Pecan Cinnamandies

For the toasted pecans:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Roughly chop pecans until you have one cup’s worth.
3. Melt the butter in a small pan. Toss chopped pecans in melted butter to coat.
4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or nonstick foil (I used foil; we were out of parchment paper) and spread pecans out in a single layer.
5. Toast pecans in the oven for about 6 minutes, stopping to turn them with a spatula halfway through. Remove from oven and let cool.

For the cookies:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking soda, cream of tartar, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
3. In another bowl, cream butter with brown sugar and powdered sugar until fully incorporated.
4. Stir in egg and vanilla extract. The cookie batter will be pretty sticky—never fear.
5. Fold in the pecans, making sure to stir them in completely. You don’t want half of your cookies to be nut-filled and the other half to be empty!
6. Form dough into balls about 2 inches in diameter and arrange on a cookie sheet (lined or greased if that’s your fancy). Optional: sprinkle cinnamon on the top of each cookie dough ball, as in the photo. I did this with my second batch and it tasted (and looked!) awesome.
7. Bake for about 9 minutes, or until the edges start to turn golden brown. Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and let cool for about 5 minutes before transferring cookies to wire racks to cool completely.