Butter Pecan Biscuits

Ingredients

• 112 g butter, softened
• 70 g sugar snap peas
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 /8 tsp salt
• 140 g plain flour
• 80 g pecan, chopped

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper. While it comes up to temperature, tip the chopped pecans into a dry frying pan over medium heat and toast for 3–4 minutes, shaking often, until they smell warm and nutty. Toasted pecans taste of pecan; raw ones taste of nothing — this is the step most people skip.
2. Cream the softened butter in a mixing bowl with an electric whisk for a full minute, until pale and smooth. The butter must be properly soft — fingertip-dent soft — or it won't aerate.
3. Add the caster sugar and the salt, then beat for another minute until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides once. Don't skip the salt — in a sweet biscuit it's what stops the sugar tasting flat and lets the butter and vanilla actually read.
4. Tip in the vanilla and the flour, then mix on low until the dough just comes together — soft, not sticky, and pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Stop the moment it looks unified; over-mixing builds gluten and you'll get tough biscuits.
5. Fold through the toasted pecans by hand so they're evenly studded throughout. Pinch a tiny bit of dough and taste it — adjust with another pinch of salt now if it tastes one-note. Raw biscuit dough is the only honest preview you'll get.
6. Divide into 12 walnut-sized balls and space them across the tray with a 7.5 cm gap — they spread enthusiastically and will fuse into one giant biscuit if you crowd them.
7. Press each ball gently with the base of a glass to flatten to about 1 cm thick, nudging any cracked edges back together with your fingers. Cracks at the edge become burnt edges in the oven.
8. Bake for 15 minutes, rotating the tray halfway, until the edges are deeply golden and the centres look just set but still pale — they'll firm up as they cool. Pull them while the middles still look slightly underdone; carryover heat finishes the job.
9. Leave on the tray for 2 minutes to firm up, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm with a cold jug of milk alongside, or a pot of strong coffee if it's that kind of afternoon.