I made pecan cookies today. Pecan cookies are not the same as pecan sandies. Pecan sandies use a shortbread cookie base. These pecan cookies have more of a traditional sugar cookie base... kinda..?**
But they're pretty good! They're thin and crispy and not too sweet. Most importantly, my dad really likes them... and I hope that you like them too!
Ingredients
1/2 cup of butter (1 stick)
1 really ripe banana
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 and 1/2-3/4 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 cup of chopped pecans
and a pinch of salt
Directions
1. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Then add banana and cream again.
2. Add all the wet ingredients to the butter mixture (eggs, vanilla extract) and mix thoroughly.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour, leavening agent, cinnamon, and salt).
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Mix just enough that everything is incorporated- please don't over mix!!!
5. Mix the chopped pecans into the cookie dough.
6. Transfer the cookie dough to a surface lined with wax paper and lightly dusted with AP flour.
7. Make cookie logs with the wax paper and chill the dough in the freezer until firm (I just leave overnight).
8. Preheat the oven to 350°. With a sharp knife, slice out cookies with about a little under a quarter inch in thickness. Line the cookies on a greased cookie sheet (I like to use silicone mats/parchment paper).
9. Bake until the cookies are browned (should take about 8-10 minutes) on the bottom. Then flip the cookies and bake again for another 3-5 minutes. Remove the cookies from the cookie sheet and transfer them onto wire racks to cool completely.
**This is a fake cookie recipe. One day I made "dump" cookies by randomly putting ingredients together. I replaced some butter with banana, used baking powder instead of baking soda***, eyeballed the AP flour amount, and baked until soft. I ate one. It was good, but it tasted like a health cookie and it was a little too chalky. But then I put the cookies back in the oven (I flipped the cookies before putting them back in the oven) and baked just a little while longer. They came out very crispy and wow did it make a world of difference- no longer did the cookie taste blatantly obvious that it was missing the butter. I gave my dad half a batch, and he polished the cookies in a day. The rest of the cookies I gave to Francis, who shockingly said that they were good and was seen absentmindedly popping cookies into his mouth until he was surprised that they were all gone.
***I picked baking powder to use in the cookies. Baking soda, aka sodium bicarbonate, is a base. The sodium bicarb reacts with the acidic ingredients (the brown sugar and banana in this case) to create carbon dioxide gas. Excess baking soda in the recipe will cause the cookies to taste like soap. I always find that when I use baking soda in recipes, even if I follow cookbook recipes down to the T, the end results taste bitter. I didn't want to risk it and just used baking powder. Baking powder is baking soda plus cream of tartar (a dry acid to neutralize) and cornstarch.
But they're pretty good! They're thin and crispy and not too sweet. Most importantly, my dad really likes them... and I hope that you like them too!
All the ingredients!!! |
1/2 cup of butter (1 stick)
1 really ripe banana
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 and 1/2-3/4 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 cup of chopped pecans
and a pinch of salt
Directions
1. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Then add banana and cream again.
2. Add all the wet ingredients to the butter mixture (eggs, vanilla extract) and mix thoroughly.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour, leavening agent, cinnamon, and salt).
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Mix just enough that everything is incorporated- please don't over mix!!!
5. Mix the chopped pecans into the cookie dough.
6. Transfer the cookie dough to a surface lined with wax paper and lightly dusted with AP flour.
7. Make cookie logs with the wax paper and chill the dough in the freezer until firm (I just leave overnight).
8. Preheat the oven to 350°. With a sharp knife, slice out cookies with about a little under a quarter inch in thickness. Line the cookies on a greased cookie sheet (I like to use silicone mats/parchment paper).
9. Bake until the cookies are browned (should take about 8-10 minutes) on the bottom. Then flip the cookies and bake again for another 3-5 minutes. Remove the cookies from the cookie sheet and transfer them onto wire racks to cool completely.
The cookie dough mixture |
Sliced cookies from cookie log... you can make them prettier |
The finished cookie! |
***I picked baking powder to use in the cookies. Baking soda, aka sodium bicarbonate, is a base. The sodium bicarb reacts with the acidic ingredients (the brown sugar and banana in this case) to create carbon dioxide gas. Excess baking soda in the recipe will cause the cookies to taste like soap. I always find that when I use baking soda in recipes, even if I follow cookbook recipes down to the T, the end results taste bitter. I didn't want to risk it and just used baking powder. Baking powder is baking soda plus cream of tartar (a dry acid to neutralize) and cornstarch.