Pecan Dainties
- Serves
- 4 to 5 dozen small cookies
- Prep Time
- 1 Hour 20 Minutes
- Cook Time
- 20 Minutes
My mother made these for our annual Jingle Bells party for about 50 years. (My family lived in New Orleans, we're Jewish, and we used have a party every year on Christmas day.) The recipe came from Woman's Day Kitchen, December , 1956. In 2023, I read about a similar recipe on Elissa Altman's blog, Poor Man's Feast, and decided to edit this one, which I submitted in 2009 shortly after I joined Food52. It's one of my favorite Christmas cookies. There are many variations, but this one is a classic. If I do say so myself.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 2 cup sifted flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon water
- 2 cup finely chopped pecans
- 48-60 pecan halves for decorating the cookies
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Directions
- Step 1
Whisk flour and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add water and vanilla and mix well. Fold in flour mixture and chopped pecans, alternating them. Mix till just well blended.
- Step 2
Form dough into balls about 1 inch in diameter. Place balls on cookie sheet about an inch apart, flatten, and top with pecan half. At this point, you can refrigerate them for about an hour till firm, or freeze them for later use.
- Step 3
Heat oven to 325.
- Step 4
Bake at 325 for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned and firm.