WILD HICKORY NUT COOKIES

Wild Hickory Nut Cookies

Wildly nutty, Hickory Nut Cookies are thick, chewy and insanely delicious!  Made with browned butter, brown sugar and plenty of toasted hickory nuts, these cookies are so rich and flavorful – perfect for the holiday season.  Bite into a hickory nut and you’ll taste a whisper of wild mingled with the sweetness of pecans! 

​While hickory nuts (a buttery-tasting relative of the pecan) are delicious in cakes, muffins and ice cream, my favorite way to use them is in these rich and chewy cookies. Warm from the oven, these cookies melt in your mouth, but after an hour or so, they firm up and are chewy in the middle and slightly crunchy at the edges. If you can’t get your hands on wild hickory nuts, you can replace with pecans.

Wild Hickory Nut Cookies

RECIPE TIPS & TRICKS:

• If you can’t get your hands on wild hickory nuts, you can replace with pecans for this recipe.

• Because the butter is melted when added to the cookie dough, this recipe does require chilling, which helps the cookies hold their shape as they bake. You may need to allow the refrigerated dough to soften slightly before scooping.
• For decoration, you can press a pecan on top of the cookie dough before they bake. You can also sprinkle the cookies with a little granulated sugar right when they come out of the oven for a sparkly effect.
• Unlike most cookie recipes that instruct you to preheat oven to 350, these cookies call for a slightly higher oven temperature of 375. The higher temperature yields cookies that are crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside.
• Be careful not to over-bake these cookies! They only need 10 to 12 minutes in the oven, and will firm up quite a bit as they cool. Over-baked cookies will be dry and crumbly… not tender and chewy like we want!
• Cookie dough will keep in the fridge for 48 hours. Alternatively, you may scoop and freeze the cookie dough for up to 2 months. You will need to add an extra minute or two to the bake time if baking frozen dough.
• You can make smaller sized cookies, but you'll need to decrease the bake time by a minute or two.
• Cookies will stay fresh for 3 days when stored in an airtight container at room temperature, or wrap individually for easy serving.
• If you are a butter pecan fanatic, add a small scoop of butter pecan ice cream between two cookies for the most decadent treat!

Wild Hickory Nut Cookies

HOW TO BROWN BUTTER:

​Browning butter is insanely simple!  To brown butter you’ll need a saucepan, butter, and a little bit of patience. Melt the butter as you normally would, and then continue to cook it over medium heat – swirling the pan occasionally – until it reaches a golden brown color. Watch your butter closely as it browns, because it can burn easily! Once it’s nice and golden brown, remove it from the heat and pour it into a heatproof bowl – being sure to scrape all of the golden bits off the bottom of the pan. And that’s it! Beautiful browned butter is easy, right?

Hickory Nuts growing on a Shagbark Hickory Nut Tree

Hickory Nut Harvest

A WORD ON HICKORY NUTS:

• NUTTING:  Have you ever gone nutting or foraging for nuts?  Black walnuts, chestnuts, pecans and hickory nuts can be found in many locations and are well worth the treasure hunt!
• HICKORY NUTS:  Shagbark hickory trees are found throughout most of the eastern United States and are easy to identify.  As the name suggests, long silvery strips of shaggy bark curve out from the trunk of hickory trees.  The narrow trees grow very straight, as much as fifty feet before branching into a fancy canopy of large leaves that turn a beautiful shade of gold in the autumn. 
• Hickory trees only produce nuts after 75 years, and they aren’t grown commercially – which means you are lucky if you have these trees near you – they truly are a cash crop!   
• In autumn, mature shagbark hickory trees drop large golf ball-sized nuts, in clumps of twos and threes – you can hear them crashing to the ground with a thud! 
• The yellow-green nut pods are unripe when they fall from the tree, but it’s a race against squirrels, chipmunks and deer to collect these delicious treats!  After collecting the fallen nuts, it’s easy to split the green hulls to get to the smaller nut inside. 
• After hulling, you can spread the nuts out and allow them to ripen slowly in a dark cool location for a week or so.  The thick husk will turn a dark brown, and eventually “rattle” out of their husks to reveal the nut kernel. 
• To check the quality of the kernel, soak the nuts in a pail of water.  Good quality nuts typically sink to the bottom, whereas poor quality nuts float to the top and should be discarded. 
• After the nuts are washed, they need to be cured for better storage and to develop flavor.  Stack the nuts in shallow layers, or spread them apart in a single layer and allow to cure in a cool, dry ventilated area (garage) for 2 weeks away from direct sunlight (and not accessible to squirrels).
• Once they reach this stage, to crack open the nuts give them a quick tap with a hammer and extract the shelled nutmeat.  Try to crack the shells gently so that you will have larger pieces of nutmeat.  So many steps and so much work, but the taste makes it so worth your time!
• For best results, keep shelled hickory nuts in the freezer.  They keep basically forever when frozen, but because they have a high moisture content, they will go moldy pretty quickly at room temp or in the fridge. In the shell, they’re good for quite a while, so if you’re short on freezer space then don’t crack them open until you want to use them.  
• For best flavor, I recommend roasting the nuts before baking. 
• While hickory nuts (a buttery-tasting relative of the pecan) are delicious in baked goods and ice cream, my favorite way to use them is in cookies – Wild Hickory Nut Shortbread Cookies, Hickory Nut Sandies, Hickory Nut Biscotti, or these favorite Hickory Nut Cookies – which are very much like our favorite Butter Pecan Cookies, only richer!
• Hickory Nuts are not just for cakes, cookies and ice cream.  Native Americans kept stores of shagbark hickory nuts throughout the winter.  The nuts were an important source of nourishment as other sources of food dwindled during the winter months.  The nuts were pounded and boiled in water, resulting in a “hickory milk” that was used to enrich corn cakes and soups, or used in hearty stews or paired with wild game.
• Toasted Hickory Nuts are wonderful toasted and tossed in wild rice salads, and can be used to make hickory nut pesto and hickory nut date bread or muffins.

Hickory Nuts

Hickory Nuts & Pecans

RECIPE DEDICATION

This post and recipe are inspired by and dedicated to my friend Annette Jacob, who started us down the rabbit hole of wild hickory nuts.  Little did she know that she had a cash crop landing in her yard every year!  A little bit of research, cracking of nuts, and recipe testing and this tasty cookie was created!  Hickory nut fans rejoice!

Wild Hickory Nut Cookies

WILD HICKORY NUT COOKIES

Wildly nutty, Hickory Nut Cookies are thick, chewy and insanely delicious!  Made with browned butter, brown sugar and plenty of toasted hickory nuts, these cookies are so rich and flavorful – perfect for the holiday season.  Bite into a hickory nut and you’ll taste a whisper of wild mingled with the sweetness of pecans!  While hickory nuts (a buttery-tasting relative of the pecan) are delicious in cakes, muffins and ice cream, my favorite way to use them is in these rich and chewy cookies. Warm from the oven, these cookies melt in your mouth, but after an hour or so, they firm up and are chewy in the middle and slightly crunchy at the edges. If you can’t get your hands on wild hickory nuts, you can replace with pecans.
​

Wild Hickory Nut Cookies

INGREDIENTS:
Buttered Hickory Nuts:
1 and 1/4 cup hickory nuts, finely chopped (or substitute pecans)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
 
Cookies:
2 and 1/2 cups (312.5 grams) all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter (melted and browned)
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk (room temperature)
16 pecan halves, for decoration, option
 
HOW I MAKE THESE:

1. PREPARE BUTTERED HICKORY NUTS OR PECANS:  Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chopped nuts and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 to 5 minutes, or until lightly toasted; set aside.
2. PREPARE COOKIES:  In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; set aside.
3. BROWN BUTTER:  In a small saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Continue to cook the butter. swirling the pan occasionally, keeping a close eye on the butter - the top of the butter should become foamy, and you will start to hear tiny popping noises. The butter will develop into a rich amber color, with tiny brown bits at the bottom, and will develop a slightly nutty aroma. Once the butter reaches this stage, remove from heat immediately and pour into a large mixing bowl.
4. Add both sugars into the mixing bowl and whisk well to combine. 
5. Add in vanilla. Beat in eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, beating until eggs are just combined.
6. Add half of the flour mixture and blend with a spatula; add remaining flour mixture and continue blending just until combined. 
7. Fold in the buttered nuts.
8. Cover bowl and refrigerate for at least 4 hours (For best results, I recommend refrigerating overnight).
9. BAKE COOKIES:  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (F). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. 
10. Using a cookie scoop, divide the dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls and place onto prepared baking sheets, leaving about 3 inches between each ball of dough for spreading.
11. Firmly press a pecan half on top of each ball of cookie dough. 
12. Bake, one tray at a time, in a preheated oven for 10 to 11 minutes. If any edges spread out while baking, use a spatula and gently press them back in as soon as you remove the cookies from the oven. 
13. Sprinkle warm cookies with granulated sugar. 
14. Allow cookies to cool on the pan for 15 minutes, then carefully transfer to a cooling rack. 

 
YIELD:  18 cookies
 
RECIPE NOTES:

• If you can’t get your hands on wild hickory nuts, you can replace with pecans for this recipe.

• Because the butter is melted when added to the cookie dough, this recipe does require chilling, which helps the cookies hold their shape as they bake. You may need to allow the refrigerated dough to soften slightly before scooping.
• For decoration, you can press a pecan on top of the cookie dough before they bake. You can also sprinkle the cookies with a little granulated sugar right when they come out of the oven for a sparkly effect.
• Unlike most cookie recipes that instruct you to preheat oven to 350, these cookies call for a slightly higher oven temperature of 375. The higher temperature yields cookies that are crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside.
• Be careful not to over-bake these cookies! They only need 10 to 12 minutes in the oven, and will firm up quite a bit as they cool. Over-baked cookies will be dry and crumbly… not tender and chewy like we want!
• Cookie dough will keep in the fridge for 48 hours. Alternatively, you may scoop and freeze the cookie dough for up to 2 months. You will need to add an extra minute or two to the bake time if baking frozen dough.
• You can make smaller sized cookies, but you'll need to decrease the bake time by a minute or two.
• Cookies will stay fresh for 3 days when stored in an airtight container at room temperature, or wrap individually for easy serving.
• If you are a butter pecan fanatic, add a small scoop of butter pecan ice cream between two cookies for the most decadent treat!

 
A WORD ON HICKORY NUTS: 

• NUTTING:  Have you ever gone nutting or foraging for nuts?  Black walnuts, chestnuts, pecans and hickory nuts can be found in many locations and are well worth the treasure hunt!
• HICKORY NUTS:  Shagbark hickory trees are found throughout most of the eastern United States and are easy to identify.  As the name suggests, long silvery strips of shaggy bark curve out from the trunk of hickory trees.  The narrow trees grow very straight, as much as fifty feet before branching into a fancy canopy of large leaves that turn a beautiful shade of gold in the autumn. 
• Hickory trees only produce nuts after 75 years, and they aren’t grown commercially – which means you are lucky if you have these trees near you – they truly are a cash crop!   
• In autumn, mature shagbark hickory trees drop large golf ball-sized nuts, in clumps of twos and threes – you can hear them crashing to the ground with a thud! 
• The yellow-green nut pods are unripe when they fall from the tree, but it’s a race against squirrels, chipmunks and deer to collect these delicious treats!  After collecting the fallen nuts, it’s easy to split the green hulls to get to the smaller nut inside. 
• After hulling, you can spread the nuts out and allow them to ripen slowly in a dark cool location for a week or so.  The thick husk will turn a dark brown, and eventually “rattle” out of their husks to reveal the nut kernel. 
• To check the quality of the kernel, soak the nuts in a pail of water.  Good quality nuts typically sink to the bottom, whereas poor quality nuts float to the top and should be discarded. 
• After the nuts are washed, they need to be cured for better storage and to develop flavor.  Stack the nuts in shallow layers, or spread them apart in a single layer and allow to cure in a cool, dry ventilated area (garage) for 2 weeks away from direct sunlight (and not accessible to squirrels).
• Once they reach this stage, to crack open the nuts give them a quick tap with a hammer and extract the shelled nutmeat.  Try to crack the shells gently so that you will have larger pieces of nutmeat.  So many steps and so much work, but the taste makes it so worth your time!
• For best results, keep shelled hickory nuts in the freezer.  They keep basically forever when frozen, but because they have a high moisture content, they will go moldy pretty quickly at room temp or in the fridge. In the shell, they’re good for quite a while, so if you’re short on freezer space then don’t crack them open until you want to use them.  
• For best flavor, I recommend roasting the nuts before baking. 
• While hickory nuts (a buttery-tasting relative of the pecan) are delicious in baked goods and ice cream, my favorite way to use them is in cookies – Wild Hickory Nut Shortbread Cookies, Hickory Nut Sandies, Hickory Nut Biscotti, or these favorite Hickory Nut Cookies – which are very much like our favorite Butter Pecan Cookies, only richer!
• Hickory Nuts are not just for cakes, cookies and ice cream.  Native Americans kept stores of shagbark hickory nuts throughout the winter.  The nuts were an important source of nourishment as other sources of food dwindled during the winter months.  The nuts were pounded and boiled in water, resulting in a “hickory milk” that was used to enrich corn cakes and soups, or used in hearty stews or paired with wild game.
• Toasted Hickory Nuts are wonderful toasted and tossed in wild rice salads, and can be used to make hickory nut pesto and hickory nut date bread or muffins.

Originally posted December 2021.
 
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