Brown Butter-Pecan Shortbread Cookies
I sent this recipe to Erickson Blair to make for our cooking night, and they were awesome. They get a 9. I think the sugar could go down because they were a bit sweet for my taste.
Brown Butter-Pecan Shortbread Cookies
By Nancie McDermott, Jill O'Connor April/May 2019 Issue- 8 oz. (1 cup) plus 1 Tbs. unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces
- 8 oz. (2 cups) pecan halves Erickson said 1 1/2 cups might work just fine
- 3/4 cup plus 1 Tbs. granulated sugar He did 50% brown sugar
- 1 large egg, separated and at room temperature
- 2-1/2 tsp. vanilla bean paste or 1-1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 9 oz. (2 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour; more for dusting
- 1/2 tsp. fine sea salt He did table salt and doubled it
So, erickson put 2 tsp of white sugar in the butter once it melted and it caramelized as it browned. He stirred it constantly. After he took it back out of the fridge, he had to put the pyrex in the microwave to get the caramel-y part to kind of break up a bit, but then the mixer did the rest. He also said they took longer to bake then the recipe said they would.
Sooo, the brown butter almost is the color of watered down root beer when you pour it into the Tupperware, just FYI. I did 1/2 cup of each type of sugar for a double recipe, and measure the flour by weight. This dough is CRUMBLY. I also think 1 1/2 cup pecans is a pretty good gauge. Mine took forever to cook. So, I got 36 cookies out of a double batch, and here are the instructions.
ReplyDeleteYou brown the butter. Melt it on low so it doesn’t boil, then go to a generous medium heat and stir it constantly. It will start to boil hard and then froth and once you can’t really see the color of the butter because of the froth, add 2 tsp. of sugar. You stir constantly once it begins to boil by the way. Then, it changes color and once it gets to medium brown, take it off the heat immediately and dump it in a GLASS Tupperware. Then, put it in the fridge for about an hour. Then, you whip the butter with the sugars and then add the egg yok. From there, you add the vanilla. Then, you add the flour and salt. I added the pecans after that. This dough does not look like it’s going to come together, and I even made half of them with some of the extra egg white, but I don’t think this was as good as the original kind that you had to really press to get to stick together. To make the pecans, you saute them in about 1 Tbs of butter for 2-3 minutes until they start to smell good. You dump them on a cookie sheet. Then, you sprinkle 1 Tbs of sugar (I did this amount for a double batch) onto the pecans and stir and cool. Then, you chop part of them roughly to go into the cookies and part of them finely to go around the edges. Anyway, you divide the dough in half (or 4ths if you are doing a double batch) and make it into a roll that is about 6 inches long. You put it in the fridge for at least 2 hours. You brush them with the leftover egg whites and then roll them in pecans. Then, you cut them in ½ inch rounds (I did 1 inch because I misread and that’s probably too thick). I baked at 300 for 18-21 minutes like it said, but they were not done. The recipe says when they lose their shine and feel firm to the touch they are done, but mine browned and they took like 30 minutes at least and they were fine.
You add 2-4 Tbs of sugar if you want the caramely little bits.
ReplyDeleteI think these are better with the caramely bits, and I would put 2/3 of the pecans in the actual dough. The other ones do not stick well, even with the egg white. I think the 1 T of butter is for the pecans, not the cookies, and you can do 1/2 cup of sugar in the cookies.
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