These have a very simple dough which you do NEED to refrigerate. This is not so much because it make the dough easier to handle (which it does) but because when butter is cold it makes for a flaky pastry. So by chilling the dough you are chilling the butter and thus, killing two birds with one stone as they say, since your dough will be easy to handle and nice a flaky once baked. These were my mom's all time favorite Christmas cookie.
Ingredients
- FOR THE DOUGH:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup plus ⅓ cup cold butter
- 1 egg yolk
- ¾ cup sour cream
- FOR THE FILLING:
- ½ cup chopped pecans
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- FOR THE GLAZE:
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 4 tablespoons milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
To make the dough, combine the flour, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles course sand.
Mix the sour cream and egg yolk together and add to the flour mixture, run processor until the dough comes together in a ball.
Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 2 hours. Wash out the processor as you will need it for the next step.
To make the filling, combine the pecans, sugar and cinnamon in the food processor and pulse until the nuts are finely chopped. Set aside.
Line baking sheets with parchment and preheat oven to 350˚.
When the dough is ready, flour your surface well, divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Roll the first portion out into a 12" circle and then slice like a pie into 12 pieces.
Sprinkle a handful or so of the filling onto the rolled out dough, and then roll each slice starting at the wider end so it looks like a croissant.
Place on the lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining wedges and dough balls. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until they are just starting to turn golden on the bottom.
Once they are out of the oven combine the glaze ingredients and spoon over the cookies while they are still warm.
Allow to cool on the tray, it's a little hard to move them when they are covered in warm sticky glaze. Once cooled you can stack them on a serving tray and enjoy.
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