rejected, dejected, delighted- pecan shortbread cookie {sms}

Beurrista was created a month ago for the sole purpose of joining an online baking club, Tuesdays with Dorie.  You would understand my chagrin, when three days after I contacted them, they posted that they had closed their door to new members.  I sent a follow-up email pleading my cause, but it was radio silence on their end. REJECTED by my raison d'etre.

After moping around for a few weeks and suffering a malaise not felt since high school, I googled "online baking club" and found Sweet Melissa Sundays.  The club is baking through The Sweet Melissa Baking Book, by Melissa Murphy, chef and co-owner of Sweet Melissa Patisserie in Brooklyn, NY.  I will one day a take the two-bridge trip over to her shop, but in the meanwhile, this post is my entry into the club.  

The recipe this Sunday, chosen by Lara of The Lab,  is Pecan Shortbread Cookies.  I had all six ingredients on hand and only needed to finely chop the pecans.

As I've been on overdrive with baking this past week, I halved the recipe, so all 18 cookies fit onto one sheet. There were two changes- use of electric mixer (Melissa uses food processor) and oven temperature. I was in a rush and baked the sheet at 350ºF for 21 minutes instead of the recommended 325ºF.  Perhaps that 25º temperature difference made some of the cookies spread out faster. (See the cookie second from left.)

As Melissa explains in her cookbook, the recipe is basically a Mexican Wedding Cake/Russian Tea Cake recipe.  (I call them Snowballs at Christmastime.)  I hewed to the recipe, though in the past I've tried variations including mini chocolate chips, toffee bits or butterscotch chips.  I personally love pecans (and should have toasted them first for extra flavor depth), but The Kids don't, so I guess I'll be eating this whole batch myself.

The cookies were buttery and nutty.  I like the added texture that the pecans bring the cookie. They're delightful!