In keeping with my glutton for punishment personality, I created and baked yet another brand new shortbread cookie recipe after spending three consecutive twelve hour days knee deep in what I will call this year's Cookie Palooza. Otherwise known as my annual holiday candy making and cookie baking overly ambitious madness. The good news is it all got done. And twelve carefully packaged up holiday cookie boxes were entrusted to the post office to be delivered to both friends and in return for unexpected generous kindnesses received in the past year. The bad news is I only ruined and lost one pound of white chocolate in the process. However, I am not at all bemoaning this little disaster as I at least learned, or rather relearned a lesson in the process (i.e., never melt white chocolate in the microwave). In spite of having to clean up the huge mess made in my long galley kitchen, there is always a moment of euphoria experienced, along with a sigh of relief, after the boxes are dropped off to be shipped. I say moment, because now I have to hold my breath (figuratively speaking) for the three or yikes, four days it will take for these packages to arrive at their intended destinations. Because I once sent a box of holiday cookies to a wrong address (we won't talk about the angst this caused me), I still keep my fingers crossed I didn't inadvertently transpose numbers, use the wrong zip code, or use an old address. Funny how you can look at something at least three times and still not see the mistake. My eyes sometimes see what's in my head, not what I see on paper. Proofing is yet another one of my flaws. But enough of this self-depricating disclosure of my flaws, I would rather spend time talking about this incredibly scrumptious Pecan Toffee Shortbread.
In spite of the fact that you need to soften the butter in advance, roll out dough, use a cookie cutter, and use a piping bag, I would say this isn't at all a fussy cookie to make. From start to finish you can make three dozen of these tasty little beauties in just a couple of hours. And in the big picture of things, two hours is a blip on the time scale. You can even multi-task and be half-listening to a Hallmark Holiday movie because we all know they are the same fairy tale ending stories (which most of us all long to have at least once in our lives). And unless you live with cookie monsters who polish off a stack of these cookies in just a few bites, the other best thing about them is they are equally delicious on day one as they might be on day seven. Shortbread often improves slightly with age, so it also makes them one of the cookies you can send off to friends and be confident it won't become a cookie needing to be dunked in milk in order to make it edible.
If you love a buttery shortbread cookie, especially one having a little bit of a crunch and sweetened with some chocolate, these Pecan Toffee Shortbreads will definitely spark joy in your life!
I used the butter, flour, sugar, salt, vanilla, and finely chopped nut ratios found in Amy's Shortbread Cookies to create this Pecan Toffee Shortbread. Just one cup of toffee bits and milk chocolate instead of white chocolate transformed that recipe base and created these mouthwatering, melt in mouth cookies.
The most difficult decision was deciding whether to make these cookies round, square, or holiday inspired shaped. As you can see, round won. Using a two inch round cookie yielded three dozen cookies rolled to 1/4 inch thickness. When rolling out shortbread err on the side of thicker rather than thinner. While the yield will be less and baking time slightly increased, rolling them out to 1/3" thickness would make for an even more decadent cookie.
Because I almost always finish my chocolate enhanced cookies by either dipping them or drizzling them with a fork, I decided these would have random stripes piped on using a pastry bag and small round pastry tip. These cookies are versatile enough you can finish them using any of these techniques. Choose simple or fussy, whichever one makes you happy. Note: If you decide to dip them, you will need to increase the amount of milk chocolate.
Topping each cookie with a toasted pecan half seemed like the perfect finishing touch.
If you are still looking for another cookie to add to your holiday baking madness, definitely opt for this Pecan Toffee Shortbread. But if you are holiday baking overload, SAVE this recipe!
We don't always remember every gift we have received, but we often remember either those handmade, homemade gifts from the heart or those simple, yet incredibly thoughtful ones. Even though much time has passed, I can still remember how I felt receiving the gifts of a pen, a book, and a box of my favorite candy from a friend. The holidays can be a time to show and/or return kindness. Deciding who is on your list should be but isn't always easy, so make certain you are gifting someone because you want to and not because you feel you have to (an ongoing lesson for me). A gift given in guilt almost never gives you even a nano-second of gift giving euphoria. And you too deserve to experience some of that holiday joy and child-like glee!
Pecan Toffee Shortbread
Makes 36 two inch sized round cookies
Ingredients
2 cups (260 g) all purpose flour, plus more for dusting out the rolling surface
3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature (Recommend using a European style butter)
1/2 cup (62 g) confectionary sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 cup (162 g) toffee chips (I used Heath English Toffee Bits)
1/2 cup (62 g) pecans, toasted and finely chopped
36 pecan halves, toasted
8 ounces of milk chopped and melted
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).
2. Sift the flour. Place the flour and salt in a bowl and set aside.
3. Place butter and confectionary sugar in a mixer. Using a paddle attachment, mix until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
4. Add vanilla and mix in.
5. Add flour/salt mixture. Mix just until until dough begins sticks together.
6. Add in the toffee chips and finely chopped pecans. Mix until all ingredients are blended in and the dough starts to come together in a ball.
7. Divide dough in half. On a floured surface roll out dough to at least 1/4 inch of thickness. Using a two inch round cookie cutter cut out and place cookies onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet.
8. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom. Rotate tray midway through the baking process. Let cookies cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
9. All the cookies to cool to room temperature.
10. Chop and melt milk chocolate on top of a double boiler and/or in the microwave.
11. Using a pastry bag fitted with a small round nozzle dip drizzle chocolate over the cookies. Alternately use a fork to drizzle the chocolate on top of the cooled cookies or dip half of the cookie in the chocolate.
12. Place a small dollop of melted milk chocolate in the center of the cookie and press on a pecan half down.
13. Allow chocolate to completely set.
14. Store cookies in a tightly sealed container.
Notes: (1) Use a good quality melting chocolate. Do not use chocolate chips. (2) To toast pecans, bake in a preheated 350 degree (F) oven for 9-11 minutes or until lightly toasted and fragrant. (3) Instead of rolling out the cookies to 1/4" thickness, roll out to a 1/3" thickness. Baking time will needed to be adjusted upward by several minutes.
Wilder Park Conservatory, December 2019
