December 28, 2012 - 3:38pm
Bouchon Bakery - Pecan Sandies
This dough went together quickly. About an hour from start to cookie. I baked in a 325 degree oven for 16 min, rotating pan at the 8 minute mark. I measured everything to the exact gram. The dough seemed really crumbly. I looked at the pic of him smushing the cookie and his dough doesnt seem as crumbly as mine. Next time I make them, which will be later tonight, I will use more butter. Interesting in that the dough has no salt, but tastes good. I rough chopped the pecans. Next time I want to chop them a little more. I had a big chunck in my cookie and it gave a chewy texture that was a bit off-putting.
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I increased the butter by 30 grams. The dough came together better and shaped easier. Was slightly crumbly, but held its shape. The resulting cookie was still crisp and had better texture. The first ones were more grainy compared to the second batch. Everything else stayed the same. The dryness of the first batch could be due to the winter weather. Summertime I could probaly cut the butter back to the recipe amount.
I love Pecans more than anything so these are right up my alley.
Thanks for posting. They look perfect and I'm sure taste great!
Happy New Year.
Ian
I am posting the link to amazon for the book. If you click the look inside feature and scroll about to the 6 or 7 page there is the recipe for the pecan sandies. I dont want to post the recipe here but if its posted elsewhere thats not on me.
http://www.amazon.com/Bouchon-Bakery-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579654355/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356803278&sr=8-1&keywords=bouchon+bakery
Thanks for the link to the book. My wife is waiting for it to come out on Kindle. Looks like a worthwhile book. I need a bigger house to hold all of our cookbooks though!
Delicious cookies, love pecans, they look fine to me both batches, but its all in how you like them. Does it ask for unsalted butter, I never use that, always just the regular butter from the store, it doesn't seem to affect the taste, really.
Interestinly this recipe does not have any salt in it. Butter is always unsalted unless specified. Taste is very good you wouldnt know its salt free.
we are restricted to buying at the supermarket, no Plugra or fancy butters, and the unsalted is sometimes a dollar a pound more than unsalted same company which is a pain since the butter is not salted while making and salt is added as the last step after washing! Hello??? But sad to say economics is greater than recipe requirements, so its always salted in my life.
I just went and checked my pricing. It turns out that I pay the same price for butter whether its salted or unsalted. I can purchase Pulgra but its really expensive. Have you tried sourcing butter from other places?
roughtly 14,000 people in far North East BC, Canada, we have three grocery stores and a wholesale cash and carry, they only stock the regular butters, the best is Lactancia, and that is usually a $6 cost for the salted and $6.50- 7 for the unsalted, its packaged in sticks. Everything else is $5, for the Safeway cheap and up, or maybe 3.99 for the Walmart, and Extra Foods cheap ones. Nothing else is available, the co-op is in line with these prices, and the brands are mostly the same. Nearest larger center is 80 miles one way, 300 the other through a mountain pass that is closed sometimes by avalanches, and the nearest larger center is over 450 miles by road and worse by air fare! Can't find anything but the regular butter at Costco either and its just as expensive as the grocery stores. Same brands too!
So its whatever I can find, I just about died at Christmas the 3 pound packages of lard were $9 and it used to be much cheaper! Even the local brand from the packing plant in town is expensive, and I don't buy Crisco or other "shortenings" as most of them now have Canola oil in and I'm allergic to it.
I will not buy margerine of any kind either. Which believe it or not isn't that much cheaper than real butter! Maybe a dollar a pound for the most expensive and buck fifty for the cheapest brands. Half of them are now sporting Canola oil in the list of ingredients as well as I just never have liked margerine.
...at least for baking cookies. Great on bread, but I did a test with it when it (Plugra) first came out, and before it was bought up, and made shortbreads with it, and they are very slightly better, but only barely noticeable. And soon after that David Rosengarten did an article on several of the brands, used in several recipes - cookies, pastry, hollandaise, and something else (this was ~10 years ago!), and the cookies were rated barely better, though some of the brands also rated a little better than others. This made me feel better, as I wasn't imagining things when it seemed that the flavor baked out.
Hey if its on Kindle then it won't take up space, you have to be flexible and techie these days!
My wife bought the book for me thinking I wanted it since I talked so much about your posts! Little did she know I wanted it for her to make me all the desserts! I do bread and she does cakes and cookies which makes for a happy marriage. She tried making a bread a little while ago and has decided to stick to cakes :).
My post is a little late but, good to hear you have the book. I have gotten a small errata sheet going which I will post in its own thread soon and keep updated. I started working on the bread section so you can join in.