Pecan Sandies... the recipe

Just the thing with a cuppa or

Sorry I haven't been here much lately... but, I'm back to that time of needing to be more than one person in my life in the non-cyber world

Hope you enjoy these! Alice

_{Photography by my sweet hubby Bob =TThealer
Pottery made by the very talented Al and Kris Clement of Clement Clayworks in Springfield, Missouri}



Pecan Sandies

2 cups butter or margarine (I prefer 1 cup butter + 1 cup margarine)
2/3 cup granulated white sugar

1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon water
2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons Vanilla

4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 cups chopped pecans

Confectioner's sugar for dusting after baking

In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer cream butter and sugar; add vanilla and water; mix well. Blend in flour and nuts. Chill 4 hours.

When you are ready to cook them, this is where you have ALOT of control over the texture and shape of the finished product. Cooking times vary according to the shape and thickness that you choose

For wafer type cookies:

Roll dough into 1 inch balls or shape into fingers, and place on an ungreased cookie sheet (I prefer to line my cookie sheets with foil for easy clean-up). Lightly press the balls down to about 1/4 inch thick, prior to baking, using a glass dusted on the bottom with flour.

Bake at 325 degrees for approximately 20 minutes.

For flakier, fluffy Sandies:

Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, then gently flatten them down to about 1/2 inch thick using the palms and fingers of your hands... then place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 325 degrees for approximately 30 to 35 minutes.

For ball type sandies:

Roll dough into 1 inch balls, and place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 325 degrees for approximately 40 minutes.

NOTE: because sandies do not expand while cooking, it is not necessary to leave much space between the cookies, when placing them on the ungreased cookie sheet.

Remove from pan; cool completely...then roll in or dust with sifted confectioner's sugar. It is very easy to dust the cookies using a small hand held type strainer, half filled with confectioner's sugar. Just gently tap on the side of the strainer, to get an even distribution over the cookies; this method wastes less confectioner's sugar, and makes less mess to clean up!

Store in air tight containers, such as Gladware or cookie tins.

If shipping these cookies as a gift, you may want to add a small amount of additional confectioner's sugar under and between the cookies, when placing them in containers.

Notes:
Don't be tempted to just throw the water and vanilla in with the butter, margarine, and sugar before mixing any of it (that's what I did the first time I made it! ) If you do, you'll spend the next 30 minutes cleaning up the kitchen!

This is a very thick recipe, by the time it is finished and ready to chill... so run your electric mixer on the lowest speed that will work, until the ingredients begin to mix with each other. If your largest mixing bowl is flared out at the top, rather than having more straight up and down sides, you'll want to be especially careful, or you'll have dough flying everywhere!

Because this recipe is so thick, once you've gotten all the flour and nuts to mix in that you can with the electric mixer, I recommend cleaning the beaters and setting aside the electric mixer... then get your hands into the bowl, and kneed in the rest of the flour and nuts that will be stuck to the side of the bowl. Turn and kneed the dough (like what you would bread dough) until all the flour and nuts are mixed in.

For ease of handling, you may want to measure your dry ingredients into the same container that you plan to put the dough in for chilling... that way you've only got one container to wash later.

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If you like making cookies that need to chill in the fridge, before baking, you may also enjoy: