Saturday, May 30, 2009

The Macallan Scotch Brown Sugar Pecan Shortbread



Here in blogland, you don’t have to reach for shortbread. Shortbread will float peacefully into your mouth. Calorie free and full of flavor you can just crunch munch munch until your cookie desires are filled. Ah yes, blogland is indeed a happy place.

If only that were true, then I would eat these buttery, crunchy cookies all day long! Scotch and brown sugar together add a wonderful deep rich brightness to this shortbread. Purchase a little sample bottle of The Macallan Scotch for under five dollars and you’ll get five or six batches out of it.

Ingredients
½ cup pecans
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ sticks (10 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup brown sugar (the fresher the better)
1 Tablespoon Macallan Single Malt Scotch
2 teaspoons real vanilla extract

Topping
½ cup coarsely chopped pecans
1 Tablespoon coarse sugar

Instructions
1. Place the oven rack on the lower third and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a 9 inch square baking pan with foil and brush lightly with butter. You want to be able to lift the bars out by the foil edges.

2. Process the pecans, flour, and salt together in a food processor until pecans are finely ground. Set aside.

3. In a stand mixer beat the butter for a minute until creamy. Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, scotch, and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes until the texture is light and fluffy.

4. At low speed mix in the flour half at a time until just combined. Be careful not to over mix.

5. Dump the dough into the baking pan and spread out evenly. Press gently with the back of a dry mixing cup to even out the dough a little.

6. Sprinkle the top with the chopped pecans and then the coarse sugar.

7. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until lightly golden brown around the edges.

8. Remove from the oven and set the timer for exactly 15 minutes. After the timer goes off, grab the edges of the foil and move the shortbread to a very nearby cutting surface and cut into squares. Move the bars to a cooling rack and finish cooling.

Notes: I found the coarse sugar at Michaels.

Recipe by Laura Flowers


17 comments:

Sherri Murphy said...

This looks D I V I N E!

Risa said...

I wish claorie fee blog land was real! I would go to town on these little cookies. They look amazing. I love anything with pecans and brown sugar.

Ciao Chow Linda said...

Well now, this is a new one - scotch in cookies. I'm not a scotch lover but these shortbreads look irresistible.

Heather S-G said...

Um, YES. These sound amazing...I bet that Scotch adds just the perfect depth to this shortbread. Bookmarked. :)

Mary Bergfeld said...

This is making me seriously question my personal aversion to sweets. You've made even shortbread look gorgeous, Laura.

Patricia @ ButterYum said...

I don't have any Scotch, but I think I'll make a variation on these - mind if I post about it?

The Cooking Photographer said...

Go ahead Patricia, I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Altered Glass said...

oh my, these look delicious and I have everything but the scotch. Maybe I will check with ButterYum and see what she is doing different. I love both your posts. I actually just picked up everything so I could binge on the Rolo recipe you shared. I will let you know how those go over.

Ninette said...

Wow, these look lovely!

Donna-FFW said...

OK I am seriously in love with this shortbread.

Elizabeth said...

My husband loves Macallan - it is his scotch of choice. I need to give these a try!

Creative Classroom Core said...

These sound heavenly! I love shortbread!

Jamie said...

Five batches? And not one calorie? Yay! They do look both beautiful and scrumptious!

Anonymous said...

scotch & shortbread...my God, woman, you are a genius!

Anonymous said...

Hello! I was sniffing around for baking recipes that included scotch (have a big ol' bottle of Glenmorganie) and baked this off!

Didn't use the topping, and didn't need it! The scotch adds so much DEPTH and flavor! This is fantastic, thanks for sharing!

The Cooking Photographer said...

I am so glad you like my shortbread! Thank-you for telling me. :)

Laura

Ryan said...

I have been looking around my town for a sample bottle of Macallan scotch and I can't seem to find one. What would be a good substitute scotch?

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