The Dutch Pecan Sandies

No, not Dutch pecan Sandies. “The Dutch” ones. There’s a place in New York called The Dutch and these cookies are from there. I messed up the recipe at least twice, but these still disappeared quickly at two board games birthday parties that I attended this past weekend. The first one was for my friend Gilad, and he was pleased to be on the receiving end of a bonus dessert delivery, a few months after his contract expired. 😉

The first place I messed up was that I think I let the food processor go just a bit too long when it came to chopping the pecans “coarsely” as they were mixed into the flour. I ended up with something more like pecan flour than coarsely chopped pecans.

I poked the browned butter to make sure it was solid but still soft. Not to stick my finger in and taste it. Of course not.

After mixing up the browned butter, brown sugar, turbinado sugar, salt, and vanilla bean paste, I didn’t stuck my finger in again, and didn’t tasted it. It wasn’t anything like the best thing I’d ever tasted. I came “this close” to going for a spoon and saying, “cookies be damned.” But, I really wanted to bring a “dessert of the month” to Gilad, so I figured I could make this as a butter cream some other time. Probably on a fudgy chocolate cake. Oh, I so need to make that. And then go for a 10km run or 5.

The second place I messed up was in not reading the cinnamon-sugar topping properly. This 2 ingredient component might sound difficult to screw up, but you can do it if you use 3 ingredients.  I didn’t think it made a lot of sense to try to coat these cookies with a mixture that included turbinado sugar, but I forged on ahead regardless, trusting in The Bible. I probably should have read it a second time. You coat the cookies (both sides) with cinnamon+granulated sugar, then sprinkle turbinado on top. The way I did it, the turbinado interfered with the coating process rather terribly. Oops.

The cookies were delicious, but honestly, a bit of a let down after the salted caramel buttery goodness that was stage 2 of the proto-cookie.  They were also super crumbly, though I’m sure that was due to using pecan flour instead of chopped pecans. Oops. I should make these again, only skip the pecans. And flour. And rolling. And sugar coating. And baking. Probably can’t mess that up. 😉