Ruth B's "Just a Little Pecan Cookie"

Name: Ruth B's "Just a Little Pecan Cookie"
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 60 cookies
Ingredients: 1 cup light brown sugar; 1/2 cup salted butter (about room temperature); 1 egg (about room temperature); 1 tablespoon molasses; 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract; 1 cup self-rising flour; 1/2 cup coarse pecan meal (use the broken pecans); 1/4 teaspoon baking powder; 1/4 teaspoon baking soda; 60 pecan halves, to top cookies (select the nice ones)

Submitted by grantg

"No matter what you call them, these simple little cookies will be hard to eat just one! Asking for the recipe for over 30 years was met with "NO, BUT it's just a little...!" This is where it got interesting... pecan cookie, sugar cookie, brown sugar cookie, molasses cookie... and then the unrecognized key: it really was an accident when making another recipe...??? After searching for years off and on, a few dozen failures trying various recipes to discover the secrets to this little gem, the BREAKTHROUGH came when a cookie TASTED similar but LOOKED totally different. MAKE THE MISTAKE and adjust the rest! So here it is... ENJOY this chewy but crunchy little pecan cookie with just a hint of "praline" lurking in its taste!"

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Ready In:: 1hr 30mins
Ingredients:: 10
Yields:: 60 cookies

ingredients

1 cup light brown sugar
¹⁄₂ cup salted butter (about room temperature)
1 egg (about room temperature)
1 tablespoon molasses
¹⁄₂ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup self-rising flour
¹⁄₂ cup coarse pecan meal (use the broken pecans)
¹⁄₄ teaspoon baking powder
¹⁄₄ teaspoon baking soda
60 pecan halves, to top cookies (select the nice ones)

directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cut parchment liners to fit cookie sheets.
Pulse 1/2 cup (plus a few extra) broken halves or chopped pecans in a food chopper or processor to make 1/2 cup coarse pecan meal.
Combine 1 cup self-rising flour,1/2 cup pecan meal, 1/4 t baking powder, & 1/4 t baking soda in a small mixing bowl and set aside.
Cream the butter and sugar in a medium mixing bowl with a hand mixer scraping down sides until well mixed. Add egg, molasses, and vanilla. Mix well into the butter sugar blend, again scraping sides down and mixing well.
Stir in about one-half the flour mixture using low speed on the mixer( to keep from creating a flour cloud). Then add the second half, stirring again until thoroughly blended. May need to scrape down the sides one more time.
Place small balls of soft cookie dough on parchment paper lined cookie sheets -- the balls should be about 1/2-ince in diameter. Then gently press a nice pecan half onto the top of each ball flattening them slightly. These cookies will spread to about 2 inches in diameter as they bake & the pecan will roast. This requires a bit of patience to keep from having dough balls & cookies too large for one pecan half topper. Chilling dough an hour will reduce cookie spread during cooking & make handling the dough easier.
Bake cookies at 350 F for 12-13 minutes until medium brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes, slide parchment sheet onto a wire rack to cool another few minutes, gently remove cookies from parchment paper, and cool completely on wire rack. Then transfer to an airtight container when cool. For a more chewy cookie, reduce the cooking time to about 10-11 minutes.
These cookies will be more chewy when first removed from oven, but will become chewy-crisp when cooled. (1/2-inch dough balls, yield = 60 2-inch cookies -- or -- 3/4-inch dough balls, yield = 36 2 1/2-inch cookies) Cooking time will vary depending on how many sheets your oven can accommodate at a time, Cooking time given is for using ONE SHEET of 12-16 at a time.