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Dessert

Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

Cookies made with rolled oats, bran, pecans, margarine, sugars, egg whites, vanilla, water, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Oats and pecans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 289 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

Oven375°F
Timeabout 12 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Place rolled oats, bran, and pecans in a bowl and mix lightly, then set aside.

  2. Cream margarine and sugars together at medium speed until light and fluffy.

  3. Add egg whites, vanilla, and water, and mix at medium speed for 1 minute, scraping down the bowl before and after adding egg whites, vanilla and water.

  4. Stir flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together, add to the creamy mixture, and mix at medium speed only until oatmeal is blended into dough.

Bake and cool

  1. Drop by 1½ tablespoonfuls onto a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with Pam spray or lined with aluminum foil.

  2. Bake at 375°F for about 12 minutes; then remove cookies to a wire rack and cool to room temperature.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

870Calories
25 gProtein
23 gFat
136 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Oat1/2 cup dry (40g)154
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Pecan1 half (4g)20
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Oats + pecanstop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together289 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Oats + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Pecans + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,691 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Margarine
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cookies a light, tender texture and fat for richness.
All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten network that gives the cookies their structure.
Egg whites
Add moisture and protein that help bind the dough and set the cookies as they bake.
Brown sugar
Adds moisture, caramel flavor, and some browning to the cookies.
Baking soda
Reacts with the dough's acidity to produce gas that helps the cookies rise and spread.

The step that matters

Mix flour in only until the oatmeal is blended. Overmixing once flour is added develops gluten, which can make the cookies tough and dense instead of tender.

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oats, sugar, egg, vanilla, flour):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Flaxseedfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oats, sugar, egg, vanilla, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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