Friday, August 1, 2008

Tuesdays with Dorie {Rewind}—Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread Cookies

Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread CookiesSince the goal of the Tuesdays with Dorie baking group is to bake through the complete cookbook of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking: From My Home to Yours (a five-year project!), I thought I should start catching up with the recipes I missed before I joined.

In the beginning, the group was one: Laurie of quirky cupcake who came up with this brilliant idea. The first recipe she tackled was the Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread Cookies. On the dedication page in Dorie's cookbook, these cookies are shown in the picture as a favorite of her son's, so it seems a fitting start to such a project.

I’ve always loved shortbread, especially at Christmas, and have a recipe I always make, but it was nice to try someone else’s for a change.

Recipe
Ingredients for Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread CookiesYou can find the recipe for Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread Cookies in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

Another Shortbread Recipe
Here is my recipe for shortbread that I’ve used without fail every Christmas:

8 ounces cold butter, cut into small cubes
½ cup sugar
pinch salt
2 cups flour

Combine butter and sugar in mixer. Add salt and just enough flour to combine so that the dough comes together.

Place dough on lightly floured work surface. Knead a bit to smooth edges.

Roll to ⅜-inch thickness and cut into desired shape. Return to refrigerator to chill 20 minutes before baking in a preheating even at 300°F for 20-30 minutes.

Brown Sugar-Pecan Shortbread CookiesTasting Notes
This was a tasty shortbread with the pecan crunch and hint of cloves. Chilling the dough after rolling is key in this recipe since it tends to spread when baking if you don’t. Also, use cold, unsalted butter. Work dough as little as possible, but just enough to hold its shape. Bake at a low temperatures. Bake only until cookies begin to brown. The paler the color, the better.





8 comments:

Jules Someone said...

Yours look really nice. Mine spread all over the place. I'll have to try again.

Patricia Scarpin said...

Shari, I have been thinking of making these ever since I got the book. They look wonderful!

Leslie said...

Delish! These look soo wonderful!

Anonymous said...

Great minds! I just made brown sugar shortbread this weekend, doesn't look anywhere near as good as yours though (>_<)

marae said...

Those look divine Shari...fabulous job as usual!!

Cynthia said...

this looks so homey and christmassy. makes me feel all warm and fuzzy just looking at it! :)

NKP said...

Mmmm.. looks yummy. I love the little buckets of cookies.

Anonymous said...

Thanks. I was looking for a pecan shortbread and got excited, when I saw you had made Dorie's and was ready to pull out the book, which is never far from me but then I saw your recipe and decided to try it.

Delicious. I made it for hubby and I did make it gluten free and he loves it too.

I realize this is an older recipe on your blog and now I know why we keep them there.