See Also: Cookies
Bride's Cookies
From Dorothy McNett's Recipe book at www.dorothymcnett.com. Mace is the placenta that conveys nourishment from the fruit (nutmeg) to the seed. It clings to the shell of the nutmeg like a hand with its fingers holding so tightly that they leave little indentations to show where they've been on the brittle, dark-brown shell. After a day in the sunshine the mace has dried to the dull red - orange - brown appearance of ground mace that we use in baking and sauces. (taken from The Spice and Herb Bible by Ian Hemphill). Dorothy's take: Similarities to a woman....
1 cup real butter, softened
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1 cup finely chopped pecans or hazelnuts
1 teaspoon mace
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
powdered sugar for dusting
tiny silver balls for decoration
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Soften butter in batter bowl 30 seconds on half power. Using electric beater, cream butter and sugar. In another bowl, whisk the flour, ground nuts, salt and mace. Add to butter mixture along with the vanilla. Shape into 1 inch balls, dusting with more flour if necessary. Shape into crescents on baking sheet lined with parchment or a Silpat. Flatten just a little with the tines of a fork, to give better shape. Decorate with silver balls. Bake for about 20 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar while still warm. Makes about 3 dozen.
Recipe created 2003-03-22.
