Beat butter until soft using a hand mixer. Gradually add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and cream until smooth.
Use a fork to gently stir flour and ground pecans together until evenly combined. Use fork again to mix dry ingredients into butter mixture then pull dough together using hands.
Roll dough into small balls, about 1-inch in size. Place onto parchment-lined baking sheet.
Transfer to oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Let cookies cool for a few minutes before rolling in or dusting with icing sugar.
Melt-In-Your-Mouth Pecan Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup butter, room temperature
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups pecans, ground
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, sifted
confectioners' (icing) sugar for rolling
Directions
Preheat oven to 300°F.
Beat butter until soft using a hand mixer. Gradually add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and cream until smooth.
Use a fork to gently stir flour and ground pecans together until evenly combined. Use fork again to mix dry ingredients into butter mixture then pull dough together using hands.
Roll dough into small balls, about 1-inch in size. Place onto parchment-lined baking sheet.
Transfer to oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Let cookies cool for a few minutes before rolling in or dusting with icing sugar.
Melt-In-Your-Mouth Pecan Cookies
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Creaming butter and ground pecans with just a titch of sugar, then rolling them into balls with confectioners’ sugar…
These are the MELT-IN-YOUR-MOUTH PECAN COOKIES you’ve been dreaming about!
My dear friend Anna D. usually hands me a tin of these MELT-IN-YOUR-MOUTH PECAN COOKIES at some point over the holidays. They have long been a favourite, and with the tiniest bit of coaxing, she agreed to share the recipe with on Weekend at the Cottage. Let’s hear it for Anna!
If you’re looking to make sweet treats for the holidays, I suggest you check out our HOLIDAY BAKING & CONFECTIONS COLLECTION. We’ve gathered our most-requested recipes for quick reference and know your friends and family will love them as much as ours do. One more thing, these recipes are so fabulous, don’t just think of them as holiday fare; they’ll work throughout the year!
This recipe is especially fantastic because of the way the pecan cookies really do melt in your mouth. There’s something so dreamy about that perfect balance of ground pecans, butter and sugar. Safe to say, I’ve had my fair share over the years and these cookies never disappoint.
Here are a few tips on how to make our delectable MELT-IN-YOUR-MOUTH PECAN COOKIES:
READY SET
Can you believe we’re talking just six ingredients? Only one advance step: bring your butter to room temperature before you begin. I always place mine in a warm location the night before for an easy, soft start the following day. One thing of note is that all of our recipes at Weekend at the Cottage are crafted using unsalted butter.
NUTTINESS
This cookie is sometimes referred to as Meltaways and also Russian Tea Cookies. Although we’ve tried variations using both walnuts and almonds, we do like Anna’s version with pecans. They have a richness that blends perfectly with the butter, flour and sugar. It’s a subtle but wonderful flavour combination.
Another thing to mention about the nuts is the call for them to be ground. We used a little handheld grinder which worked perfectly. Processing the pecans in a food processor or chopping by hand will never achieve the required lightness of ground nuts. Remember to measure the pecans after they’ve been ground.
KEEP IT LIGHT
The direction to stir the flour and ground pecans together is a simple step, but it’s important to do it lightly and gingerly. The goal is to create an even mix of flour and ground nuts that’s airy and blends perfectly with the sugar and vanilla-whipped butter. This will ensure your finished cookies stay together and don’t crumble away.
ROLL PLAY
Rolling the finished dough into ball shapes is an easy step, and if you have wee ones in your midst, corral them in to help. When rolling, stick with the idea of “less is more”. The quantity for each cookie is somewhere between a teaspoon and tablespoon, remembering that the cookies will swell a bit as they bake. Little cookie balls about 1-inch raw are the suggested size.
FINISHING TOUCHES
The traditional big finish for these cookies is to roll them in confectioners’ (icing) sugar while they’re still warm. This completes the sweet component of the recipe and gives the cookies that characteristic snowball look.
Although we love the snowball look, we also tried a more subtle approach where we dusted the cookies with the same sugar. Two different looks, same great taste; it’s your call!
Don’t be worried about the yield on this recipe. Although you’ll end up with over six dozen cookies, trust me, you’ll have tons of takers. Better still, why not package them up in attractive boxes and give them to friends as gifts. I know they’ll love you and the cookies!
Beat butter until soft using a hand mixer. Gradually add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract and cream until smooth.
Use a fork to gently stir flour and ground pecans together until evenly combined. Use fork again to mix dry ingredients into butter mixture then pull dough together using hands.
Roll dough into small balls, about 1-inch in size. Place onto parchment-lined baking sheet.
Transfer to oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Let cookies cool for a few minutes before rolling in or dusting with icing sugar.
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