Snack: Pecan Shortbread Easter Cookies

Fill your Easter baskets with our homemade buttery Pecan Shortbread Easter Cookies. Make these goodies extra special with royal icing, decorating to resemble your favorite bunny, chick, flower, or Easter eggs.

Ingredients

1/2 cup pecan halves
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 ºF. Toast nuts on a baking sheet until fragrant, 8 to 10 minutes, shaking sheet once halfway through. Transfer to a bowl to cool, then chop finely.
Using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until light, about 3 minutes. Mix in flour and salt on lowest speed until just combined. Stir in nuts. Divide dough into 2 portions; shape into 5-inch squares. Wrap in plastic; chill for at least 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 350 ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Let dough rest at room temperature until pliable enough to roll. On a lightly floured surface, roll out a square of dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Use a 3-inch cookie cutter to cut as many cookies as you can. Transfer to baking sheets, leaving about 1/2 inch between each cookie. Set aside scraps. Repeat with remaining dough. Combine scraps, re-roll and cut. If dough becomes too soft to roll, refrigerate briefly.
Bake cookies until dry on top but not brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes on baking sheets on wire racks, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.

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