Meltaways

While I was on the treadmill at the fitness center this morning, trying hard to not pay too much attention to the distance gauge (so I didn't sabotage myself), I decided to focus my eyes on the television instead (a great distraction in keeping me from constantly checking how much further I was from my goal for the day). Somewhat serendipitously I caught the tail end of a segment about simplifying the holidays. Most of us fall somewhere along the two camp continuum, the too-much-have-to-do-it-all-perfectly camp and the relax-and-actually-enjoy-the-holidays camp. I haven't yet fully incorporated the concept of relax into my operational vocabulary, so I am one of with try do it all tendencies (shifting this pendulum remains a life goal). After my workout I had intended to bake some holiday cookies (one rather easy but with a myriad of steps). However, the simplification segment changed all of that. Instead I remembered I had a recipe for probably one of the simplest of all holiday cookies, the Meltaways, and that would be the one I would bake instead.

They are a 1 on an easy scale of 1 to 10, but a 9 on the deliciousness scale of 1 to 10. The only reason I am not giving them a 10 is that they do not contain chocolate (chocolate has a way of tipping the deliciousness scale for me). Meltaways are so aptly named, for the obvious reason, they literally melt in your mouth. They are a dense, yet not dry shortbread-like cookie containing toasted pecans and dusted with confectionary sugar. These would definitely fall into the visions of sugar plums cookie category.

It is a wonder I even found this recipe even thought I had probably written it for the tenth time on a piece of paper. I don't commit any recipes to memory and seem to often lose or rather temporarily misplace recipes (probably because they are not well organized). But it wasn't just getting my hands on the Meltaway recipe, it was being able to read it. Thankfully I must have written it when my handwriting was a little more legible (I have caused more than my fair share of administrative assistants to go temporarily insane trying to read my handwriting).

The simplicity of the Meltaways comes in its' ingredients as well as its' assembly process. Cake flour, unsalted butter, vanilla, toasted pecans, salt and confectionary are all you need to make these mouthwatering cookies. With the exception of cake flour, you probably have all of these ingredients in your pantry and refrigerator.

I will go on only a short rant about toasting your nuts before using them in any cookie dough. Toasting brings out the flavor of the nut and really does transform how your finished cookie will taste. The pecans in the Meltaways are first toasted and then finely chopped. When the amounts of nuts of relatively small, like 3/4 cup in this case, I like chopping them myself rather than using a food processor. One less thing to clean and then you don't miss out on the incredible aroma that comes from chopping them. There are a million recommendations for toasting pecans. I bake them at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes, which is long enough to bring out their flavor without burning or drying them out.

In most recipes calling for sifted flour, you sift after you measure the flour. But for this cookie, you sift first then measure. The use of cake flour makes for a very tender cookie. If you don't use cake flour on a regular basis, this cookie is worth adding it to your pantry.

Now for the super easy assembly part. Cream the unsalted butter, vanilla and one half cup of confectionary sugar. Gradually mix in the (sifted first, measured second) cake flour and salt. Mix or stir in the finely chopped toasted pecans. Your cookie dough is now finished. How simple is that? Because this dough is on the dense side, the cookies do not spread when baking. I generally prepare two parchment paper lined baking sheets but bake each baking sheet separately.

You can drop the dough by the teaspoonful on a parchment paper lined baking sheet or you can use a small ice cream scoop. If you use a spoon to drop the cookies, they will look like little mountains and when you use an ice cream scoop they will resemble little snowballs. Today I went for the snowball look.

These cookies are baked in a preheated 450 degree oven for approximately 7 minutes. I check for the light brown doneness on the bottoms of the cookies at 6 1/2 minutes. Then I decide how much longer I want to return them to the oven (which is anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds). The bottoms of these cookies brown up faster than the tops of the cookies, so always, always check the bottom to test for doneness. Baking at such a high temperature means your baking time isn't long and sometimes 30 seconds too long is enough to burn them.

While the cookies are baking have a strainer or sifter ready with confectionary sugar. As soon as the cookies are finished baking, transfer them to a cooling rack and then lightly dust with the confectionary sugar. You want to dust these cookies while they are still warm. Due to their size, they will cool relatively quickly.

Allow the confectionary sugared cookies to cool to room temperature before plating or transferring to a tin. I would suggest you make these cookies on a day when you don't have too many cookie stealing fingers hovering near the kitchen as this recipe makes approximately three dozen cookies. However, after you sample one or two of them while they are still warm, you will have slightly less than that amount (such a small reward for creating these delectable little bites of goodness and for shifting the holiday cooking baking needle in the direction of simplifying!).

Recipe

Meltaways (makes approximately 3 dozen little bites of deliciousness)

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter room temperature

1/2 cup sifted confectionary sugar, plus more for dusting

1 teaspoon Vanilla

2 1/4 cups cake flour (measured after sifting)

1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

3/4 cup chopped toasted pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

2. In a standing mixer or using a hand held mixer, cream together the butter, vanilla and confectionary sugar.

3. Add the salt and sifted flour into the butter mixture (add in gradually).

4. Stir in chopped toasted pecans.

5. Drop by teaspoonfuls or scoop into balls using a small ice-cream scoop. Place baking sheet in center of oven. Bake for approximately 7 minutes, checking at 6 1/2 minutes. The bottoms of the cookies should be lightly browned.

6. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack and dust with confectionary sugar.

7. Allow to cool and plate or store in a covered tin or container.

The weather here has turned wickedly cold. I am not dreaming for a white Christmas (snow is already on the ground), but a slightly warmer holiday. I would be happy with temperatures in the 40s which isn't really warm, but at a certain point the perception of warmth is all relative. And a 40 degree day in the winter can feel downright balmy, except for those of you who grew up in or live in the warmer climates. Somehow I am thinking 40 degrees and balmy would not be words you would use in the same sentence.

Just like weather our perceptions of many things is all relative, usually based on our past experiences or expectations. How each of us views or approaches the holidays also changes as we get older or wiser (with age not a factor). Some of us move away from wanting gifts for ourselves toward having gifts given to others on our behalf. Sometimes I wish the ethic of humanitarianism came into my life at a much younger age. I have a friend who began teaching and emulating this value to her children when they were very young. It wasn't just when she started this, it was her year over year consistency. As a result, this importance of humanitarianism is one that remained with them. Yet beyond instilling a philanthropic ethic in her children, she permanently altered their perception of the concept of receiving to include not just tangible, but the equally important intangible gift of knowing you made a difference in the life of someone else. Whether or not we had role models in our life that shaped our perception of receiving, it is never too late to start shifting either ours or those of family members.