Let's Get Baked: Be Gone Butter Pecan Cookies

One of my favorite cookies since being introduced to solid foods has been the Royal Dansk Danish Butter Cookies in the tin container. There always seemed to be an endless supply in my grandparent's pantry — but it's been a few years. Then this past holiday season, my daughter, Marissa, picked up a cute tin box(they put a bird on it) to store cookies in and when I opened it — sweet tokens of Danish buttery goodness magically appeared! It was a Christmas cookie miracle!

I was going to return and stock up on these delectable Danish delicacies, but we already had enough homemade goodies — and a cupboard with plenty of baking ingredients to bring in the new year. And it wasn't until the second weekend of February that I finally felt up to putting the leftover pecans to good use! I planned on making more Russian Tea Cakes, but the thought of having them not at Christmastime was screwing — hardcore — with my head. However, a buttery, nutty, British-y, biscuit-for-breakfast-with-tea-type-cookie sounded just right.

I searched for the most simple slice & bake shortbread style cookie recipe and found one at BakingBites.com! Along with the invaluable tips at SimplyRecipes (whose Butter Pecan Cookies recipe — which only makes one dozen compared to three dozen — is in my Must-Try queue) on how long to toast the pecans (six minutes at 350) and to cream the butter first before adding any other ingredient to the mix, made this first attempt quite satisfactory!

First couple of days the cookies reminded me a lot of the taste of praline candies and Royal Dansk Danish Butter Cookies. By the third day, they were tasting more like Keebler's Sandies Pecan Shortbread Cookies. I can imagine they can go stale pretty fast, so one of the more awesome things about slice and bake recipes is you can keep the dough frozen for several weeks and only slice off how many cookies you want to bake up quickly at one time!

I'm not going to write out the baking instructions 'cause Nicole at Baking Bites puts in the time and effort (and baking!) to do all that herself, and besides, it's a great excuse for you to go discover her blog and more recipes! Just remember the tips I shared from Simply Recipes and enjoy!