Pecan Sandies

Lately, I have been experimenting with dessert recipes that feature an exorbitant quantity of nuts or dried fruits.

Pecan sandies, also known as pecan sables, are a delicious French butter pecan cookie with a crispy texture. As far as cookies go, they fall on the drier side, as opposed to being moist & chewy. They are fantastic when paired with a cup of tea or coffee for breakfast or dessert.

Ingredients

11 oz pecans, chopped into fine pieces
3 sticks, or 12oz salted butter, softened
4 oz white granulated sugar
½ cup heavy cream, heated to 95F
1 tsp vanilla extract
14 oz cake flour, sifted
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp kosher salt
3 egg whites, whisked together for egg wash

Instructions

Chop the pecans into very small pieces.
Set finely-chopped pecans aside for later.
Cream together the softened butter with the white granulated sugar until the sugar is fully incorporated with the butter and the mixture has been fully whipped together.
Warm the heavy cream to 95F in a small sauce pot on the stove.
Add in the warmed heavy cream to the creamed butter and sugar mixture, slowly mixing to fully incorporate.
Add in the vanilla extract to the mixture and stir to combine.
Carefully pour in the sifted cake flour, ground cinnamon, ½ tsp kosher salt, and the finely-chopped pecans into the wet mixture.
Fold gently with a rubber spatula until the dry ingredients are fully incorporated into the wet mixture.
Separate the dough into three sections.
Carefully roll out each section until it forms a log that is roughly 2.5” in diameter.
Place the logs in the freezer on parchment paper for 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Remove the logs from the freezer and cut into ¼” slices, and arrange the cookie slices on parchment paper on a sheet trays.
Brush the tops of the cookies lightly with the egg white mixture.
Bake each batch of cookies at 350F for roughly 11-13 minutes, or until fully golden brown and cooked.
Allow cookies to rest for roughly 30 minutes prior to serving.

Notes

If you don’t want to bake all of the cookies at once, you can keep some of the dough in the freezer to make another batch of cookies down the road.
*If you want to spice up the presentation here, you can add a whole pecan to the top of each cookie, after the cookies have been baking for roughly 7 minutes. Then allow them to continue baking for an additional 5 minutes and remove from oven.