Pecan Or Angel Slices (1964)

Bringing 'Joy' to family cookie platters everywhere.

The Joy of Cooking is one of the United States’ best-loved cookbooks. Written and self-published by home cook Irma S. Rombauer in 1936, it’s been in continuous print since then, with her daughter Marion Rombauer Becker joining her in 1951 with the fourth edition. Mrs. Rombauer’s plain-spoken, no-nonsense writing proved popular with middle class homemakers, inspiring many including Julia Child, who referred to her as Mrs. Joy.

Regarding Pecan Or Angel Slices, that’s exactly their name. I’m thinking that when collecting recipes, Mrs. Rombauer found two names for the same cookie and didn’t want readers to be confused in either case. The Rombauers start by saying, “Many a copy of the ‘Joy’ has been sold on the strength of this recipe.” Well, when selecting old recipes to try, that statement sounded like a challenge to me – challenge accepted! Plus – the promise of pecans and coconut were alluring. Give me pecans any day.

Please note: the Rombauers list their recipes as many old early 1900s receipts (and prior) did – with no ingredients list, just diving into the action. We will do the same here.

Pecan Or Angel Slices

From Joy of Cooking by Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker (1964 – Fifth Edition)

Here are the ingredients, before we get started. The left side is the base, the right is the topping.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a pan with dough, as for the preceding Nut Bars. (NOTE: following are instructions for the base of the Nut Bar recipe.)

Cream until well blended:

• ½ cup butter

• ¼ cup sugar

Beat in well:

• 1 egg

Combine:

• 1 ¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Add these dry ingredients in about 3 parts to the butter mixture, blending them well. Work in:

• ½ teaspoon vanilla

Use your hands to pat the dough evenly in a 9 x 12-inch pan. Bake for about 15 minutes.

(2nd NOTE: from here on we leave the Nut Bars and rejoin the Pecan Or Angel Slices.)

Spread with the following mixture:

• 2 beaten eggs

• 1 ½ cups brown sugar

• ½ cup flaked coconut

• 1 cup chopped pecan meats

• 2 tablespoons flour

• ½ teaspoon any baking powder

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

If preferred, omit the coconut and use 1 ½ cups nut meats instead. Bake the cake for about 25 minutes.

When cool, ice with

• ½ cups sifted confectioner’s sugar

thinned to a good spreading consistency with:

• Lemon juice

Cut the cake into oblongs.

Challenges and Changes

First off, I confess I do not have a 9 x 12-inch pan. I have a 9 x 13 inch-pan and didn’t want to buy a new one, so I used it. Thus, these cookies were a little thinner than they ordinarily would have been.

In addition, I am not great at cutting bar cookies while in the pan. After I let the pan cool, when I noticed that the brown sugar layer came out crisp and not soft, I opted to gently pry the edges away with a metal spatula, and then pop the whole thing out before icing. The ‘cake’ (as Mrs. Rombauer calls it) came away very neatly and made cutting so much easier. I advise it.

I had reservations about making the glaze with lemon juice, but followed the instructions.

The Ratings

Cookie Appearance: 8

Cookie Texture: 8

Cookie Mouthfeel: 9

Cookie Flavor: 9

Overall Cookie Rating: 9

This cookie was a winner! The survey forms were full of 'Excellent' and 'Tasty!' comments. One rater said they loved the cookie even though not a fan of coconut. Another rater said they were, "almost more dessert than cookie" and suggested them warm with vanilla bean ice cream. I LIKE HOW YOU THINK.

There were two main suggestions offered: 1) more filling, and 2) one rater mentioned 'less citrus.' I totally understand both.

Regarding the filling comments, I think most of us (myself included) expect a pecan square-type cookie (or most bar cookies) to have a soft, gooey filling. This one does not, and so maximizing the pecan-coconut-brown sugar layer is important; it may be a good idea to increase its ingredients by 50% and bake it a little longer.

While most of the raters didn't mind the lemony icing, that one rater (and myself, I must confess) thought it a bit much. I generally like lemon, but thought in this case it overpowered the pecan-coconut-brown sugar layer. This may have contributed to the suggestion for more filling. I would recommend that if you like lemon, try the icing as listed in the recipe and see if the flavor combination suits you. Otherwise, I think substituting milk or water for the lemon juice would make a perfectly good icing and then the pecan-coconut-brown sugar flavors would be the stars of the show.

Next week’s recipe: Excellent Cookies (1902)