Week 1 - Pecan Sandies (Page 10)
- Kristen
- Jan 17, 2021
- 5 min read
Updated: Jan 20, 2021
And we're off! The first week's post! Not all my posts will be this detailed but I had time to do a little extra this week so I went for it!
To skip my sappy babble and get to the food, click here.
To jump to my variation of the recipe, click here.
To jump to the photos, click here.
To skip all my babble and get to the conclusion, click here.
Check out Jenn's post of this cookie here!
Every time I try to start blogging, I always feel like the first post needs to be extra...something. What's different this time is that this blog isn't my own. I've partnered up with Jenn - an incredible human being who just so happens to also be an incredible baker! That in itself is very special to me so I'll keep this intro short and sweet.
The first recipe is hidden in the intro section of the book, prefacing the recipe with a dedication to Thomas Keller's mother, Betty Keller.
"Food is a powerful connecter of who we are to who we were, to our past, to our memories, and, for me, to a different and simpler time. Even the smallest thing - a cookie - can help us understand what we feel now while reminding us of what we once felt and who we've become versus who we were then. So much of who I am today is tied to who my mom was, the choices she made, the way she worked, and how she lived her life. What success I have today, I owe to her."
- Thomas Keller, Bouchon Bakery
So often we take for granted the people who are the most significant in our lives - parents, siblings, friends. It's nice to have reminders like these to reach out, even just to send a quick "hello!" text to check in and see how they're doing. A little can go a long way - just like the four ingredients in this recipe!
"Pecan Sandies for My Mom" - The original recipe
What a great way to start the book! The ingredients are simple and easy to find and the process is also simple with little room for error.
The only part I struggled with was getting the cookies into a ball. I had to repeatedly squeeze the dough in my hands to soften the butter before they would hold together for me. I couldn't roll them into a ball the way Keller shows he does in the book.
I followed the recipe exactly as it is in the book for the first and second round of baking - one round with the standard oven setting and the other with the convection setting.
My observations:
These cookies didn't spread much in the oven for me regardless of which oven setting I used.
Cookies baked with the standard oven setting browned much more than the cookies baked with the convection oven setting.
Cookies baked with the convection oven setting stayed relatively pale but did get a little bit of browning on the edges. Jenn made this recipe first and mentioned that she let them bake for a little longer to try achieving more colour but that may have led to over-baking so I pulled them out when I noticed browning on the edges.
My fellow guinea pig, H, sampled these cookies with me.
Our conclusions:
We both preferred the cookies baked with the convection setting because of the bite it had in comparison to the cookies baked with the standard oven setting.
Both versions of the Sandies were very crispy in a crumbly sort of way with no hint of chewiness whatsoever. That's not a bad thing, just something to note.
The pecans were noticeable because of their texture not because of their taste.*
The cookie looked and tasted like a cookie but it was lacking flavour to us.
*The original recipe doesn't specify whether or not the pecans should be roasted or not so I went with pecans that were raw as I figured Keller would specify if they should be roasted.
Photos of the process:
Pecan Sandies - My variation
With all due respect to Thomas Keller and why this cookie is so important to him, I couldn't help but play with the recipe a little. In my opinion, there was a relatively low amount of sugar, the nuts weren't brought to their full potential and it lacked a bit of depth in flavour. All that being said, this is still a decent cookie. It is simple. And simple is *not* bad.
I made this recipe again with a few tweaks:
Toasted pecans instead of raw pecans.
Addition of vanilla bean paste
Addition of maple syrup
*I meant to add salt but forgot so I tried to make up for it below*
Before baking these cookies all with the convection oven setting (because I like pale cookies), I played around just a bit more and made 4 different variations by sprinkling the tops:
Plain, with jus the tweaks mentioned above
Maldon Sea Salt Flakes
Pearl Sugar
Pearl Sugar and Maldon Sea Salt Flakes
The addition of a few more simple ingredients brought out the flavour of what a Pecan Sandie should taste like when I hear Pecan Sandies.
Toasting the pecans definitely brought out their flavour and gave them a slightly different texture.
Adding vanilla bean paste made the cookies smell and taste a bit brighter without overpowering the pecans.
Adding maple syrup perked up the sweetness level a tiny bit which brought down the taste of a mouthful of flour.
The vanilla bean paste and the maple syrup both helped with the depth of flavour I felt was missing in the original recipe. Next time, I would use a darker maple syrup for more depth. The cookie was still missing something.
The Maldon Sea Salt Flakes helped bring out the flavours and even out the taste of the cookie overall but left a bit of saltiness on the lips. Next time, I would incorporate salt into the mixed dough.
The Pearl Sugar gave the cookie another subtle texture and obviously contributed to a slightly sweeter cookie.
Top two cookies, left: original recipe, standard oven baked. Top two cookies, right: original recipe, convection oven baked.
Middle row, all original recipe: 1) standard oven baked, 2) standard oven baked sprinkled with icing sugar, 3) convection baked, 4) convection baked sprinkled with icing sugar
Bottom Row, all my variation: 1) plain, 2) sprinkled with Maldon Sea Salt Flakes, 3) sprinkled with Pearl Sugar, 4) sprinkled with Maldon Sea Salt Flakes and Pearl Sugar
TL;DR Conclusion:
The original cookie is a decent, simple cookie. A good place for beginners to start!
The variation cookie with Maldon Sea Salt Flakes *and* the Pearl Sugar together made for a pretty darn good cookie but it's still not as good as I want it to be. I'd still like to try this recipe again with a few small adjustments.
Thanks for reading! Can't wait for week 2!
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