Some people have a soft spot for sweets; others lean on liquor. In my grandma’s kitchen, you didn’t have to choose.
The recipe for Grandma Sarah’s “Butter Pecan Whiskey Cookies” is a bite of bittersweet family history. I found it by accident, scribbled on the back of an old, voided check that bears the names of my uncles Shel and Bernie—two men, who for most of my life, never spoke a single word to each other.
I was too young to remember their business-deal-gone-wrong—the vague stuff of family legend—but I’m sure it had something to do with this check.
But even if history shows that family and finances don’t mix well, alcohol and food certainly do. Rum pudding, penne a la vodka, bourbon-glazed ribs! —the many successful partnerships of spirits and food are storied and delicious.
No wonder: alcohol, is a wonderfully efficient vehicle for flavor. For years, I took for granted that the vanilla I baked with was extracted and preserved with the help of alcohol. Put simply, whiskey (or “whisky” in its native Scotland) is a spirit that carries the flavor of malted grain. And as a cookie ingredient, it serves a similar purpose as vanilla.
Two tablespoons of whiskey in a batch of butter cookies won’t get you tipsy, but the alcohol will (mostly) burn off and leave behind a subtle malty flavor that blends nicely with butter and pecan.
So … let’s raise a glass! To long weekends, old family recipes and baking with bourbon (or Scotch).
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butter pecan whiskey cookies (adapted)
8 ounces butter, slightly softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons whiskey
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup ground pecans
Directions
- Preheat oven to 360 degrees.
- Cream butter and sugar well in a large bowl. Beat in egg and whiskey.
- Blend flour and pecans separately and mix into wet ingredients until a sticky dough forms.
- Roll out dough onto a well-floured surface, until it reaches about 1/4-inch thickness. Sprinkle more flour on top if needed.
- Cut out desired shapes and bake on a parchment lined baking sheet until just golden brown around the edges, about 12-15 minutes. The cookies will continue to bake and harden as they cool. Cheers!
