What do you get when you combine sweet oatmeal cookies with the goodness of pecans and peanut butter? You get a Southern treat that’s famous for being the Alabama state cookie. In fact it’s named after the state bird. These Alabama Yellowhammer Cookies are big on flavor and make a hefty batch to feed the hungriest crew.

When you look through the ingredients you’ll find there’s a lot of everything. If this seems like overkill then remember this recipe makes 24 thick sandwich cookies. You can cut this recipe in half if you want fewer cookies. But, I can say that these do go pretty quickly so you won’t have trouble finding homes for all these treats.

First combine the dry ingredients (minus the oats) then cream together the butter, eggs, and brown sugar. After you mix these two the dough at this stage will be very thick and to finish combining the oats with the dough you will probably need to mix it with your hands. I found this to be a fun part of the process and it’s foreshadowing of how we form the cookies as well.

To make the cookies take the chilled dough and roll into 1” balls. Then we flatten them once they’re on lined cookie sheets. This chunky dough will bake up beautifully even though they might look a bit rough as you are making them. And, don’t forget to pop a pecan on half the cookies for that Southern finish.

After a short bake time make sure these cookies cool completely before applying the filling. You don’t want runny, melted filling oozing from these sandwich cookies!

The filling is a scrumptious frosting flavored with peanut butter and honey. If you grew up eating peanut butter and honey sandwiches like I did then you already know how tasty this combo is!

For this filling it’s best to use creamy, regular peanut butter. Using chunky or natural peanut butter can negatively affect the texture. We want it to be ultra-smooth and creamy to balance the texture of the oatmeal cookies. This peanut and honey filling is where the sweetness comes from as the cookies themselves aren’t actually all that sweet.

Once you’ve made your little sandwiches you’re ready to enjoy these fabulous cookies. Try these Alabama Yellowhammer Cookies for a true taste of the South that not a lot of folks outside the state know about. Despite being the state cookie it’s one of the best kept secrets of Alabama!