The Wright family's Iced Pecan Cookies
NOTES:
From Besty Leondar-Wright:
NOTES FROM LIZ:
Betsy's recipe doesn't say to toast the pecans, but the Pecan Snowballs recipe toasts them on a baking sheet in a 350 oven for 8 minutes; then let them cool before chopping them.
Neither does the recipe call for the butter to be room temperature, but this is a good guess since the butter gets creamed with the sugar (as opposed to melted separately).
The pecans need to be finely chopped--but not so fine that they become paste-like!
INGREDIENTS:
FOR THE COOKIES
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
2 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup pecan halves (the original recipe called for 1 cup finely ground pecans)
FOR THE ICING
(*Liz's suggestions are in parentheses)
2 cups confectioners sugar (use only 1 cup)
1 tsp almond extract (use 1/2 tsp)
a few teaspoons of water (2-6 tsp of water)
Food coloring
PREPARATION:
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
1. (Using a food processor or hand-held blender) grind the [toasted] pecans to a very coarse meal. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream the granulated sugar and butter.
3. Beat in flour, vanilla and salt. (Okay to mix by hand.)
4. Stir in pecans.
5. Drop round teaspoonfuls (or tablespoonfuls) onto ungreased cookie sheet.
5. Make indentation in each with thumb; smooth the sides and the well a bit. (The wells should be very deep--they will puff up as they cook.)
6. Bake for 20 or 30 minutes, just until the bottom is light brown and the tops aren’t soft and mushy.
Let cool before adding icing.
ICING:
7. Use separate little bowls for each color. (But okay to mix all the "white" before separating into smaller bowls.)
8. In one medium or small bowl, mix confectioners sugar, food coloring and almond extract, then slowly stir in water one teaspoon at a time until it’s not dry but not liquid either.
9. Pour a dollop of icing into the well in the center of each cookie. If it runs out the cracks, add sugar; if it doesn’t look smooth and shiny, add water.
From Besty Leondar-Wright:
- Baked every Christmas in the 1960s and ‘70s by Deany Wright, and now made every Christmas (red & green) and Hanukkah (blue & white) by Betsy and Gail Leondar-Wright (and sometimes by Anne Wright too).
- Friends of the Wrights remember them from year to year, and ask hopefully whether we [Betsy and Gail] will be making them again. Deany thinks the recipe may have come down in her family, but doesn’t remember if from the Danish side or the English side.
NOTES FROM LIZ:
Betsy's recipe doesn't say to toast the pecans, but the Pecan Snowballs recipe toasts them on a baking sheet in a 350 oven for 8 minutes; then let them cool before chopping them.
Neither does the recipe call for the butter to be room temperature, but this is a good guess since the butter gets creamed with the sugar (as opposed to melted separately).
The pecans need to be finely chopped--but not so fine that they become paste-like!
INGREDIENTS:
FOR THE COOKIES
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
2 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup pecan halves (the original recipe called for 1 cup finely ground pecans)
FOR THE ICING
(*Liz's suggestions are in parentheses)
2 cups confectioners sugar (use only 1 cup)
1 tsp almond extract (use 1/2 tsp)
a few teaspoons of water (2-6 tsp of water)
Food coloring
PREPARATION:
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
1. (Using a food processor or hand-held blender) grind the [toasted] pecans to a very coarse meal. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream the granulated sugar and butter.
3. Beat in flour, vanilla and salt. (Okay to mix by hand.)
4. Stir in pecans.
5. Drop round teaspoonfuls (or tablespoonfuls) onto ungreased cookie sheet.
5. Make indentation in each with thumb; smooth the sides and the well a bit. (The wells should be very deep--they will puff up as they cook.)
6. Bake for 20 or 30 minutes, just until the bottom is light brown and the tops aren’t soft and mushy.
Let cool before adding icing.
ICING:
7. Use separate little bowls for each color. (But okay to mix all the "white" before separating into smaller bowls.)
8. In one medium or small bowl, mix confectioners sugar, food coloring and almond extract, then slowly stir in water one teaspoon at a time until it’s not dry but not liquid either.
9. Pour a dollop of icing into the well in the center of each cookie. If it runs out the cracks, add sugar; if it doesn’t look smooth and shiny, add water.
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