Makes 3 dozen cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups of pecans or walnuts
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks of unsalted butter 16 tablespoons, softened
- ⅓ cup of confectioner sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ½ cup confectioners’ sugar for dusting. (use less to start)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 F and grease 2 large baking sheets or line them with parchment paper.
- Place the pecans in a food processor and chop fine. You can also use a blender for this purpose.
- Remove 1 cup of the pecans and process the rest into a very fine texture , almost like cornmeal. Just be careful not to over-process the pecans , or you will end up with pecan butter. This way (by leaving some coarse pieces) , you will still enjoy the pecans when giving a bite into your cookies.
- In a large bowl, thoroughly mix the flour, salt, and pecans. Stir and set aside.
- Use your mixer for this step. In a separate bowl, beat the butter with ⅓ cup confectioner sugar; when it gets light and fluffy , stir in vanilla. Gradually add the flour and pecan mixture and beat at a low speed for a few seconds until it forms a coarse dough that resembles oatmeal. The dough can be made one day ahead and, when ready to bake, brought back to room temperature to form the cookies.
- Roll one tablespoon of dough into a small ball; they’re about 1 inch in size. Place 1 ½ inches apart on your baking sheets. Do not overwork the dough; if you do so, the end result will be that of a flat cookie.
- Bake for about 15-18 minutes. They will be ready when their bottom is beginning to brown and the cookies are firm.
- Remove from oven and let them cool for 3 minutes on the baking sheets and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- Place the 1 ½ cup of confectioner sugar in a bowl. Roll cookies in the sugar, working with 2 or 3 at a time. Shake any excess if necessary. Roll again to coat them completely.
Additional notes
Many recipes ask to roll the cookies into the sugar when they are still warm. I’ve found that if you dust the cookies when they are cool, they will look prettier and won’t have that gummy texture. You can even bake them ahead and just roll them into the confectioner sugar before serving or packing. If you already rolled them into the sugar just after baking, roll them again into the confectioner sugar, shake any excess and serve.
I refrigerated the dough…seems like a good step.
Made these for a friends dinner in spring 2023; they were devoured quickly.
Tags: #dessert #standout