Pecan Sandies Recipe

One whole pecan shortbread and one broked in two on a small plate. Two whole pecan sandies are next to the plate on a blue napkin.

These buttery pecan sandies cookies are so much better than the store-bought kind. Made with browned butter and a mix of white and brown sugar, the flavor of these butter pecan shortbread cookies really cannot be beat.

Not too sweet, these cookies are the perfect pairing with a cup of tea or coffee.

Course Cookies and Bars

Cuisine British

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 15

Total Time 30

Servings cookies

Calories 92kcal

Author Jennifer Field

Ingredients

7 oz 1 3/4 sticks unsalted butter, divided use
1 Tablespoon dried milk powder
2 oz granulated sugar
1 oz dark brown sugar
½ teaspoon salt I use Morton's kosher salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
9 oz about 2 cups all-purpose flour
4 oz pecans a heaping cup
scant 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

To Finish and Bake

additional white sugar for rolling

Instructions

Toast the pecans in the toaster oven for a few minutes until you can smell pecans and they have deepened a little in color.
Allow them to cool and then chop them very finely. Set aside.
Set aside 1 ounce (2 Tablespoons) of the butter.
Melt 6 oz butter in a pan. Add the dried milk powder and whisk well.
Cook, swirling the pan frequently, until the milk solids start to turn a dark amber color.
Immediately pour the butter into a heatproof container, scraping the browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
Allow the butter to cool and refrigerate until solid but not rock hard. If it gets too hard, take it out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for a while to soften back up.
Cream brown butter, the reserved whole butter, sugar, brown sugar, salt, and vanilla until smooth and creamy,
Whisk together the flour and baking soda and mix in on low speed, scraping the bowl as necessary.
When the dough is almost mixed (there is still a bit of loose flour in the bowl), add the nuts.
Continue mixing and scraping the bowl until there's no more loose flour. Dough will be very crumbly.
Scrape the crumbly dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and wrap it up, pressing the crumbled dough together in one mass. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
Set oven racks in top and bottom thirds of the oven. Heat to 325F convection or 350F conventional.
Line rimless baking sheets (or the backs of rimmed sheets) with parchment. Set aside.
Portion dough into 1/2 oz pieces and roll into balls.
Roll each ball in some granulated sugar and then place on parchment-lined baking sheets about 1" apart.
Press each ball down to about 1/3" with the bottom of a glass or measuring cup dipped in sugar.
Bake for 15 minutes, rotating the pans top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking.
Cookies are done when they are just barely starting to color around the edges and on the bottoms. They won't spread much at all and won't look like much has happened.
Let the cookies cool completely on the cookie sheets and then transfer to a rack to make sure they have cooled completely before storing in airtight containers.
If for some reason the cookies aren't crunchy/crumbly all the way through, bake an additional 2-3 minutes.

Notes

I add extra milk solids to my butter when I brown it. It is not strictly necessary, but it really does bring so much more flavor to the cookies.

VARIATIONS

Pat the dough evenly into a 9"-10" circle and bake as shortbread. When still warm, score into wedges.

Roll the chilled dough into a log and roll the log in granulated sugar to make slice and bake cookies. Slice into 1/3" pieces and bake according to the recipe.

If you don't like pecans or don't have any on hand, substitute your favorite nut for pecans. If using almonds. for more flavor, add 1/8 teaspoon almond extract to the dough.

STORING

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. Freeze airtight for up to 3 months, and thaw at room temperature.

Nutrition