Vintage Pecan Icebox Cookies

These Vintage Pecan Icebox Cookies are made from a tried-and-true classic recipe from Imperial Sugar Pure Cane Sugar. The dough is chilled (or frozen) before baking so you can slice and bake as needed. 

Growing up in Houston, the only sugar we would ever buy was refined from pure cane syrup about 10 miles from my childhood home in a little town called, appropriately, Sugar Land. (The two-word name is one way we separate Texas transplants from locals, as newcomers tend to want to write it, Sugarland. It’s an amusing test.) 

Starting with a single sugar mill back in 1843 and then incorporated in 1905, Imperial Sugar is still my sugar of choice for all the varieties but nowadays it’s no longer a family enterprise. It is run as a subsidiary of United States Sugar Corporation. Thankfully, quality remains high though.

Over the years, Imperial Sugar produced many cookbooks, often in collaboration with the Parent-Teacher Association of Sugar Land as fundraisers. The 48-page promotional cookbook - A Bag Full of Recipes, 1930 edition - this recipe was adapted from was one of those, featuring classic household recipes and baking tips. 

Icebox cookies were a homemaker's ace-in-the-hole for unexpected guests! Kept chilled, they could be baked at a moment's notice. These days, we can freeze the dough and keep it fresh even longer. 

All of the Imperial Sugar vintage cookbooks are available for download on the Imperial Sugar website here: https://imperialsugar.com/vintage-cookbooks/ Such a motherload of vintage recipes! 

Vintage Pecan Icebox Cookies

It is essential that you roll, wrap and chill this dough for at least three hours before slicing to bake the cookies, because they will spread out. The dough can be frozen, well-wrapped, for a couple of months. This makes about 3-4 dozen 2-inch cookies, depending on your slicing. 

Ingredients

½ cup or 60g chopped pecans 

½ cup or 113g unsalted butter, at room temperature 

¾ cup, tightly packed, or 150g dark brown sugar 

1 large egg 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1 ¼ cups or 156g flour 

½ teaspoon fine sea salt 

¼ teaspoon baking soda 

Optional for decoration: pecan halves

For wrapping the dough:

Baking parchment or waxed paper

Method

Place the chopped pecans in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. 

Add the butter and brown sugar and pulse to combine. 

Add the egg and vanilla and pulse until combined. 

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, salt, and baking soda. 

Turn the flour mixture into the food processor and pulse until smooth. 

Tear off a sheet of waxed or parchment paper about 15 inches long. Spoon the dough onto the paper and roll into a log about 15 inches or 38cm long. 

Wrap the dough up and chill for at least three hours or preferably overnight. (You can also store the log in the freezer in a zipper-top bag for up to 3 months.) 

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375ºF or 190°C, with a rack in the middle. 

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll it back and forth on the counter until it is about 1½ inches in diameter. Mine was a challenge to roll into a neat round tube. Is my fridge too cold? Who knows! I just wish I had rolled it more round before chilling! You should. 

Slice the dough roll into circles just under 1cm or ½ inch thick.

Arrange them on a silicone- or parchment-lined baking pan, at least 1 inch or 2cm apart.

If desired, press a pecan half into each round. I like to do this because 1. If someone has a nut allergy, it’s an immediate red flag that says: Do NOT eat, and 2. They are prettier with a pecan on top! 

Bake, one pan at a time, until the cookies are golden brown and crispy around the edges, about 8 minutes. 

Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

Repeat with the remaining dough, cooling the pans between batches. Alternatively, as mentioned above, it can be frozen, well-wrapped, for a few months. Slice and bake at will! 

Store the cookies for up to a week in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing cookie recipes, just ‘cause we want to. Because who doesn’t want more cookie recipes? Exactly no one. Many thanks to our host, Karen of Karen’s Kitchen Stories. Check out the links below. 

• Candied Orange Peel Chocolate Chip Cookies from Amy’s Cooking Adventures 
• Cottage Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies from A Good Life
• Eggless Wholewheat Custard Powder Coconut Cookies from Sizzling Tastebuds 
• Fig Newton Swirl Cookies from A Messy Kitchen 
• Frosted Cake Cookies from Karen’s Kitchen Stories 
• Peaches and Cream Rustic Thumbprint Cookies from Faith Hope Luck and Love Despite a Whiskered Accomplice 
• Ragi Nankatai from Sneha’s Recipe 
• Strawberry Cake Mix Chocolate Chip Cookies from A Day in the Life on the Farm 
• Thandai Cookies from Mayuri’s Jikoni 
• Tropical Treat Gluten Free Cookies from Sid’s Sea Palm Cookies
• Vintage Pecan Icebox Cookies from Food Lust People Love 

 

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