Pecan ice box cookies

Pecan ice box cookies were added to the menu this week.  

When I was a kid, part of our typical Christmas was a very large black speckled roasting pan that was filled with cookies and brownies.  The pan was pulled out from the cabinet.  And cookie doughs were made one by one.  Cookies were baked tray by tray.  Cookies were stacked in the roasting pan stack by stack.  And brownies, too.

One of the cookies was something we called ice box cookies.  The dough was made and then frozen before cooking.  The dough wasn't hard from the freeze because it's made with vegetable shortening instead of butter.  It was easy to pull out the block or roll of dough and slice off whatever number of cookies you wanted to make even though it came straight from the freezer.  And there was no need to defrost them before baking.  

I've tweaked this recipe a little bit and added "pecan" to the name.  But these cookies are substantially the same as they were when I was a kid.  I roll these out and pre-cut them.  Then I stack the pre-cut cookies and place them in the freezer wrapped in a plastic freezer bag.  They are all a fairly uniform thickness and they come out of the oven a bit crispy.  And I love the flavor created by the vegetable shortening, the dark brown sugar and the roasted chopped pecans.  

This is one of those really good things from childhood that I'm happy to share with everyone now.

Watch for them on a upcoming weekly menu.  I hope you will like them.