Spiced Pecan Cookies

These are fun little tea cookies.  They remind me of Indian spiced tea, and actually taste great with a cup of coffee or tea.  Even though there are a lot of spices, they seem to work well together and no one spice really stands out.  The flip side to that is, since there are so many spices, if you don't like one, it won't change the consistency of the cookies.  I tagged this as vegan because you can substitute vegan margarine for the butter, and it will work fine.  The other nice this with this is you can freeze the uncooked dough for later, and it works great!

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1 tbsp orange extract

1 tbsp almond extract

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 tbsp allspice powder

1/2 tbsp cardamom powder

1 tsp cinnamon powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cups finely chopped pecans

additional powdered sugar to top (optional)

Directions

1.  Using an electric beater, beat butter, sugar, orange extract, almond extract, vanilla extract, allspice, cardamom, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl.

2.  Add the flour and beat until well mixed.

3.  Stir in the pecans.

4.  Roll the dough into 1/2 inch balls.

5.  Place on cookie sheet, ~1 inch apart.

6.  Bake at 350 F until a light golden color (~18-20 mins).

7.  Cool on sheet 5 minutes.

8.  When the cookies are completely cool, you can dust with powdered sugar (lighter coating) or roll them in powdered sugar (thicker coating). To dust: Place a spoonful of the sugar in a small mesh tea strainer (or similar device).  Gently move the strainer across the top while tapping it to make the sugar fall.

9.  Store in air-tight container until ready to serve.