A friend of ours loves Keebler Pecan Sandies. After about 200 or so cookies and making a fabulous pecan sugar cookie, the elves would be proud of this copycat recipe. Or maybe a little jealous?
Many different types of cookies were baked along the way in an attempt to crack the magic behind this crunchy, delicious addictive cookies. Many came out soft and chewy, others too bland from not enough sugar. Finally, after eating every single keebler pecan sandies in the bag and thinking about shortbread in general, an idea came into our minds.
Shortbread is basically a sugar, fat and flour ratio. But when inspecting the bag, the ingredients gave me a clue. It was looking like it could be a pâte sablée! A pate sablee roughly translates to “sandy dough.” We were looking for a copycat keebler pecan sandies recipes. “Sandies” being the key word. See where we are going here?
Looking at the rest of the ingredients, many are the ones that are present in margarine not butter. Things like whey, soy lecithin and the types of oils are common in they typical margarine. So it is very likely they used a margarine or a similar vegetable spread instead of shortening or butter. However, to be sure, several batches were baked with each of the ingredients or a blend of each. Each cookie became a bit closer to the taste and texture of the Keebler pecan sandy recipe. Each type of fat gave a pleasant, yet different quality to the copycat recipe as well.
The shortening ones were too crinkly and too crumbly. Not a nice snap at all. The butter ones are absolutely gorgeous tasting, but are just a bit off on taste. The margarine ones were perfect and spot on to the texture and flavor of the cookie itself. So this would be a good time to try out margarine if you are looking for the closest copycat recipe.
However, if you want to take the flavor up a notch and treat yourself, use either all butter or half butter and half margarine. Put a little of your own magic in these copycat cookies. For instance, since we went to all this trouble, we added quite a bit more pecans than the original. And be sure to thank Gidget for the idea!
First, finely chop nuts. 
A nut chopper works great for this! 
Then cream margarine and sugar. 
Add in your egg yolks. 
Blend until smooth. 
Add in the vanilla. 
Then the finely chopped nuts. 
And your flour. 
Mix until it looks like sand and comes together when squeezed. 
Roll into a 1 1/2″ (4cm) log. 
Cover and chill until firm. 
Slice and bake. 
They will become crunchy as they cool. 
Happy baking!
Copycat Keebler Pecan Sandies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (225g) flour
- ¾ cup (150g) sugar
- ½ cup (113g) softened butter or margarine
- ½ cup (56g) finely chopped pecans
- 2 large (40g) egg yolks
- 2 tsp (10mL) vanilla
- ½ tsp (3g) baking soda
- ¼ tsp (1.25g) salt
Instructions
- Mix salt, baking soda and flour in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Finely chop nuts.
- Cream softened butter or margarine and sugar.
- Beat in egg yolks until smooth.
- Add in flour mixture, nuts and vanilla. Mix until a soft dough begins to form.
- Roll into a 1 1/2" (4cm) log. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill until firm, about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 325F (160C.)
- Remove cookies from refrigerator, slice into 3/8" (1cm) rounds. Place on a baking sheet 2" (5cm) apart.
- Bake 15-30 minutes* or until golden brown on the edges. The longer the baking time, the crunchier the cookie. Remove from oven and let sit 2 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool.
I made them and they were good but I was wary about the 20-30 minute bake time and checked them at around 10 -11 minutes in and they were done. I followed the instructions after that and left them on the pan for two minutes and then moved them onto cooking racks with a spatula/turner because they were still soft . They cooled down and were firm enough to hold just fine and soft when you bit into them.
Hello, Elizabeth!
You made a great discovery and it shows you have great skills as a fellow baker. They will indeed be safely baked in shorter time frame and be very delicious. I will make a note in the recipe and share your tip with others.
There is a little backstory as to why this shorter time frame works in this wonderful recipe. When you bake them for less time, the pecan sandies will be very tender and stay soft in the center. This is much more like an American style cookie and not a much crunchier/nuttier shortbread that has very little moisture in them.
A fellow viewer that became a great friend over the years, Gidget, asked for this particular recipe and we developed it over time. She helped us with both temperature and time. She was after a particular shortbread in mind. This ended up requiring a longer and slower bake to help develop the deep nutty flavors and texture. Hope that explains why the time frame is listed longer than you expected. I’m glad you stuck with your instincts and picked the time that suits your taste as that is what now makes them your own and special! I love that you did this! Happy baking!
I am Keon on Keebler Sandies and I will be trying this recipe very soon! Would you mind sharing what brand of margarine you used? They vary so much in fat content that I’m a little hesitant to use the Imperial I have on hand because it’s one of the low ones. But the ingredients list whey and soy lecithin, so I might be on the right track… maybe I’ll just give it the old college try.
Hi Jen! A lot of the “margarines” of yesterday have dropped the fat content so low that they are now called “vegetable oil spread.” This is due to the fact the fat content is lower than 80% which is what the USDA mandates to be called margarine. So when you are buying it, look for the word “margarine” and not “spread.” I use land o lakes most of the time, but only because there aren’t a lot of margarines on the shelves these days. Hope that helps!
So yes, the sandies made with Imperial (a 53% oil spread) were a fail. Not completely inedible, but not good – kind of hard and the spread gave them a janky flavor. I suspect that would also be the case with Blue Bonnet (also 53%), so there’s a PSA for your readers. And I was sad to discover that the only margarine I liked the taste of, Fleischmann’s (which disappeared from San Francisco stores years ago), is now a 65% spread.
I have not been able to find Land o’ Lakes (or any other 80%) margarine, but I did find Country Crock plant butter sticks, which are 79%. They work pretty well – best batch of sandies so far. A little crunchier than I would like (I have some ideas about how to fix that) but very tasty. By the way, Earth Balance sticks are 78% and would probably work decently for anyone who, like me, is having trouble finding real margarine. I also tried half butter/half coconut oil (refined, so no coconut flavor comes through). Nice flavor but also a little too crunchy. I would like to experiment with European-style butter as well (like Plugra) since it has less water in it and might yield a more tender cookie.
Thanks for the original recipe – I’m having a lot of fun experimenting!
Hello again, Jen. It’s a pleasure to hear back from you. I can confirm the blue bonnet spread is not…good. It now has a very odd texture to it. Unfortunately, I am having a very difficult time finding margarine as well. It has completely fallen out of fashion. However, a lot of the “vegan” butters are very close as you are finding out. If you have access to it, Miyoko is supposed to be a great butter substitute. I’ve heard wonderful things about it. Target, Krogers, and Walmart all have it listed in our area. Not sure if it will be the same for you.
I will be interested in your idea and would love to hear how you improved the recipe! And with your permission, I would be honored to put it in the recipe notes on here and and on youtube crediting you if you find a good alternative for others. I absolutely adore learning from others. This whole recipe was created with the help out another viewer, Gidget, as it was tweaked several times just for her liking.
I found a way to keep the cookie dough round while chilling! I took 2 paper towel rolls and cut them along lengthwise, after the dough is wrapped in plastic wrap I slip one cardboard tube around the dough. Then I slip the other tube from the opposite side. The round cardboard tubes keeps the dough from flattening out on the bottom!
Gidget, once again, you are brilliant! I am so going to try this as I have a couple tubes in the recycling. Keep those ideas coming. You are teaching me a lot of tips and tricks. 🙂