Butter pecan crescents

1 servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
1 cup Pecan halves
2¼ cup All-purpose flour, divided
⅔ cup Granulated sugar
⅓ cup Confectioners' sugar
½ teaspoon Salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter,
Chilled and cut into inch
Cubes 1 large egg, chilled
4 teaspoons Vanilla extract

Directions

Coating: 12 ounces Swiss milk chocolate, coarsely chopped Make the cookie dough: 1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375~F. Put three heavy, large ungreased baking sheets in the refrigerator.

2. In a food processor fitted with the metal chopping blade, process the pecans with 1 cup of the flour for 30 to 45 seconds, or until the mixture is ground to a fine powder. Add the remaining 1¼ cups flour, granulated sugar confectioners' sugar and salt. Process for 10 to 15 seconds, or until the mixture is thoroughly blended.

3. Evenly distribute the butter cubes in a circle around the chopping blade. Add the egg and vanilla. Process for 45 to 60 seconds, or until the mixture is creamy. Make sure that the butter is completely blended into the batter.)

4. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a closed star tip (such as Ateco #4) with one-fourth of the cookie dough. (Slightly pry open the teeth on the end of the pastry tip so that any small nut particles do not get caught between the points as you pipe.) 5. Remove a chilled baking sheet from the refrigerator. Starting at the left-hand side of the midsection of the baking sheet, pipe 2-inch crescents about 2 inches apart across the center of the baking sheet.

(This will enable you to pipe straight and even lines across the baking sheet.) Continue piping until the bottom half the baking sheet is covered with piped cookies. Turn the baking sheet 180 degrees and continue piping crescents onto the other half of the baking sheet.

6. Refrigerate the baking sheet for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the piped cookie dough is firm. Pipe the rest of the cookie dough onto the remaining chilled baking sheets and refrigerate.

7. Bake the cookies one baking sheet at a time for 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Turn the baking sheet half way through baking for even browning. Using a metal pancake spatula, immediately transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool.

Coat the cookies:

8. Melt the milk chocolate according to the melting instructions in the Chocolate Key OR temper the chocolate following the tempering instructions on page 72. Scrape the melted or tempered chocolate into a small heatproof bowl. Place the bowl of chocolate over a smaller bowl of warm (86~F to 88~F) water.

9. Dip the two ends of the cookies halfway into the melted or tempered chocolate. Place the cookies on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the chocolate is set. Store the cookies dipped in melted chocolate in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. The cookies coated in tempered chocolate may be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 weeks.

Source: Chocolatier magazine, January 1991 FROM: Sallie (Austin) Krebs PREPARATION: 1 ½ hours plus baking chilling and cooling times. Cookie dough: From: Pat Stockett Date: 06-02-95 (159) Fido: Cooking

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