Recipe Review: Pecan Sandies

Recipe: Pecan Sandies

Source: Christmas Cookies: 50 Recipes to Treasure for the Holiday Season

Overall rating out of 5:







3/4 cup pecans toasted and cooled
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups flour

Process the toasted pecans in a food processor until finely chopped, but not finely ground, or chop them using a chef's knife.
With an electric mixer beat the butter till creamy. Add the sugar and beat till blended. Beat in the egg yolk, then the vanilla and salt. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the pecans, then the flour until just fully combined and the dough starts to come together. Using your hands or a spatula gather the dough into a ball, then divide the ball in half.
Work with one half of dough at a time. On a lightly floured surface shape it into a log, rolling it back and forth to form a cylinder about 8 1/2 inches long and 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 inches in diameter. Roll up the log in plastic wrap and a layer of foil. Repeat with the remaining dough. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or till very firm. The logs can be left in the fridge up to 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
With one log at a time cut the dough into 1/3 inch thick slices, placing them about 1 1/2 inches apart.
Bake for 15-17 minutes or till golden brown around the edges. Then place the cookies on a rack to cool.
Store in an airtight container for up to 10 days. Makes about 45 cookies.


This, unlike the Apple Pecan Quick Bread, does not taste better than it looks. No surprises here, this cookie, at least for me, came out crappy. Despite the pecans the cookie is basically tasteless. They also don't resemble the photo of the cookies in the books example. Their shape and consistency are like the Pillsbury cut and bake tubes of cookie dough you find in the supermarket (though with less give).
The directions say to cut each cookie to be 1/3 of an inch, however the cookies in the photo looked much thinner, so some of the cookies were cut to be 1/4 of an inch, but even the thinner cookies didn't come out right. One possibility is that they were left in my fridge longer than four hours, though the recipe says the logs can be refrigerated for up to 3 days, which was how long I left mine in. However, if your going to try the recipe I'd advise you to use the dough in four hours, since I'm not sure what else could have effected the finished product so much.