My cousin gave me bags of pecans last month and I was
happy to incorporate them into my baking. As a general rule, I don’t like nuts
in my cookies (or cakes or brownies) but they’re acceptable in some cookies. I
mean, how do you make pecan sandies without pecans? You don’t.
Pecan Sandies aren’t quite like a chewy cookie like
chocolate chip cookies. They tend more towards the shortbread end of the
spectrum. Like a Mexican Wedding Cake on steroids. Which you can interpret to
mean that I made these a bit bigger than the Buttery Tea Balls.
These turned out pretty well. Two tricks to making this
cookie: first, make the dough discs fairly thick. These don’t spread very much
and you don’t want these to be too thin or they’ll crumble more easily due to
their texture. The other tip is to underbake them. I know, I know, I always say
that but if you bake these fully, they have a tendency to have a drier
mouthfeel rather than a melt-y one because the composition is more like
shortbread and not like a moist, chewy cookie. Oh, and third trick – toast the pecans first to bring out
their flavor.
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ice water
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups plain flour (I used all-purpose)
1 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted
- Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together until smooth.
- Add ice water, salt, cinnamon and vanilla. Beat until combined. Add flour in two additions, beating until just combined. Add in pecans and beat until just mixed; do not overmix.
- Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls and pat slightly into thick discs. Cover and chill for several hours or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until edges are light golden brown and middles are no longer shiny or raw.
No comments:
Post a Comment