Cinnamon Pecan Shortbread

The first Christmas cookies have officially been baked! The tree is up, but not yet decorated. It's beginning to look like Christmas around here.

This is a super simple recipe that would be great to make with kids. Little ones will love rolling the cookies in the cinnamon sugar and bigger kids can make the dough. I chopped the pecans quite fine so they wouldn't be too crunchy or stick out of the cookies. The flour and spices get dumped into the mixer (!) and then mixed on slow. Watch for the dough to begin to stick together in clumps, but don't over-mix it!

And for those with egg allergies—no eggs! Also handy when you have to bake a treat but you're low on eggs.

Cinnamon Pecan Shortbread

2 cups flour
1/4 cup pecans, chopped fine
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cinnamon Sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, chopped pecans, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir well with a fork to mix. Set aside.

Cream the butter with the 1/2 cup sugar. Add the vanilla and beat well. Dump the entire flour mixture into the mixer bowl. On slow, mix until combined and it begins to stick together. It should be just sticky enough to make a little ball.

Mix together the 1/4 cup sugar and the 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon in a bowl just big enough to roll around a 1-inch ball of dough.

Scoop a little bit of the dough into your palm, squeeze about two times and roll between your palms into a 1-inch ball. Roll in the sugar and place on the parchment paper. When the cookie tray is full, flatten each ball with the bottom of a glass. If it sticks too much, dip the bottom of the glass in the sugar bowl.

Bake 12-14 minutes.

Chop pecans

Flour, spices, and nuts.

Roll into 1-inch balls. Flatten as on left.

 

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