the syrup (if you can find it).
- Sugar - You'll need brown sugar, granulated white sugar and powdered sugar for these cookies. Brown sugar, together with the maple syrup, creates a gorgeous caramel flavor, while granulated sugar brings the crispy edges. Powdered sugar is used to create the maple butter glaze.
- Egg - I've used one large egg.
- Pecans – you'll need crunchy, roughly chopped pecans for both the cookie batter and to sprinkle on top of the cookies.
- Butter – these cookies feature butter in the cookie dough, as well as in that amazing maple butter glaze.
- Cinnamon - just a little cinnamon to create that warm fall flavor.
How To Make Maple Pecan Sourdough Oatmeal Cookies
- Mix wet ingredients – In a large bowl, whisk butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, egg, sourdough starter, and maple syrup until smooth.
- Combine dry ingredients – In another bowl, stir together flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, rolled oats, and pecans.
- Bring together – Add the dry mix into the wet ingredients to form a sticky dough.
- Chill – Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, although I recommend fermenting overnight for the most incredible flavor!
- Bake – Scoop dough onto lined trays, spacing well apart. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for ~15 minutes until edges are golden and centers are soft.
- Cool – Leave cookies on the tray for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.
- Glaze – Whisk powdered sugar, water, maple syrup, melted butter, and salt until smooth. Drizzle over cooled cookies and sprinkle with pecans.
You'll find step by step instructions to make these cookies in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Kate's Recipe Tips
- Don’t over bake these cookies, they firm up as they cool. You want crispy edges, but the inside should be soft and chewy!
- If your cookies come out a little misshapen, don't despair! Just use a biscuit cutter to swirl the hot cookies on the tray to make them round again - best cookie tip ever (you can see me doing this in the photo below).
- Make sure the cookies are fully cooled before you add the maple butter glaze so that it sets and doesn't just slide off.
- For a deeper flavor, toast the pecans before sprinkling over the maple butter glaze.
How To Store + Freeze
Room Temperature - these maple pecan sourdough oatmeal cookies are soft and chewy, so they will stay fresh at room temperature for around 5 days. I recommend storing in an airtight container or glass jar. I have tested storing them with and without glaze and it doesn't actually make any difference to their shelf life.
Freezer - these cookies are perfect for freezing! I recommend freezing baked cookies unglazed. Thaw at room temperature and then add maple butter glaze and pecans. You can also freeze unbaked dough balls for longer storage if you prefer. These can be baked from frozen, just add a few minutes onto the bake time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Absolutely! You can use whatever you have on hand. These cookies use baking soda as the leavening, so you it really doesn't matter. The sourdough starter (or discard) is actually bringing the fermentation vibes here, so you can use either one.
Yes, you can skip the glaze (but seriously I urge you to try it). But if you really don't want to use it, they still taste great without it. If you don't like a heavy glaze, you could also just do a light drizzle.
Yes, the dough needs to be chilled before you bake it. The cookie dough is very wet and difficult to scoop right after mixing. If you do manage to scoop it and put it in the oven, the cookie dough balls will collapse and become too thin in the oven, rather than collapsing slowly when they've been chilled. If you don't chill the mixture, you won't get the thick, bakery style cookies you're craving.
I don't recommend freezing the cookies with glaze. Freeze them baked, but unglazed.
Maple Pecan Sourdough Oatmeal Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Cookie Scoop (I've used a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop)
- 2 Large Cookie Trays
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 115 g Butter (softened at room temperature)
- 120 g Granulated Sugar
- 80 g Brown Sugar
- 1 Egg (large)
- 100 g Sourdough Starter (can be discard or active starter)
- 30 g Maple Syrup
Dry Ingredients
- 100 g All Purpose Flour
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon (ground)
- 2 g Salt (just a pinch)
- 3 g Baking Soda
- 150 g Rolled Oats
- 100 g Pecans (roughly chopped)
Maple Butter Glaze
- 250 g Powdered Sugar
- 40 g Water
- 80 g Maple Syrup
- 40 g Butter (melted)
- 2 g Salt (just a pinch)
- 50 g Pecans (roughly chopped)
Instructions
- Add the wet ingredients - butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, egg, sourdough starter and maple syrup together in a large mixing bowl. Whisk until well combined.
- In a separate bowl add all of the dry ingredients together - all purpose flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, rolled oats and pecans and gently stir through.
- Now tip the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix together to form a sticky dough. It will be fairly wet and that's ok, you need to chill it and allow it to firm up before you bake it.
- I recommend allowing the to ferment in the fridge overnight (so around 12 hours) but minimum 2 hours is fine.
- When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 190ºC (375ºF).
- Using a large spoon or cookie scoop, scoop balls of cookie dough onto the cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. If your scoops are a little messy, I recommend rolling them into neater balls as this will make your finished cookies more round in shape.These cookies will spread so make sure you leave some room between them to allow for this.
- Place trays into the oven and bake for around 15 minutes at 190C (375F) or until the edges of the cookies are starting to brown but the middles are still soft. Don't let them overcook!
- Remove them from the oven and allow to cool on the cookie tray for around 10 minutes before placing them on a wire rack to fully cook.
- Once cool, they will have crispy edges and a soft, chewy centre - YUM!
Maple Butter Glaze
- To create the glaze, whisk together the powdered sugar, water, maple syrup, melted butter and salt until smooth. Drizzle over the cooled cookies and sprinkle over some chopped pecans. Allow the glaze to set before enjoying (I like to make these the day before I need them to ensure that the glaze fully sets).
Nutrition
Your recipes are the very best. Those maple cookies beat the famous cookie stores you pay a small fortune for. As a matter of fact, you are my recipe guru. Simply the best.-
God bless you and your family! MjL
You are so sweet, your comment made me smile so much! These are definitely one of my faves too! I'm so glad you love them! Thank you for your kind words xo
These look great. I have been all about maple so far this year. Have you tried browning the butter first?
I don't think you need to, these are so flavorful already! I don't brown my butter for any of my cookie recipes. However, I do love making whipped brown butter to spread on sourdough bread!