As the name implies, it's shortbread with pecans. So it is buttery and crumbly and nutty and sweet.
Honestly, I was intimidated by shortbread the first time I baked it. It sounds so fancy and it usually comes in a nice box from a store. Surely it must be difficult to make at home. That is all lies and trickery. Even with recipe modifications, this is one of the easiest thing to bake.
First, you mix the basic flour dry ingredients together. There is absolutely no leavening in this recipe, so you don't have to worry about keeping things from reacting until the right time.
Then you grind the pecans in a food processor. (Or you can use pecan mill instead, if you can find some that's made in a facility that doesn't contaminate it with any of your allergens.)
Then you put the pecans in the dry ingredients and stir them together.
And now for the ritual beating of the butter! It has been very naughty so it needs to be beaten thoroughly until it has learned the error of its ways.
Then beat in the brown sugar and vanilla.
Do not just dump all of the dry ingredients in at once. It will get tough and difficult to beat and make you miserable. Add in a bit at a time, roughly two heaping spoonfuls and it will gradually thicken to dough. It should still be stiff at the end though.
Unlike many cookies, this does not need to chill and can go straight to being cooked. So scoop out some pieces! They should come out about walnut-sized or a rounded teaspoon. They need to be balls at first.
Then you flatten them! I use a tart shaper because I have one. If you don't then try using the back of a spoon or even your hand as long as you're gentle.
Flattening is a crucial stage. Hypothetically, if someone were to skip this step and not realize it until after they tried to take the cookies out of the oven, they would find slightly melty balls. And then they would try to flatten them now and cook them for a bit longer to see if that would fix it. Sadly, that does not fix it, but instead gives you crispy wafers with large crystallized sugar chunks, like the ones that get served with ice cream sometimes.
But I wouldn't know that for certain because I have never done such a thing. The highlighting in the recipe is purely for the benefit of others.
After that you pop them in the oven, and when they come out let them sit on the pan for a while before moving them to a cooling rack! That wasn't such a chore, now, was it?
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