Going Nuts

Over the weekend in Abilene, we had a celebration party for my parent's "neighbor" and dear family friend, Kristi. Kristi graduated from nursing school. Several of her friends came to the party and brought various party foods. One of her friends brought some completely delicious and amazing thumbprint cookies. If you love pecan shortbread cookies, butter pecan ice cream or anything else with pecans, you will love these cookies!
As soon as I got back to Nashville, I sent an email requesting a copy of the recipe. Luckily, Kristi's friend, Laura, was willing to share, so here it is! It's fabulous! Thanks, Laura!

She called them thumbprint cookies, but I'm going to call them pecan thumbprint cookies. "Thumbprint cookies" take me back to the high school days when at school events they brought in cookies with gobs of icing in our school colors- purple and gold (yellow). Those were pretty good, but these are MUCH better!

Pecan Thumbprint Cookies

2 sticks margarine
1 C sugar
2 eggs separated
1 t. vanilla
2 C flour
¼ t salt
1 ½ C finely chopped pecans
Icing

Cream butter and sugar with egg yolks until fluffy. Stir in vanilla. Add flour and salt; mix well.

Roll dough into 1” balls, then roll in slightly beaten egg whites. Dip into chopped pecans until completely coated. Place on greased cookie sheet and make a thumbprint in each. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until done. Cool.

Fill thumbprint indentation in each cookie with icing.

Icing:
2 C confectioners’ sugar
2 T butter
1 t vanilla
2-3 T milk
½ - 1 t maple flavoring to taste (optional)

Also, if you happen to own a dog, Target has a portion of their dollar area (you know right when you come in the door- on the right) dedicated to dog stuff. I purchased several plush toys and other cute things for Ivy. One dollar item happened to be a cute little pink visor with a flamingo on it. Of course, Ivy hates wearing anything- she just wants to chew on it. But with plenty of treats, I kept her distracted long enough to get a picture. Although in most of the pictures, she's trying to get it off! Here are the rest of the pics!