Pecan Shortbread

Shortbread makes me nostalgic and it's the first thing I bake for the Christmas season. It's quick and easy and my Pecan Shortbread recipe is freezer friendly, so why not start your Christmas baking today!

Shortbread takes me straight back to Christmas Eve in my grandmother's kitchen. She'd be rolling dough and sprinkling flour like fairy dust and cutting shapes that delighted my young girl's heart. They were perfectly buttery, and they melted in your mouth in the most satisfying way.

Her recipe is my go-to recipe and this year I included a generous helping of toasted pecans to add extra texture and flavour. The result is delicious and perfect for any Christmas celebration.

I hope you enjoy this Pecan Shortbread recipe.

Shortbread should be pale in colour, have a crumbly texture, be neither crunchy nor soft but rather feel sandy and tender in the mouth. The high butter content makes them rich and sinful, and they're a rustic biscuit which feels both nostalgic and elegant - everyone's grandma made them, right?

The toasted pecans add extra flavour, and that yummy crunch. The pecans are toasted to release their natural oils, and when incorporated into the dough they add a gorgeous nutty flavor.

You can add any nuts you like, just make sure you toast them first to extract those oils and intensify the flavor.

Butter must be used at room temperature. If your butter is too hard it won't incorporate into the mixture easily, resulting in an overworked dough. Remember to be gentle with your dough and keep rolling to a minimum - use every available space and cut as many biscuits as you can without rerolling too many times.

Cutting out is the fun part, so go crazy with shapes. Cut trees, stars, hearts, candy canes - whatever you want. There are so many pretty biscuit cutters available and rolling pins that imprint the dough - have fun!

Use a light sprinkling of flour to dust your work surface - you don't want to add too much flour back to the dough - and I found metal biscuit cutters were better for slicing cleanly through the nuts.

Shortbread biscuits keep well at room temperature in an airtight container, but they also freeze well. You can start your Christmas baking now and defrost biscuits as the season progresses.

Use a freezer safe container, line the bottom with a single layer of biscuits, top with a sheet of baking paper and add another layer of biscuits - repeating until your container is full. Add a final sheet of baking paper and seal the container firmly.

This recipe makes anywhere from 18 to 30 biscuits, depending on what cutters you use, so make a few batches today, freeze them and you're got a head start on your Christmas baking.

There are many shortbread variations and recipes, but this Pecan Shortbread is our new favorite. The biscuits are deliciously fragrant, crunchy, rich, tender and a decadent start to the Christmas festivities.

To download the Pecan Shortbread recipe, simply click the link or right click on the photo below and save to your computer.