You might remember my favorite Christmas tradition from my Merry Mint Snow Top Cookies. Each year, my mother, grandmother and I convene for the annual cookie bake-off and my dad hides from the chaos in his den.
Flour flies and sugar spreads as we power through three types of cookies. Mix, bake, cool, pack and repeat.
Tins begin to fill. And so does my heart.
Even though our Almond Crescents end up a little wonky and our Cinnamon Pecan Crisps are usually flavored with a bit of grandma’s sleeve, to me, these cookies are perfect.
My grandmother’s Cinnamon Pecan Crisps are particularly special. I’ve never tasted a cookie like them and I’ve never seen a process quite as….unique. The dough is smashed, I mean my grandmother literally rams it into a cookie pan, before baking it as a whole and cutting the individual cookies after. They have no leavening and are hand slathered with egg whites. My pastry chef mind always wants to question the process but the final product makes me glad that I never do.
I probably don’t tell my mom enough and I definitely don’t tell my grandmother as often as I should, but our cookie ritual characterized by odd baking techniques, illegible recipe cards, and time spent with a couple of nuts, means more to me than any gift under the tree.
Here’s my grandmother’s recipe:
Measure out all ingredients, separate the egg and preheat your oven. Phew!
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk. Gradually add the flour and cinnamon with the mixer on low until the dry is completely incorporated into the wet.
Press the dough into a 12×18-inch rimmed cookie tray lined with parchment.
Break the egg white up and then brush it all over the dough in a thin layer. You will not use the entire egg white. Press the chopped pecans into the dough.
Bake in the preheated oven for 5 – 10 minutes until browned.
While the cookies are still warm, cut into squares as best you can!
Let cool before setting out for Santa, sharing with family or eating all by yourself when you’re home alone watching Home Alone.
Merry Crispmas…like Merry Christmas…you get it!
Cinnamon Pecan Crisps
Ingredients:
1 cup of butter
1 cup of sugar
2 cups of flour
2 heaping teaspoons of cinnamon
1 egg, separated
1 cup of thinly sliced pecans
Directions:
In a small bowl, mix together the flour and cinnamon. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk.
Gradually add the dry ingredients into the wet until completely incorporated.
Press into an 12×18-inch cookie sheet that is lined with parchment.
Break up the egg white with a fork and then brush in a thin layer over the dough covering entirely. (You will not use the entire egg white.)
Press the chopped pecans into the dough.
Place in the preheated oven and bake for 5 – 8 minutes until browned and crisp around the edges.
While the cookies are still warm, cut into squares. (We used a pizza cutter. It worked great!)
Let the cookie squares cool in the pan before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks!