Maximum yield for minimal work will have you cheering for these Buttery Pecan Shortbread Pan Cookies. Super easy to make, one batch will yield four dozen cookies!
Last week I said that I would be posting a recipe today. I’m betting that you thought that I was going to post early today. I thought the same thing. Technically, though, it is still Monday here in Utah, so I actually have another 56 minutes before it is tomorrow. I like living on the edge. Yippeeeee!
Not.
For comfort and to ease my way back in to blogging, I have fallen back on a favorite recipe from my grandmother. She made these Pecan Shortbread Pan Cookies every Christmas and they were my #1 favorite Christmas cookie when I was growing up. I opened this blog with my Granny’s Sour Cream Pound Cake and I find that it is only fitting that I should use one of her recipes to begin blogging again.
I have several of Granny’s recipes on this blog. Look for a list of them at the end of this post. Hmmm… I wonder. Should “post” be spelled “poast”, like “toast”? Technically it would seem that the “o” would be short instead of long in “post” — you know, like in the word “cost”.
Speaking of toast, as I said in my last post, Kade (6) wanted to make toast as part of our Thanksgiving dinner this year. We used up a whole loaf of bread, except for the end slices, and buttered them generously. 🙂 The fam has decided that toast will become a Thanksgiving tradition every year. Pretty funny. There were a few slices left over and so I bagged them up and sent them home with my daughter. When Kade got up the next morning, he was so excited to find that there was leftover Thanksgiving toast for breakfast. You’d have thought that Santa came early this year.
Okay, I’m feeling a bit more relaxed with writing this post. I’m still really wordy, so nothing has changed in that category. I’ve been wordy since about 4th grade. Although I can write short and to-the-point, it is TOO BORING and restrictive. Technical writing in college made me crazy although I did well in the class. Technical writing, for me, is like wearing a straight jacket. I’ll spare you the detailed explanation of the metaphor, although I could go on ad nauseum with it.
One more thing before I go on with the wonderfully easy Buttery Pecan Shortbread Pan Cookie recipe. I have a new sous chef. Meet Lexi, my 5 month old golden retriever. She is GREAT at staying fully engaged while I am cooking. She is also amazing at kitchen clean-up and loves helping with the dishes.
Granny’s Pecan Shortbread Pan Cookies
There were five particular favorite cookies, plus divinity, that my grandmother used to make at Christmastime. She made more than just five kinds of cookies, but I can only remember being interested in five of them. Come to think of it, four of the five types of cookies were all in the shortbread family. I definitely have a thing for shortbread cookies, particularly Almond Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies with Raspberry Jam!!!!
As I said previously, these Pecan Shortbread Pan Cookies were my favorite cookies. Smelling them baking today made me smile with the memories of eating them at Granny’s house. They will always say “peace, warmth, happiness and love” to me. I’m sure that you have ‘memory foods’ that speak to you in the same way.
As with other shortbread cookies, these cookies only have a few ingredients, with butter and sugar leading the way. This recipe is particularly nice because it is a one-pan cookie. Mix ‘um, spread ‘um, bake ‘um, slice ‘um, eat ‘um, done. The truly glorious thing is that you get 48 cookies — that’s 4 DOZEN — from each batch. Score!
When mixing the dough, go easy on incorporating the flour. It only needs to be mixed into the dough just enough to blend it with the other ingredients. No over-mixing allowed.
Buttery Pecan Shortbread Pan Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup salted butter, softend
- 1 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, separated
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups pecans, chopped fine
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325° F.
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter. Beat for 30 seconds until smooth.
- Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract, egg yolk and the milk. Mix until well incorporated.
- With the mixer on a low speed, add the flour a little at a time. Mix only until just incorporated.
- Turn the dough out onto an UNBUTTERED 1/2 sheet baking pan (17″ x 12″). Break dough into chunky pieces and scatter over bottom of pan. Press the dough evenly in the pan all the way to the edges. Handle as little as possible. Beat the egg white lightly with a fork, then brush all over the top of the cookie dough. Sprinkle chopped pecans over the dough.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes until pale golden brown on top and the dough has set. Do not over-bake. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 1-2 minutes. While cookies are still hot, cut into 48 squares. Remove from pan and place on a cooling rack. When cool, store the cookies in an airtight, covered container. Best if used within 5 days.
More of my grandmother’s recipes:
- Sour Cream Pound Cake
- Merry Christmas Cookies
- Macaroni Pie
- Strawberry, Banana, and Pineapple Jello Salad
- Tangalicious Barbecue Sauce
You may also like:
Microwave Peanut Brittle
Peppermint Candy Cane Syrup
Swedish Almond Cake
Aww! Terri your golden has captured my heart! I miss having a golden… my sweet Sammy passed away almost 8 years ago at the age of 12. 🙁 Seeing your Sweet Lexi’s face made me so happy. 🙂
So glad you didn’t get too scart and wrote your first blog post in a while. 🙂 I love these buttery pecan shortbread treats. Thank you for sharing your grandmother’s recipe with us all. 🙂 Now keep blogging… can’t wait to see your next recipe. 🙂
That’s so sad that your golden died. I had a treasured cat that we raised with a yellow lab. The cat thought he was a dog; even played “fetch”. When he died I cried and cried. It’s been 12 years and I still have sad moments when I miss that cat! lol
PS… That toast for Thanksgiving looks pretty darn perfect!! Your grandson did an amazing job!!
Good golly, those shortbread squares look divine. Buttery goodness with nuts on top, can’t beat that! My Nana very seldom used a recipe when cooking or baking. I used to watch and take notes. It sure was fun. My versions don’t taste like hers but they sure do bring back some wonderful memories in the kitchen.
Ohhhhhhhhh Terri your Lexi is adorable! Look at that sweet face wanting to help you bake. She’s a beauty. It’s been about 6 years since we said good-bye to our last dog-we miss them so much. All of them had retriever in them-golden or lab-they’re such good dogs, although a few of ours were filled with, shall we say, mischief?
I’m so happy you’re back blogging….nothing to be “skeert” (my version of your “scart”) about. You did fanTAStic and not wordy at all-I LOVE Terri-speak. I tend to go on at length when I write…always a lot of important ground to cover. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it…at length!
Back to my coffee-wish I had a piece of that Thanksgiving Toast to go with it-that Kade is a genius! 🙂
Skeert — I often say it that way, too!
You’re right about goldens and labs being such good dogs. We had a yellow lab a long time ago and she was a great dog. You’re right about the mischief, too. Just last night my daughter showed me a slice of garlic bread that Lexi stole out of a box on the counter top. We had ordered pizza and garlic bread and when no one was looking, Lexi nudged the box of garlic bread open with her nose and stole a piece of it. When Katie (my daughter) saw her obviously chewing on something, she went to retrieve it out of Lexi’s mouth. Lexi has this trick of hiding things in her throat and when we look in her mouth we can’t see anything. When we look away, she brings the item(s) back up into her mouth and starts chewing on them. Anyway, Lexi hid the bread down her throat, but Katie was able to get her fingers on an end of it and pull it out. The piece of bread was about 5 inches long!
These look delicious, Terri! I’m going to add them to my Christmas cookie “repertoire” this year because a.) they look YUMMY! and b.) any cookie that can be baked in one pan, at one time, and still make 4 dozen cookies is MY kind of Christmas cookie! Btw, I make 2 of my Nana’s cookie recipes at Christmastime, and it wouldn’t be Christmas without them!
So glad you’re back to blogging and sharing recipes! You did great!
Donna, aren’t grandmother recipes the best!? I love generational recipes — they are an important part of a family’s heritage. I have a Sour Cream Pound Cake recipe on this blog that is from my great grandmother. She used to make it in a wood burning stove. How is that even possible? 😉
So glad you are back Terri and with a winner of a recipe! I love reading your wordy poasts 🙂 I have a golden retriever (now 9 years old and much calmer, thank goodness), a lab mix and a “boxador”, all incredibly helpful in the kitchen.
Wow! You are the queen of bravery to have three of the lab/goldie variety. So much energy (and food needs)! I can only imagine the level of kitchen help you have. hahahaha!
We’ve gotten a small reprieve on Lexi’s exuberance the last few days. She has lost a lot of her puppy teeth and her gums are sore, so she has been a bit calmer. Whew!
OMGoodness!!
What yummy looking goodies, I LOVE my sweets! *^_^*
Shortbread is always a hit in my household, hubby likes, likes a lot.
And if hubby is happy, well then, all is right in my world. 🙂
I really enjoy recipes that have been in the family for years, they are made from the heart, the best kind of food.
What an adorable doggie Lexi is, pets are the best.
They love us no matter what goes on in our world.
I have a beagle/blue heeler, her name is Sadie, a small bundle of joy to our family.
Going to attempt this delicious recipe, thanks for sharing it with us Terri!
Sooooo happy to see you back!! (((hugs)))
Have a fabulous day! 🙂
Pinned!
Thank you, Delila. I’m so happy that you have your Sadie and that you enjoy her so much. I get all kinds of happy when I see how excited Lexi is to see me each time I come into the room. She greets everyone in the same way — happy, excited, tail-wagging joyful!
I LOVE shortbreads. One pan, 4 dozen, so has my name on it.
Your Lexi is so stinkin’ cute. My ‘puppy’ is a senior we adopted 2 years ago from a Labrador rescue. He is Lab mixed with something (we think beagle….he has sad eyes and beagle shaped head). We describe him as Labradorish.
Great post!!! Knew it would be great. I bet it’s like riding a bike…..a little intimidating at first, but then it all ‘balances’ out.
Glad you’re back…..PS….Hope your pits have dried….snicker,snicker xoxoxoxoxox
Rie, I just read about a Golden Retriever rescue in California. They were describing each of the goldies or goldie mixes that they have. One of them really touched my heart. It was an older female who was rescued from Taiwan where she had been bred repeatedly and was physically abused. The scars are apparent on her snout and head. So sad. Anyway, she is now an enormously successful therapy dog and is so loving, gentle and kind that she is used to help children and adults who are very, very frightened of dogs. She wins them over every time.
Good for you that you got a rescue dog. It makes me happy to think that you gave him a second chance at having a good home.
I’ve never commented on your blog, but I’ve been a long-time lurker. I’ve been checking this blog regularly for months, hoping that you would start posting again, and I’m so pleased to see both your recipes and your commentary again. It feels like a prayer has been answered. Be well.
Thank you so much. You have idea what your comment means to me. 🙂 ~Terri
Hello Dear Friend…..Just checking in. I haven’t made the short breads yet but I am thinking for Valentine’s day. Hope you are well. Know that I am thinking of you…xoxoox
Just wanted to let you know that I’ve been thinking of you. Hope all is well
xoxoxoxoox
Hi Terri,
You’ve been on my mind-just wanted to say hi and send big hugs your way.
Happy Easter Terry!
Hope all is well. You know how to contact me if you want to “chat”.
Happy Spring and new beginnings!!!!!
xoxoxooxoxoxoox
Rie
Thanks, Rie. You are always so sweet to leave me these little notes. Spring truly is a time of new beginnings. Hugs and smiles. ~Terri
I made your fabulous cookies today. They are so wonderful.. My grandson said grandma these are very good. Thank you fir sharing the recipe. Janice
Hi Janice. So glad that you liked the cookies. 🙂