One of my favourite cooking shows on the Food Network is Barefoot Contessa. Hosted by Ina Garten, she makes preparing restaurant-worthy dishes a no-brainer; then again, so do many other chefs on cooking shows. Nonetheless, time and time again, that'd be a recipe I fancy while watching the show, then I'd google it and start imagining myself whipping up a storm in the kitchen, wow-ing myself and amazing my family and friends with my superb culinary skills.
Alas, in reality, the end product will always not be what I expect it to be. Maybe Westerners prefer their food a tad more savoury, with a bit more flavour, saltier, sweeter... I don't know, but the food that came out of my kitchen was certainly not oohh-ahhh-worthy. No, not the scene I had conjured up in my imagination. I was about to give up on Ina when I came across her recipe for Pecan Shortbread and I thought: Hmm, how about one last try? The results? Well, read on to find out...
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| 3/4 lb or 12 oz of unsalted butter, room temperature |
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| 1 cup sugar; I took the liberty of adding just a little less than a cup of sugar as I didn't want the shortbread to be too sweet |
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| 1 tsp each of vanilla and almond extract |
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| 3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour |
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| 1/4 tsp salt |
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| 1 1/2 cups small diced pecans |
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| Sieve the flour and salt together |
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| Set aside |
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| Cream the butter |
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| Scrap down the sides of your mixing bowl as needed |
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| Add sugar and beat for a few minutes |
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| Scrap down the sides... |
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| What you'd see after beating for several minutes |
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| Add the almond and vanilla extract and beat to combine |
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| Add the sifted flour and salt mixture and beat on low speed to combine (you don't want flour flying everywhere) |
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| Just beat it |
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| Mix in the pecans... |
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| The dough is ready! |
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| Wrap the dough with a cling wrap |
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| Smells good already... |
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| Leave to chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes |
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| Meanwhile, choose a cookie cutter that you desire! |
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| I chose this 2-inch oval cookie cutter :) Start pre-heating your oven to 180 degrees |
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| At the end of 30 minutes, roll out your dough on a surface dusted with flour to about a quarter inch thickness (the recipe calls for 1/2 inch, but oh well, we don't always have to follow recipes to a T, right?) |
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| Cut them out and place them on a baking tray lined with a baking sheet. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until the edges begin to brown |
Fresh out of the oven! |
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| On the first bite, you get the taste of that sweet, buttery crust and chewing on, the taste of the pecans start to come through. A delicious marriage of nuttiness and that subtly sweet, buttery shortbread. A success! :) |
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