Maple Pecan Snickerdoodles

After several rounds of testing, these maple pecan snickerdoodles came out soft and chewy with irresistible maple and cinnamon flavors. Chopped pecans in the dough add texture and a pecan baked on top of each cookie is a pretty finishing touch!

One reader, Kristy, commented: “Maple AND snickerdoodles? I was determined to make these cookies. We were hooked from the first bite. I made these three times over the holidays. This is definitely a new year round favorite in our house. We loved them! ★★★★★“

Another reader, Stephanie, commented: “One of my all-time favorite Sally cookies! The maple flavor is such a good addition to the classic snickerdoodle. Will be keeping these in my baking rotation! ★★★★★“

This recipe is part of my annual holiday cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. Every year since 2013, I work on a handful of new cookie recipes and publish the 10 best ones for readers to enjoy. It’s the biggest, tastiest event of the year on my website!

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Tell Me About These Maple Pecan Snickerdoodles

• Flavor: Two cookies collide! These are maple brown sugar cookies and snickerdoodles in one. The brown sugar flavor isn’t as heavy as the maple brown sugar cookies (or even brown sugar cookies), but there’s extra cinnamon and a little tang from cream of tartar so you certainly won’t miss it. (Cream of tartar is a staple ingredient in snickerdoodles!) The pecan half on each cookie gets a little toasty, so if you love nuts—don’t skip that addition.
• Texture: Chewy, crinkly, and oh-so-soft with chunks of pecans in every bite.
• Ease: These maple pecan snickerdoodles are easy enough for a beginner to handle because there’s no complicated shaping or prep required. Don’t forget a few key ingredients like cream of tartar, pure maple syrup, and maple extract.
• Time: Standing between you and a tray of maple pecan snickerdoodle cookies is a 2 hour chill time. Since we’re adding liquid (maple syrup), this cookie dough will over-spread in the oven without a couple hours in the refrigerator first. If you’re baking multiple cookie recipes at once, use this time to make a batch of shortbread!

By the way, if you’re ever looking for a cut-out style cookie recipe using these flavors, try my maple cinnamon cut-out cookies.

The goal for today’s recipe was a flavorful variation of regular snickerdoodles. I tested multiple batches before landing on texture and flavor perfection—let me show you some results.

Comparing Two Test Batches

The first several rounds of dough started from my traditional snickerdoodles. I used varying amounts of maple syrup and maple extract and adjusted the egg/egg yolk and flour, but each cookie had a cakey texture and some were dry by day 2. (Likely the added flour and reduced egg yolk—the original snickerdoodles are definitely not like this!) I switched directions and used maple brown sugar cookies as the base. Adding cream of tartar gave the slightly tangy flavor that’s iconic to traditional snickerdoodle cookies. I reduced the brown sugar so the flavor wasn’t as strong and settled on a careful ratio of butter-flour-maple syrup.

On the left: Dry and cakey.

On the right: Soft with chewy, buttery centers. These were the clear winners and you can find the printable recipe below.

Key Ingredients in Maple Pecan Snickerdoodles

1. Cinnamon: All snickerdoodles are dressed up in a cinnamon sugar coating including today’s version. Use cinnamon in the cookie dough as well.
2. Cream of Tartar: Cream of tartar adds a unique tang to snickerdoodle cookies. If you don’t have any, you can skip it but you will lose that flavor. I have plenty of other recipes that use cream of tartar, like these caramel snickerdoodles. You can put a jar to good use!
3. Pure Maple Syrup: Avoid “breakfast syrup” which doesn’t have the same robust maple flavor that pure syrup contains.
4. Maple Extract: Pure maple syrup isn’t enough to give the cookies enough flavor. (And if you tried adding more for additional flavor, the dry-wet ingredients would be thrown off!) Without the crutch of maple extract, the cookies are lacking flavor. If you need a recommendation, I like using McCormick brand maple extract and you can find it in the baking aisle. You can use it in maple brown sugar cookies, maple walnut tassies, and maple bacon doughnuts, too!
5. Pecans: Chopped pecans add some texture to the cookies. I like pressing a pecan half on top of each dough ball before baking—it’s a built-in garnish that lightly toasts as the cookies bake.

You also need some staple baking ingredients including butter, brown & white granulated sugars, an egg, salt, flour, vanilla, and baking soda.

A Cookie Scoop Helps

Use a cookie scoop to portion the dough before rolling into balls with your hands. I like this (affiliate link) medium cookie scoop because it measures exactly what you need—1.5 Tablespoons of dough.

If you love snickerdoodles, you might enjoy these white chocolate chai snickerdoodles, peanut butter snickerdoodles, snickerdoodle blondies, and even snickerdoodle cupcakes or snickerdoodle cake, too.

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