All Those Pecans

% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

I also dug out an heirloom recipe of my great-grandmother’s. These were a traditional Christmas cookie at my grandmother’s house, and my mother made them sometimes as well. To me, they taste like Christmas!

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups cake flour
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups pecans – cut, not chopped 

Cream butter, sugar, and eggs. Add rest of ingredients. Dough is very soft. Bake at 350°F (180°C) till brown. Yield: easily 4 dozen or more. 

These are very sweet, at least much sweeter than I’m used to these days. I could try cutting the sugar, but I think next time I’ll increase the pecans. The recipes calls for the pecans to be cut, not chopped, which I’m guessing is for a specific texture. You may notice from the picture that I didn’t cut them, but used whole halves. Next time I’ll cut/chop them and increase the amount to use the cookie dough to hold them together. Besides putting more pecans in every bite, that will temper the sweetness some. 

So there are my recent pecan experiments, to add to my chocolate pecan bars and lacto-fermented apples & cranberries (which contains pecans.) The next time I make a dessert, I’m going to make a pecan meal crust for a pie. And I think somewhere I have a recipe for butterscotch brownies (blondies) that I’ll have to try one of these days.

Pecans are rich in oil, and so the shelled nut meats are best stored in the freezer. I’ve filled four gallon bags with them so far, and still have a bunch to go. A nice addition to our diet.