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Pound Cake Cookies

Love pound cake? Just wait until you try these sweet, buttery Pound Cake Cookies!

Pound Cake Cookies served on a white pedestal tray

Pound Cake Cookies

Pound cake is one of the baking world’s finest examples of “less is more.” You just need a short list of ingredients to get a sweet, dense, buttery dessert. That’s my kind of baking!

These Pound Cake Cookies take that idea and transform it into some wonderfully delicious cookies. When I first found this recipe, I was instantly smitten with the idea of cookies that taste like pound cake. How could I resist?

They have a lovely sweetness that’s not overwhelming. They’re a little crispy on the outside, yet soft and cake-like in the center. They certainly live up to their namesake in both flavor and texture!

overhead view of Pound Cake Cookies on a white tray

I followed the original recipe closely and also followed its lead by topping each cookie with a pecan half before baking. That simple addition is just perfect in my book. If you aren’t a nut fan, just omit them and enjoy your cookies with no accoutrements.

One bit of warning before you start baking…. I found that these cookies don’t get noticeably browned around the edges as they baked. I followed the recipe’s baking times and found that the higher time estimate in their range worked perfectly for me.

In addition to their great taste, these cookies are also really quite lovely in appearance. They’d make wonderful gifts or a tasty addition to a cookie tray. As an added bonus, they stayed fresh-tasting for several days, too. We were still enjoying these about a week after I baked them!

Pound Cake Cookies

Yield about 24 cookies
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 14 minutes
Additional Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 34 minutes

Pound Cake Cookies take the flavors and textures we love in pound cake and transform them into cookie form!

Pound Cake Cookies served on a white pedestal tray

Ingredients

  • 2 cups (240g) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
  • 4 ounces (113g) cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup (200g) firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • about 24 pecan halves

Instructions

  1. Whisk together the flour and salt. Set aside.
  2. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, cream cheese, and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix just until combined. Mix in the vanilla.
  3. Reduce the mixer speed to low. Gradually add the flour mixture, mixing just until combined.
  4. Cover the dough and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.
  5. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.
  6. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls. Place about 2 inches apart on the prepared pans. Press a pecan half into the top of each dough ball.
  7. Bake 12 to 14 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Cool on the pans for 5 minutes. Then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

Recipe slightly adapted from Taste of the South magazine.

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    20 Comments on “Pound Cake Cookies”

  1. What? Pound cake cookies? My daughter would love these. They sound amazing!

  2. These really do taste like pound cake!  I don’t have any pecans in the house, so I topped mine with a blanched almond.  They look lovely!

  3. Jennifer,These look just wonderful. Can these be baked now and frozen for Christmas?

  4. I really want to try this but I have no cream cheese. Could it be adapted omitting the cream cheese?

    • You could try using an equal amount of butter. I’ve not tried that with these cookies, so I can’t tell you exactly how well that will work. However, that will definitely change the taste and texture. 

  5. Hi Jennifer, These look great. I’m thinking about adding some miniature chocolate morsels to the dough. Do you think the addition would work well?

  6. Would I be able to freeze the pre-formed cookie dough for later baking?
    These look wonderful and I look forward to baking them this weekend!

  7. I hope you can use a walnut helf, because that’s all I have on hand. 🙁

  8. I doubled your recipe because, truthfully, I do not go to the trouble to bake cookies if I’m not doing at least 4 dozen. They were delicious but I found the dough to be quite sticky and hard to roll so I added a little sprinkle of more flour. Any better suggestion to solve this problem? Would powdered sugar have been better?

  9. These look so yummy! Since I bake a lot of pound cakes I’m going to fit these into the baking routine.
    Thanks for sharing!!

  10. I made these yesterday along with another recipe I had found that was made similar to this recipe. I was really tired after baking so many cookies. When I first tasted them, I wasn’t very thrilled with them but my husband liked them. Today, I picked one up to taste again and oh my gosh, they are so good. Tonight, I had 3 more and they were even better.  That pecan on the top is so perfect. You just want to savor those last bites. I’m pretty much a chocolate chip cookie person trying to steer myself to try different things and I must warn people that this cookie can become addictive. Thanks for posting this recipe.

  11. Can these be made by scooping the dough with a small ice cream scoop or do they need to be rolled?

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