Published: June 4, 2016 · Modified: January 9, 2021

Once you bite into one of these Melt In The Mouth Cookies, you’ll see why they got their name.  They are thin, buttery, and chewy and definitely melt in your mouth delicious!  You might even want to double the batch.  They are super addicting!!

Melt In The Mouth Cookies.

Have you ever been in the mood for just a simple thin, buttery cookie, without all those extras like chocolate chips, large nuts, or drizzled on chocolate?  If that’s the kind of mood you’re in today, you’ve come to the right place.  Come take a seat at My Country Table, and let me tell ya about these wonderful little cookies.

This recipe goes way back to the 1950s or before, and my mother made these cookies for the first time when I was very small.  My mother never bought nuts at the grocery store.  We lived on a farm in Kentucky and had an abundance of hickory nut and black walnut trees.  My mother used hickory nuts in these cookies, however, hickory nuts are rather hard to find these days unless you have a tree on your property.  They are also a little labor-intensive when cracking them and retrieving the meats.  We used to spend hours cracking open hickory nuts and black walnuts to use in my mother’s candies and cookies. These days, I use my favorite nut, the good ol’ southern pecan,  in most of my candy and cookie recipes.

Several years ago, I misplaced my mother’s recipe for these wonderful little cookies and closely replicated it by adapting a thin and crispy chocolate chip cookie recipe, omitting the chocolate chips of course.  Well recently I found my mother’s recipe when searching through my older boxes of unorganized recipes…it’s no wonder I lost it.  Yes, I did a little happy dance in my kitchen, and I couldn’t wait to make a batch.  My nut of choice was pecans, of course, but you can use any nut that suits your fancy.

I could hardly wait for these cookies to come out of the oven, and the aroma as they baked, took me back to childhood days when there was always a wonderful aroma of something baking in my mother’s kitchen.  As soon as I took the first bite of one of these buttery, chewy cookies, the wonderful taste took me back there again.  Have you ever wondered how terrible life would be without our taste buds?  Oh my goodness, I hope I never have to know

WHAT MAKES THESE COOKIES THIN AND CHEWY

  • BROWN SUGAR – Brown sugar contains molasses and results in a chewy textured cookie.
  • ROOM TEMPERATURE BUTTER & COOKIE DOUGH – These cookies need to spread.  Therefore, we use room temperature butter and we don’t chill the dough.  We want the cookies to start spreading as soon as they are placed in a hot oven.
  • BAKING POWDER – This recipe uses only 1 teaspoon of baking powder.  Just enough to allow them to slightly rise in the oven and flatten back out when cooled.

TIPS FOR MAKING THESE COOKIES

  • Use room temperature butter and eggs.
  • Use a very small cookie scoop for the cookie dough.
  • Leave plenty of room between the cookie dough balls.  They spread a lot.  I don’t recommend placing more than 8 cookies per cookie sheet.
  • Once the cookies are removed from the oven, allow them to cool for 30 seconds.  It’s important to let the cookies sit for 30 seconds since they are very thin, before trying to lift them.  This lets them firm up slightly, and keep their form when sliding the spatula under them.   Use a very thin metal spatula to carefully remove and transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack.
Melt In The Mouth Cookies.

More great cookie recipes…

Thick & Chewy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Danish Butter Cookies

Homemade Thin Mint Cookies

If you make this recipe please rate it, and leave a comment below on how you liked it. I love hearing from you!

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Melt In The Mouth Cookies

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 4 reviews
  • Author: Cindy Gibbs @ My Country Table
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 10
  • Total Time: 25
  • Yield: 24 1x
  • Category: Cookies
  • Method: Bake
  • Cuisine: American

Description

Once you bite into one of these Melt In The Mouth Cookies, you’ll see why they got their name.  They are thin, buttery, and chewy and definitely melt in your mouth delicious!  You might even want to double the batch.  They are super addicting!!


Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 1 stick real butter, (1/2 cup) softened
  • 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped nuts, I use pecans


Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix the dry ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.
  3. Mix the butter and sugar together on medium speed in the bowl of a stand mixer, or use a hand mixer, until the mixture is creamy, about one minute. Add the egg and vanilla and mix for about thirty seconds until the mixture becomes light and creamy. Add the dry ingredients and nuts and mix for an additional thirty seconds, just long enough to incorporate the dry ingredients and nuts.
  4. Using a small cookie scoop, drop by leveled off scoopfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet, making sure to leave plenty of room for spreading.
  5. Bake for ten minutes and remove from oven. Allow cookies to sit for thirty seconds before removing from the cookie sheet. Using a sharp metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack to cool.

Notes

  • Due to the thinness of these cookies, it’s important to let them sit for thirty seconds before transferring them to a cooling rack. Do not let them set any longer than thirty seconds or they will begin to stick to the cookie sheet.
  • The original recipe states to bake these cookies in a 400-degree oven for five minutes. I baked these in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes, and they turned out thin and chewy.  Perfect!!