The very wonderful Modines’ asked us The Gans’ to contribute to their lovely blog. We happily accepted and decided that our first post should be the recipe for the cookies that were on our mind from Christmas time. These are the cookies that Nikki grew up with during the holidays. Being that I was raised Jewish my memory of holiday cookies consisted of the fortune cookies from our Christmas dinner at the local Chinese restaurant. You can imagine my amazement when Nikki introduced these to me at our first holiday dinner together. These cookies really can be enjoyed anytime of the year and are perfect with tea. They are very similar to a Mexican wedding cookie and a Greek cookie called a Kourambiedes.

Ingredients

ingredients:

1 c. butter ( I prefer salted )

1/2 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp Good quality vanilla

2 c. sifted flour

1/4 t. salt

1 c. chopped pecans (if raw, toast first then chop by hand )

First thing you want to do is toast the pecans. You can do this in a pan or in the oven but make sure to keep a careful eye on them as you dont want them to burn.

Once out of the oven chop them up to around the consistency pictured above.

Using a stand up or hand mixer blend butter, sugar, vanilla and pecans. Next add flour and salt then mix well. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as it will be very sticky.

Wrap dough in plastic wrap disc and chill for 1 hour.

Form crescent shapes with scooper and hands.

We had a visitor.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes depending on your oven. Keep an eye on this as well. The color will be a nice golden brown along the bottom of the cookie. This is when they should be about done. You can smell these buttery delights from down the hall.

Let cookies cool on wire rack for about 30 minutes.

Cover in powdered sugar.

Viola! Enjoy!!