These are one of my all-time favorite cookies, and I’m betting they’re an obsession with you, too. Pecan Sandies. Not the ones made by little elves (although they’re not bad). No, these homemade biscuits are the real deal. With lots of butter and ground pecans.
They are crumbly and sandy like the name implies — and utterly irresistible. Seriously, the only thing that prevented me from inhaling this whole batch (aside from the extreme guilt of having to admit my gluttony to you) was that I was serving them to company that night.
I I have a not-so-secret addiction to anything with nuts and these crunchy little gems are packed with them. Tons of butter and brown sugar take the flavor even deeper.
I found the recipe in the Cook’s Illustrated Cooking School Cookbook, and tweaked it according to my tastes. I added a little more salt which I think amplifies the sweet, buttery nature of the cookie.
If you don’t want as much salt, you can cut the amount in half — but don’t eliminate it — the cookies would taste flat and uninteresting without it.
This is a soft dough (even after refrigerating) and my knife tended to press it down into more oblong shapes than the round ones I was going for. The cookbook suggests rolling the dough as you cut to prevent flattening it out.
My counter space was limited and if I rolled it anymore, it would wind up in the sink — so you’re just going to have to live with my long-ish cookies. Anyway, the shape doesn’t affect the flavor (thankfully) and these are worth the effort! If you like these, you’ll go ga-ga for these Chocolate Dipped Toasted Pecan Shorbread Cookies. Perfect for the holidays.
Pecan Sandies
Ingredients
- 2 cups pecans
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup confectioners sugar
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter cut into 1/2" pieces
- 1 large egg yolk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Pick out 32 of the prettiest pecans (unbroken, etc) from the two cups and set aside. Lay the rest of the pecans in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast for 8-10 minutes until fragrant and browned. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature.
- Place the toasted pecans, brown sugar and confectioners sugar in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the nuts are finely ground. Add the flour and salt and process to combine.
- Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles wet sand and the mixture begins to ride up the sides of the bowl. Add the egg yolk and process until combined.
- Cut a 15" long piece of plastic wrap and place on a work surface. Transfer half the dough to the plastic wrap and roll it into a log shape, about 2" in diameter. Roll up to seal in the plastic wrap. Repeat with the remaining dough. Place cookie dough logs in the refrigerator and chill for 2 hours until firm.
- Adjust oven racks to upper middle and lower middle positions and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Working with 1 dough log at a time, remove from plastic wrap and use a sharp chef's knife to cut the dough into 3/8" slices, rotating the log as you go so that the log doesn't become misshapen, from the weight of the knife. Place rounds 1" apart on the cookie sheet. Gently press a pecan half into the center of each cookie.
- Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes -- one cookie sheet on the top rack and one on the bottom. Swap the cookie sheets around (bottom sheet to top rack and vice versa) and bake another 10-12 minutes until cookies are browned and crisp.
- Cool cookies for 3 minutes on a baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
Nutrition
More Buttery Cookies:
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- Cranberry Orange Pistachio Tea Cookies
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- Mocha Almond Brickle Cookies
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- Cranberry Pistachio Tea Cookies
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Butter, brown sugar, and pecans… how can you go wrong??? Wonderful cookies. I love pecan sandies and this is a winner. We have a gluten intolerant daughter and I have found some pecan meal/flour at MillicanPecan.com that I want to try a modify this recipe to make it gluten-free. I have had great success in the past with this substitute for all-purpose flour. We’ll see. Thanks again for sharing your recipe.
I know! Right? I’ll have to check out the pecan meal — let me know how it works for you.
Hello! What a wonderful recipe with very minimal ingredients. I actually suffer from MANY food allergies and pecans are the only nut I can consume. However, I did use my own replacements with this recipe: Gluten Free flour, vegan butter, regular white sugar (sourced from beets), flax egg. Mine DID NOT turn out this way, they actually all melted together while baking in the oven. Also, while I put everything in my food processor, it almost got to a nut butter consistency. Wondering where I went wrong, and if my substitutions just don’t work for this recipe? Any advice or tweaking you can suggest? Thank you!
Hi Mayen, thanks for your observations and question. I would start with the pecans — you want to pulse them until they’re sandy, but definitely not nut butter consistency — that could be part of the problem. The gluten free flour I’ve had the most success with is Cup 4 Cup. I’ve found that it produces the closest results to regular flour. I honestly don’t know the properties of vegan butter and flax eggs, but I suspect they’re not quite the same as the regular ingredients. I find that you can usually be safe with one… maybe two substitutions in a baking recipe, but more than that, it gets iffy. Baking is science and alchemy, after all. Sorry I don’t have a better answer for you.
These look very moreish! I do love pecans. Thanks for the step by step photos – very helpful!
These look so easy to make. Can’t wait to give them a try. YUM
I love pecans and these cookies look wonderful!thank you for posting this, i’ll try them asap.
I had these cookies at a party and forgot to ask the host what they were. And now I’m seeing them here! Saving this because these are going to happen very soon!
Pecan candies are one of my all time favorites! Hope you like them, Shadi!
I love pecans and these cookies look delish!
I agree the step by step photos are wonderful!! and these cookies sound delicious!!!
Thank you Jessica! Fair warning, these cookies won’t last!
Love all your step by step photos. I remember these from my childhood in the south. Yum!
Thanks, Karen. These are the best, right?
These look absolutely melt in your mouth delicious! Will definitely have to try these!