Pecan Shortbread Cookies

By Reen

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar, plus 2 Tbsp for sprinkling
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out dough
• pinch of salt
• 2 1/4 oz whole pecan halves (toasted- optional)
• 2 drops pure almond extract

Details

Servings 18
Preparation time 20mins
Cooking time 140mins
Adapted from keyingredient.com

Preparation

Step 1

Cream butter, 1/2 cup sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer until mixture is light in color, 3 to 4 minutes. Add flour, salt, pecans and almond extract; mix until combined and the pecans start to break up.

Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.

(optional: roll cooled dough into a log, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate an additional hour. Once set, slice into 1/4-inch slices)

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to a 1/4-inch thickness. Using a 2 1/2-inch round fluted cookie cutter, cut out cookies; place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Chill 1 hour.

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Sprinkle cookies with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and bake until lightly browned for 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

Note: This produces a very small batch of cookies. It can easily be doubled to make more.