I wish it snows here. I wish I can experience 4 seasons here. In fact, I have never seen snow in my life. So you peeps out there who wakes up with snow in your backyard… Be grateful. Though I can brag that I can get a nice tan any time of the year 
I am happy to say that my icebox cookies received pretty rave reviews from mom’s friend. She commissioned me to make another bottle for her. With Christmas just round the corner, I decided to make more cookies for my relatives as gifts. Although we don’t celebrate christmas, no one will resist homemade cookies ya?
The pecan shortbread cookies were delicious. I added a heaped 1/2 cup worth of ground pecan so they really shine through in the shortbread. Word of caution, the dough is really soft and spread quite abit in the oven, so do chill the dough thoroughly. I blame it on the stifling hot and humid weather here in Singapore 
I omitted the cloves and thoug
ht they taste just fine without them. The honey refrigerator cookie recipe is from Gourmet, one of the 68 cookie recipes feature this christmas. This is the first time I am working with shortening and find it a little strange. Firstly, it has no smell. Though the texture is similar to that of margarine and butter. The (white) color of the shortening is a little disconcerting to me as well. Nevertheless, the recipe turned out pretty good too. I may replace the shortening with butter next time to see if it works as well. The nut I used was chopped almonds. Which brings me to the matter that I am in love with my new food processor. It is such a dream to use. Definitely beats chopping those nuts up by hand. I won’t be adding the recipe for the honey cookies, but you can find it here.
Brown Sugar Pecan Shortbread
(Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s ‘Baking From My Home To Yours’)
1½ cups plain flour
½ cup or cornflour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter,room temperature
2/3 cup light brown sugar
½ heaped cup finely ground pecans
1. Sift together the flour, rice flour, salt and cloves.
2. Beat the butter and sugr using a hand-held mixer or freestanding mixer on medium speed for around 3 minutes or until very smooth. Reduce the speed to low and add dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Add the pecans and give the mixer a couple of turns, just to mix the nuts through.
3. In between two large pieces of non-stick baking paper, roll the dough out to an approximately 24 x 28cm rectangle that’s 1.5cm thick. Place the dough in the fridge for at least 3 hours or up to 2 days.
4. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Using a ruler and a sharp knife, cut the dough into 4cm squares. Transfer the squares to the prepared baking trays and prick each square twice with the tines of a fork. Sprinkle some raw sugar over each dough square. Place these two trays in the freezer for 15 minutes to chill. Preheat the oven to 175°C. Position the oven racks to divide the oven into thirds.
5. Bake the biscuits for 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the sheets from top to bottom and front to back at the midway point.
