Recently, while visiting our friends in North Carolina, we were privileged to have dinner at Magnolia Grill, one of Gourmet magazine’s top restaurants of 2006. After appetizers, entrees, and desserts, we can now all enthusiastically attest to its goodness. As an added bonus, I was treated by our friends to a signed copy of one of their cookbooks, Sweet Stuff, all wrapped up in that night’s dessert menu. Karen Barker, the author of the book and co-owner of the restaurant, is a James Beard Award winning pastry chef, a well-deserving one in my opinion.
There are so many recipes in this book that I want to try that narrowing them down has been a lot of work. After much deliberation, my love of pecans prevailed, and I decided to make her Pecan Shortbreads.
One of my favorite things about Sweet Stuff is that with every recipe there are serving suggestions and variations. For these cookies, one of the options is to form the dough into a 1 & 1/2-inch diameter log for making slice-and-bake cookies. The suggestion I took was to garnish with melted semi-sweet chocolate. However, instead of dipping the cookies, I just rolled the outside edges in the chocolate.
I love these cookies. They are now on my short list of all-time favorite cookies. They are very delicate and almost wafer-like. I almost hesitate to say that they melt in your mouth because that has become such an over-used phrase. It is actually true, though, in this case.
As for the cookbook, I will certainly be revisiting it sooner rather than later. As for Magnolia Grill, I look forward to being back in the area to enjoy another fantastic dinner (but especially dessert).
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June 7th, 2007 at 2:26 am
They look extremely yummy! I love pecans, so those shortbreads are making me drool…
June 7th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
I’m not into shortbread, but anything dipped in chocolate- now thats another story. I love your icebox cake…what exactly is an icebox cake? How is the texture different? I have lots of recipes for them but haven’t tried one yet.
June 9th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
I love both shortbread cookie and pecan. Have never thought of adding pecan into shortbread. Gotta try to make it!
June 12th, 2007 at 1:21 am
Wow, they look amazing. I love pecans, so throw in chocolate and you’ve got the perfect combination.
I’m a huge fan of your blog and was wondering if it’s okay if I link to you from my new blog Heave With Strawberries?
June 12th, 2007 at 1:23 am
Sorry, that was meant to be http://www.heavenwithstrawberries.blogspot.com. >_
June 18th, 2007 at 3:14 am
These shortbreads look wonderful! And the pecan seems to be a perfect addition to the buttery dough!
June 23rd, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Yum! These look delicious. I recently found your blog and have enjoyed browsing the archives. Unfortunately I recently had to eliminate sugar from my diet for health reasons, but hopefully that’s a temporary change… your recipes are definitely calling my name!
September 6th, 2007 at 8:42 am
LOVE your blog and added it to my list of daily blog reads. This recipe caught my eye immediately – I adore anything with a pecan in, on, around it. Ha!
Tanya
March 23rd, 2009 at 9:14 am
Made these into refrigerator cookies, then sprinkled them lightly w/sugar.
Was going to drizzle chocolate on them, but they were so delicious, they didn’t need that extra hit of chocolate!
I agree, this goes into “favorites file” – thanks for sharing!