Butter-Pecan Slice-and -Bake Cookies

By MarieR

Studded with butter-roasted pecans, these melt-in-your-mouth cookies are perfect served with a tall glass of milk. (Need to refrigerate at least hours.)

Ingredients

• Yields: 48
• 2 cups finely chopped pecans
• 1¼ cups unsalted butter, divided
• 1½ teaspoons kosher salt, divided
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon turbinado sugar

Details

Adapted from tasteofthesouthmagazine.com

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350°.
Place pecans and ¼ cup butter on a baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from oven, and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt. Let cool completely.
In a medium saucepan, melt remaining 1 cup butter over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until butter turns a medium-brown color and has a nutty aroma, about 10 minutes. Let cool until butter is solid but soft, about 1 hour.
In a large bowl, beat browned butter and confectioners’ sugar with a mixer at medium speed until combined, 1 to 2 minutes, stopping to scrape sides of bowl. Add vanilla and pecans, scraping butter from bottom of pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and remaining ½ teaspoon salt. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating just until combined. (Dough will be thick and crumbly.) Shape dough into 2 (7-inch) logs. Wrap each log in wax paper, and refrigerate for 4 hours.Remove from refrigerator 10 minutes before slicing.
Preheat oven to 350°. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Gently cut each log into 24 slices. Place slices 1 inch apart on prepared pans. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
Bake until edges are golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool completely