Homemade Pecan Sandies
High altitude tested homemade pecan sandies are buttery and crumbly like pecan shortbread, and so flavorful with nutty toasted pecans.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Food Processor
- Rolling Pin
- 2 - 2 1/2 inch Round Cookie Cutter or Biscuit Cutter
Ingredients
- 1 cup toasted pecans, divided
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp light or dark brown sugar
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- ½ cup cold, unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 egg white
Instructions
Toast the Pecans
- First, toast the pecans. Preheat the oven to 350 F, and place the pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for about 5-7 minutes, until fragrant, but don't let them burn.
- Let the pecans cool completely before adding them to the dough. You don't want hot pecans that will melt or soften the butter in the dough.
Make the Cookie Dough
- In your food processor, combine 3/4 cup of the toasted, cooled pecans with the flour, powdered sugar, brown sugar and salt, and pulse for about a minute until the pecans are very finely ground.With the processor running, drop in the pieces of cold butter, one at a time. Pulse until well distributed.Add the vanilla and milk, and pulse just until the crumbs come together into a dough.
- Dump the dough out, and knead a few times with your hands, just to incorporate any stray floury bits, until you have a soft, supple dough. Shape into a flat disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Cut the Cookies
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough (dusting with a little more flour as needed), to just under 1/4 inch thick. Cut as many cookies as you can with your cookie cutters, and place the cut cookies 1 1/2 inches apart on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper.Gather up the dough scraps, roll again, and finish cutting all of the dough. Using a 2 1/2-inch cookie cutter, you should be able to cut around 20 cookies.
- Lightly brush the tops of the cookies with the egg white. Finely grind the remaining 1/4 cup of pecans in your food processor, and sprinkle them over the cookies.
- Set the baking pan in the refrigerator to chill for 1 hour, or in the freezer for 30 minutes. Chilling helps prevent the cookies from spreading while baking.
Bake the Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Bake the chilled cookies on the center oven rack for about 12-14 minutes. They should be pale golden, with flaky edges. When turned over, you shouldn't see any wet or raw dough underneath.
- Cool on the pan for 5 minutes, then carefully transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Cooled cookies should be stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
- They can also be baked in advance, and frozen for 3-6 months.
- The cookie dough can also be made in advance, wrapped in plastic wrap, and refrigerated for up to 5 days, or frozen for 3-6 months. Let thaw in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature until pliable enough to roll out.
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