Polvorones de Nuéz (Pecan shortbread cookies)

Polvorones are a type of shortbread cookie that is very popular in panaderias mexicanas. There are many versions of it and this is just one of them. My version is extremely buttery, crumbly and soft. The amount of butter is almost the same as the amount of flour which makes this cookie somewhat temperamental when handling but beyond delicious.

The combination of butter and pecan is what takes these cookies to another level. So go ahead and make it. I promise you you will love them!!

While you read this and prepare to make this cookies later on, make sure you take out the butter from the freezer or fridge so its ready to go when you need to.

You will find the recipe at the bottom but here are some pictures of the process to help you out.

Before you jump to the recipe, you have to read the following tips.

Tips for making Polvorones de Nuez

• Use high quality butter. Butter has to be stored in an air tight container in the fridge or unopened in the freezer. Butter absorbs all the flavor and odors from your fridge. The star of this recipe is the butter so if you want great tasting cookies, you’d better use good butter.
• The order of addition in this recipe is important. Follow the steps carefully. Leave the flour until the end to avoid over mixing.
• Let the pecans cool after you toast them. If you add the warm pecans to your butter, it will make your butter too soft.
• Sift the flour. Sifting the flour will help you get good results.
• Last but not least. Mix the flour until BARELY integrated. That means that your dough will be a little crumbly as opposed to a very uniformed chocolate chip cookie dough. Do not over mix it.
• If doubling the recipe, weight the ingredients instead of using measuring cups.

Recipe for Polvorones de Nuéz (Pecan shortbread cookies)

Yield: about 30 cookies |

Ingredients

520 g all purpose flour (about 3 1/2 cups)

460 g butter (4 sticks)

215 g granulated sugar ( 1 cup)

2 cups of pecans

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

Powdered sugar for coating

Procedure

Preparation: Take the butter out of the fridge to soften a little bit. We don’t need it too soft though! Just soft enough to cream nicely with the sugar.

1. Toast the pecans on a baking sheet at 350 F for 5 minutes, stirring once. Alternatively, toast your pecans on skillet, moving constantly to avoid burning them. LET THEM COOL.
2. Chop the pecans. Place one out of the two cups in a blender or food processor and process until fine but make sure it doesn’t turn into butter. Chop the other cup of pecans finely with a knife. The tiny pieces of pecan will deliver a nice pecan flavor and the slightly bigger pieces cut with the knife will give a nice texture to it.
3. Once your butter is nice and somewhat soft, place the butter in a bowl of an electric standing mixer with a paddle attachment. Cream it with the sugar until light and fluffy. (Note: if you don’t have a standing mixer you can cream it with a hand mixer, but once you add the flour, you will have to mix it by hand to prevent over mixing).
4. Add the pecans and mix it together at medium speed.
5. Add the vanilla extract and mix again.
6. On a separate bowl, weight the required amount of flour first, and then add salt. Once you have weight your flour, sift it with a fine mesh strainer or sifter into your creamed butter. Pat the strainer lightly so that the flour comes out light and fluffy.
7. Integrate the flour to the butter mixture. This step is very important. Add some of the sifted flour to the butter mixture and allow the paddle attachment to only turn once, just enough to allow the next flour to integrate. Keep dumping the flour and mix slighly until it barely comes together. The dough is crumbly and fine. Be careful not to over mix it. (See picture 1.5).
8. Once the dough is barely integrated. Chill the dough for about 30 minutes. If you wait longer it will be hard to form a ball for cookies. Set your timer for the fridge.
9. Take the dough out of the fridge and start forming balls by gathering the crumbs and pressing firmly until you form a ball. Don’t touch it too much, aim for only 3 firm presses.
10. Place the balls into a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
11. Bake at 350 F for 18 minutes. The bottom of the cookies will be golden brown and the top will be light in color.
12. Let them cool down on the baking sheet until firm and then transfer them to a cooling rack. Once completely cooled down, sprinkle some powder sugar to make them look pretty. (optional)
13. Enjoy the most delicious butter cookies you’ll ever make.