Pecan Puffs

For this month’s Random Recipe challenge Dom of Belleau Kitchen has asked us to select a recipe from our newest book – maybe one we got for Christmas. Now I'm not trying to be difficult but it's a few years since I bought a genuinely new cookery book and I don't really do the Christmas present thing. So I've interpreted this challenge a little freely. The book that's newest to me is one I bought from a charity bookstall – Sophie Grigson’s “Sophie’s Table” published back in 1990.

Opening the book at random I was faced with a recipe (originally an American recipe, in fact) for Pecan Puffs, which bizarrely enough I saw Ms Grigson cook on a TV show just a few weeks ago. So that means that she's been making these same biscuits for more than 20 years and you can't get a better recommendation than that. She describes them as “devastatingly good” and, having tried them I absolutely agree.

You can find the recipe here.
Pecan Puffs
You can replace the pecans with almonds, toasted hazelnuts or walnuts, although personally I love the pecan taste. I got around 45 small biscuits and they would have lasted about 45 minutes but I threatened myself with violence if I didn't stop eating them.

Comments

  1. Unknown11 January 2012 at 17:06

    oooh, they're adorable!... a little bit like my cinnamon balls methinks?... I love anything like this with a cloud of icing sugar on top so you cough at first bite... genius!... and you can interpret this challenge however you fancy, so long as you don't cheat when it comes to picking that recipe... thanks so much for taking part again, it is truly appreciated ... and Happy New Year (never to late to say that...)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Choclette11 January 2012 at 20:22

    Well I never. I cam across these on the Caked Crusader's site earlier this week and I thought then they sounded delectable. Now I know they are!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown11 January 2012 at 21:57

    Oh, they look fantastic! and no doubt addictive. Happy new year to you!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Baking Addict11 January 2012 at 23:03

    These look delicious! Love the cloud of icing sugar on top :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Vanessa @ Cakes and Teacups12 January 2012 at 00:18

    oh my : )

    ReplyDelete
  6. Please Do Not Feed The Animals.12 January 2012 at 11:32

    I really love nuts. Any nuts. These look so good. I'm glad you got a great recipe.
    We're fans of Sophie Grigson ourselves although actually we only have one of her books - the fish one.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Please Do Not Feed The Animals.12 January 2012 at 11:33

    Sorry - forgot to tick the box to email comments to me - I can't keep up if I don't.
    Is there a way to register for comments to be emailed without typing out a pointless comment?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Shu Han13 January 2012 at 09:22

    They look adorable! Love them! Also great that you got the recipe from a book that isn"t one of the latest around (read, Dan Lepard. He's genius, but have been seeing his name too much lately)! Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  9. GG13 January 2012 at 17:06

    I saw Sophie ~Grigson make these before Christmas and thought they looked delicious and then promptly forgot about them. I love pecans so they're definitly worth giving a go. Thanks for the reminder! GG

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous14 January 2012 at 09:51

    I am also a big fan of sophie Grigson! Her recipes rock!
    T
    hese cookies look delightful, Phil! I love pecans! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Brownieville Girl14 January 2012 at 11:24

    What sort of violence??????

    They look and sound so good it might have been worth it!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anna's kitchen table14 January 2012 at 15:33

    I don't think I'd be able to stop!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Chele15 January 2012 at 06:44

    Loving these little guys! They look and sound very addictive ;0)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Alida15 January 2012 at 21:37

    These little cakes look lovely, just my sort of thing and as I am typing my mouth is watering!There is a "southern flavour" in them. In the south of Italy we bake something similar with almonds.
    Beautiful recipes, I will follow you.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Phil in the Kitchen15 January 2012 at 23:35

    Thanks for the comments, everyone. Ms Grigson says that she makes these at Christmas time each year and I can see why.
    Alida - Thanks for following. I'd not thought about it before but now that you mention it, they are similar to some Italian sweet nibbles that I've had before.

    ReplyDelete
  16. MissCakeBaker21 January 2012 at 20:59

    These look yummy Phil. I think a biscuit a minute is perfectly acceptable!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anne22 January 2012 at 01:11

    I think I would have to threaten myself with violence too, pecans are my favourite type of nut!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Ruth Ellis30 January 2012 at 22:19

    These look so perfect - like fluffy white snowballs, though I'd imagine they taste a good bit more sinful!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Heather Woollove3 February 2012 at 08:05

    Hahahahaha..."threatened myself with violence"...yep...these were classic Christmas cookies while I was growing up and they are, indeed, hard to resist!
    I'm new to your blog and I am just charmed by it!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Heather Woollove3 February 2012 at 08:05

    Hahahahaha..."threatened myself with violence"...yep...these were classic Christmas cookies while I was growing up and they are, indeed, hard to resist!
    I'm new to your blog and I am just charmed by it!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Sorry but I've had to switch word verification on due to a vast amount of very depressing spam.

Popular posts from this blog

Palestine Soup

Image
Palestine soup has nothing whatever to do with Palestine. It seems to have been given that name because it’s made with Jerusalem artichokes. Jerusalem artichokes have nothing whatever to do with Jerusalem and aren't artichokes. Anything that odd just has to be good. In fact, it’s one of my favourite vegetable soups and it so happens that it’s also very easy to make and, thankfully, low in fat. I first came across Palestine soup in cookery books dating back to the early 1900s, but I think the dish is a fair bit older than that. Most recipes combine the Jerusalem artichokes with turnips or potatoes, which maintain the creamy white colour of the finished soup. I like to add carrot, which provides a nice touch of sweetness but does change the colour. (Unless you can find a heritage variety of white carrot). A few years ago, Mark Hix published a Palestine soup recipe with some hazelnuts added, inspired by Auguste Escoffier’s ‘Purée de Topinambour’. The hazelnuts enhance the flavour
Read more

Hollygog Pudding

Image
For this month's Random Recipe challenge Dom of Belleau Kitchen has asked us to come up with desserts and to pick a random recipe from one of our cookbooks dedicated to desserts, cakes or puddings. I suppose it just proves that I like more general cookbooks, but after a quick search through the bookshelves I found only one such book: “The National Trust Book of Traditional Puddings” by Sara Paston-Williams, published in the eighties. (Although this particular book is now out of print the National Trust currently sell several books that cover much the same ground and seem to be derived largely from this original collection of recipes). There were two recipes on the randomly chosen page in the book: I could have selected a roly-poly pudding, but who could turn down the opportunity to make something called Hollygog pudding? The original recipe comes from Kiddington in Oxfordshire and, in fact, it is a kind of roly-poly pudding filled with golden syrup and cooked in milk. Not the
Read more

Duck Apicius

Image
Ever since I picked out a modern interpretation of an Apicius pork dish in Dom’s first ever Random Recipe challenge (and that was quite a while ago now) I’ve been playing around with some of the other recipes (I use the term loosely) in this text from ancient Rome. Since my Latin is a little rusty, I’ve lazily resorted to translations I’m afraid. A brief QI style digression: There are actually ten “books” in the Apicius writings that (sort of) add up to a complete treatise on cooking. The books are named in honour of Apicius, who was known for his love of fine food, but were actually compiled long after his death. And I think that’s more than enough facts for now. You need a fair amount of imagination with some of the “recipes” in Apicius: there are few exact quantities given or methods described and some of the ingredients, such as the plant silphium or laser , no longer exist.  So I feel justified in bringing you a fairly free adaptation of an Apicius sauce for duck (or, as A
Read more