Thursday, December 20, 2018

Grandma Billie's Pecan Sandies AKA Wedding Cookies

My Grandma Billie made these for me ever since I was a little girl. This is my second Christmas without her - I think about her a lot, but especially at the holidays. She taught me to make bows from spools of ribbon and while she wasn't the best baker (her chocolate chip cookies were famous for being, well, not that good), she always came through when it came to these amazing little bits of powdered heaven. She also made a mean coconut cake (a post for another day - she usually pulled that one out at Easter). So, here is Grandma's recipe. I have to change the flour to a GF flour blend and omit the nuts for Whit, but for everyone else, here is the original.

Grandma's Wedding Cookies

Preheat oven to 300*

1 cup butter
1/4 to 1/3 cup confectioners sugar
2 t. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup chopped nuts
1 T. water

Put all ingredients together and mix. Shape into balls and slightly press them. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 20 minutes. Roll in confectioners sugar and serve.


Gluten and Nut Free Christmas Crack AKA Salted Chocolate Pretzel Bark

My sister makes an amazing recipe she calls "Christmas Crack" and I love it, but it was full of gluten and thus did not make my holiday goodie list. I have revised her recipe and use gf pretzels in place of the crackers she uses to make this gf version - safe for my whole family. They love it!

Gluten and Nut Free Christmas Crack

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
8 oz. GF pretzels
8 oz or 1 bag of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400*.
Pour pretzels onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Melt the butter and brown sugar together on the stove until it comes to a boil. Then remove from heat and pour over the pretzels. Put the pretzels in the oven for 5-7 minutes.
Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave and then pour the chocolate over the pretzels.

Freeze for 1 hour. Break into pieces and store in the fridge. Enjoy!