Holidays are approaching soon and I know I am going to have a houseful of boys wanting something to eat every second of the day. No exaggeration, how can kids be hungry all day! So I thought it was time I perfected all my cookie recipes. Ok, I must admit I’m a huge cookie fan myself. Give me homemade cookies any day. These Brown Butter Pecan Balls is definitely one I am going to make regularly during the holidays, because it’s that delicious.
Have you ever tried baking with brown butter? Well, if you haven’t then I think it’s time. When you use brown butter to bake you will want to eat the dough before it’s even cooked. I’m not kidding, that aroma of the brown butter is out of this world. It’s slightly caramelized butter with a nutty flavour. I can’t explain just how wonderful my home smells today.
The first time I made brown butter I used in its liquid form to make my cookies and I found the dough to be a little too dry. This time round I made the brown butter ahead of time and refrigerated it. I then brought it back to room temperature before mixing my dough. It worked really well and my dough wasn’t as crumbly. Brown butter is really easy to make, you just have to keep a close eye on it to prevent it from burning.
I’ve meaning to do a separate post for my brown butter but I haven’t got around to it. I will do one shortly, however I will give you instructions in my recipe. My pecan nuts was also toasted a little before I added them to my dough. Toasting your nuts gives it a nice little crunch.
Once the Brown Butter Pecan Balls are baked it will be crumbly. You have to allow them to cool before it hardens. Don’t be tempted to throw them out.
Hope you try these little morsels of heaven and let me know how it goes.
More Cookie Recipes:
Melting Moments with Custard Powder
Brown Butter Pecan Balls
Ingredients
- 125 gram/1/2 cup brown butter
- 1/4 cup/60ml castor sugar
- 1/2 tspn vanilla essence
- 1/3 cup pecan nuts toasted and finely chopped
- 1 cup/250ml cake wheat flour
- 1/3 cup icing sugar for dusting
Instructions
Brown Butter
- Melt 125g/1/2 cup butter in a l lightly coloured saucepan
- Butter will start to foam as it melts. It will start with a lemon colour then turn to a light brown colour
- Once it starts turning slightly brown remove from the heat. The heat in the pan will brown the butter further until it's a toasty brown
- Pour the butter into a heatproof bowl, allow it to cool and refrigerate
Pecan Balls
- Allow the brown butter to stand for a few minutes until it reaches room temperature
- Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside
- Cream the butter and sugar until creamy
- Mix in the vanilla essence
- Add the flour, a little at a time until you have a firm but not crumbly dough
- Add the pecan nuts and mix well
- Divide the batter into 24 pieces. Roll them into neat balls
- Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 160 degrees Celsius for 10-15 minutes until it slightly brown on the edges
- The cookies will be very crumbly to the touch. Wait for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack
- Once completely cool roll them in icing sugar twice. The first time will be a little sticky but once it's tolled in the sugar again it will be perfect
- Store in an airtight container
