Homemade food gifts to share for the holidays, birthdays, or just because
by Sarah Waldman
Photographs by Elizabeth Cecil
My grandmother, Polly, makes these simple, melt-in-your-mouth Pecan Crescent Cookies every Christmas. With a short list of simple ingredients, and a dough made completely in the bowl of a food processor, these sugar-dusted cookies are an easy holiday bake and taste just as good in the morning with a cup of coffee as they do after dinner.
Ingredients
1 cup pecans
½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
¼ cup granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
- In a food processor, pulse the pecans until the nuts become the texture of coarse sand.
- Add in the butter, granulated sugar, flour, and vanilla. Pulse until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and forms a ball.
- Remove the dough from the machine and place in a mixing bowl.
- Grabbing about one tablespoon at a time, form the dough into small crescent shapes. The cookies should be about one inch long. Roll the crescents in powdered sugar and place on an ungreased baking sheet.
- Bake the Pecan Crescents for 30 to 40 minutes.
- Once the cookies are out of the oven and cooled, roll a second time in powdered sugar.
- Pecan Crescent Cookies can be gifted in small tins, boxes, or filled inside of a mug.