TWD: Brown Sugar – Pecan Shortbread Cookies

This week’s TWD was chosen by Mari of Mevrouw Cupcake: creme brulee! A great classic dessert selection but there was a problem. I don’t have a torch to make brulee nor did I want to spend money on buying one since I knew it would probably never get used again. There were also instructions for making the brulee under the broiler, but those scared me a bit. Finally, I must confess that I’ve never had creme brulee…it’s just never appealed to me for dessert when we’re out since there are always menu options that I’m more familiar with. Based on what I’ve read about it this week however, I definitely need to try it soon!

Luckily, we were given the option to do one of the past recipes instead of the brulee. I chose these brown sugar-pecan shortbread cookies because (a) they looked easy and (b) generally I really like any cookie with a brown sugar base. These were the very first recipe completed by TWD back when there were only a few members. I ran into a minor problem with my cookies. For some reason, they spread a ton in the oven (i.e. they were essentially one big cookie by the time they finished baking)! It may have been because I hadn’t rolled them thin enough, but I’m not sure. In any event, my cookies don’t look anywhere near as pretty as the picture in the book. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the taste. They were almost too sweet and mine seemed greasy. I suppose 2 sticks of butter will do that, but I’ve made shortbread in the past, and they didn’t seem at all greasy.

I’m glad I tried these because I’ve been meaning to do so for a while, but I probably won’t be making them again anytime soon. The recipe for these shortbread cookies can be found here. Be sure to check out the TWD blogroll if you want to see some fabulous looking creme brulee!