COOKIE CARNIVAL: PECAN PIE COOKIES!

November's Cookie Carnival recipe was PECAN PIE COOKIES.  OMG.  Yes.  Pecan pie cookies.  I thought Mr. J would faint (pecan pie is his fave!).  I was excited to try this recipe out, meant to do it for Thanksgiving, but alas, time slipped away from me.  But I got to them today :)

Thanks to Beantown Baker, Jen, for suggesting this to the group!

These cookies turned out quite well.  They weren't nearly as sweet as I thought they would be -- the use of brown sugar instead of white sugar I think helped quite a bit.  The balance between the sweetness of the topping (mmm yes, pecan pie all the way!) and the tenderness of the cookie was wonderful.  The cookies were almost like mini cakes -- very soft.  These were also very easy to make and didn't take a lot of time!  Definitely plan to make these again.

RECIPE: Pecan Pie Cookies

Cookie Ingredients:

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

Filling Ingredients:

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine all cookie ingredients except flour and baking powder in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until creamy. Reduce speed to low; add flour and baking powder. Beat until well mixed. (I followed Jen's suggestion and chilled my dough for about an hour before proceeding because my cookies do tend to spread!) 

Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Make indentation in each cookie with thumb; rotate thumb to hollow out slightly.

Combine all filling ingredients in small bowl; fill each cookie with 1 rounded teaspoon filling. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets.  (I would recommend cooling for longer -- mine fell apart when I first tried to take them off the cookie sheets, so I let them rest for ten more minutes).