Part of the Christmas series featuring Flour & Co Bakers and their favorite holiday recipes.
As a continuation of the 2017 holiday series featuring my talented Flour & Co baking team (read our collaborative Thanksgiving post), I’ve roped in six of my favorite bakers from over the years to reminisce about surviving the holidays in a demanding professional kitchen, and to share their cherished Christmas recipes. Kelly is sharing a family holiday heirloom, Pecan Crescent Cookies.
Meet Kelly! I’ve always been open to hiring people without professional experience. I can tell a lot about a person just by how they represent themselves in their resume and through their communication. Kelly was one of those people who applied for a baker position because she loved baking at home, but had no professional experience. Kelly’s positive attitude and outward passion towards the craft sold me on her.
Kelly rocked it, and soon became a supervisor, and kitchen go-to. I have to note, as well, that she wasn’t thrown into an established kitchen as her first job, but she was thrown into a brand new kitchen with the task of baking for two locations (new one and the original location). There were lots of ups and downs, as well as unknowns. Kelly has an eye for detail and is a perfectionist. She’s down in my book as the one who made the most perfect and consistent sticky buns. That, in and of itself, is a quite an accomplishment!
Q&A with Kelly ~
Why/how was your experience at Flour & Co significant to you? It was fresh start and the most fun I’ve ever had at work.
Describe Flour & Co at the holidays. A haze of flour and confectioner’s sugar.
What was the hardest part about working in the kitchen during the holidays? Never enough pie crusts. Or walnuts.
What do you miss most about Flour & Co? A team that felt like family (and Stumptown lattes).
If you could put together your favorite Christmas dessert table, what would be on it? Cutout frosted sugar cookies, peanut butter Hershey Kiss cookies, Black Forest cookies, sour cream cookies, toffee cookies, meringues, macarons…
I love holiday baking because…It’s the one time of year you have good reason to spontaneously gift friends, family, coworkers, neighbors etc. with baked goods whenever you feel like it.
What’s your favorite family tradition for Christmas? Watching all those old claymation Christmas movies on TV. The favorites are Rudolph, Frosty, and Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town (Grinch doesn’t really count as one of those but it makes the Top 5).
Why are you sharing this recipe? This recipe was handed down to me by my grandmother, aka Babi. To say that it’s a classic staple in our cookie boxes every Christmas is an understatement. This recipe is one of the simplest I’ve ever made–it can literally be done with just a bowl and wooden spoon. And yet these cookies are so melt-in-your-mouth delicious you’d think they’re some fancy confection. But the simplicity of it all is the best part. Babi’s secret to making these pecan cookies so fantastic was to painstakingly shape the dough into crescent moons and roll them in confectioner’s sugar twice–once while they’re still warm and once when they’ve cooled. We haven’t changed a thing from her original version of the recipe. Except maybe the spelling.
Pecan Crescent Cookies
This recipe was handed down to me by my grandmother, aka Babi. To say that it’s a classic staple in our cookie boxes every Christmas is an understatement. This recipe is one of the simplest I’ve ever made–it can literally be done with just a bowl and wooden spoon. And yet these cookies are so melt-in-your-mouth delicious you’d think they’re some fancy confection. But the simplicity of it all is the best part. Babi’s secret to making these pecan cookies so fantastic was to painstakingly shape the dough into crescent moons and roll them in confectioner’s sugar twice–once while they’re still warm and once when they’ve cooled. We haven’t changed a thing from her original version of the recipe.
Ingredients
- 1 lb. (4 sticks) Unsalted Butter, room temperature
- ½ cup Confectioner’s Sugar, plus 1 cup for rolling
- 4 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
- 2 T Water
- 3 ½ cups Sifted All Purpose Flour
- 1 ½ cups Chopped Pecans (fine or coarse, depending on how crunchy you want the cookies to be. I like them very finely chopped, almost ground, so the cookies have a lighter texture)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats
- In a large bowl, whisk butter and ½ cup sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add vanilla and water and whisk until combined.
- Using a wooden spoon, fold in flour and pecans until just combined.
- Refrigerate dough at least two hours. It should be firm but malleable.
- Using a cookie scoop, portion out dough onto cookie sheets. Carefully (as these are prone to breakage) shape them into crescent moons by rolling them into slightly cylindrical shapes between your palms and pinching one side of the with your thumbs, then rounding the edges.
- Bake 20 minutes until edges just start to turn golden brown.
- Roll in confectioner’s sugar right after removing from oven. Let cool on racks.
- When cooled, dust cookies with more sugar using a fine mesh sieve.
Happy Holiday or Christmas baking! If you bake these Pecan Crescent Cookies, tag #kelly.bakes.cakes and #flourandco with your photo. We’d love to see your creations!
Also published on Medium.
