Cookie Time!

Yesterday, I was almost going to trade in my graduate school studies and grab a little green felt hat, climb into a huge tree, and help those famous elves make cookies (you know exactly what cookie brand I’m talking about). But then I decided that I liked being a registered dietitian-to-be, so I continued to work on my internship applications (I also don’t look good in forest green). All the baking was needed because we were hosting a “get to know you” party for all the young adults of my church and I wanted to make sure we had enough sweet stuff to fit every taste.

So I made these.

So pretty and colorful!

Please note how I put gooey chocolate cookies on a rack over my mother’s pristine white tablecloth.

I live on the edge.

I would give you the recipe but I actually got it off the back of the bag of those awesome mini candy-covered chocolate bits (bad description but you know exactly what I am talking about) and I don’t think I’m [legally] allowed to share it. So just follow that recipe, which is super easy by the way, and chill overnight instead of one hour… it makes the cookies easier to dole out.

As much as I love my chocolate chip “famous candy-covered chocolate bits” cookies, my real pièce-de-résistance were my Pecan Sandies.

How awesome do they look?

Am I bragging too much today?

I apologize.

Our new youth director, who wanted to have this party to get to know people, is from the South and made some killer pecan pie for our Thanksgiving get-together. So I thought a pecan dessert would do well for this gathering as well.

This cookie was also made because my sister’s boyfriend’s mother (that’s a mouthful) sent her home from a visit with three-pound bag of spiced, sugared pecans.

Three pounds of pecans. That’s a lot of pecans.

Side note – do you say pea-KHAN or pea-CAN (please excuse my poor phonetic spelling skills)?

Any way, we needed a way to use some of these pecans. I was poking around the World Wide Web and found a great recipe by Tasty Kitchen member Melanie Eccles! It was super easy, used up some of the pecans, and they were super yummy. I slightly modified her recipe to accommodate the sugared pecans.

Pecan Sandies

Says it makes 24… I only got 17

 

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon good whiskey

½ teaspoon good vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup spiced, sugared pecans, chopped (you can use normal pecans too!) 

Note: If you don’t want to use whiskey, just add 1½ teaspoons of vanilla extract. You can’t taste the whiskey but it adds a little something to the cookie. And nothing is more southern than whiskey and pecans.

 Steps:

1. In your stand mixer, cream together butter and brown sugar until well combined.

2. Add in whiskey and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.

3. Slowly add in flour and salt. Mix until combined.

4. Add in chopped pecans and mix until just combined.

5. Place dough into fridge to hang out while oven preheats… temperature for cookie nirvana – 350.

6. Form 1½ inch balls and flatten them slightly – cookies won’t spread much on their own. 

Note: The dough is crumbly so make sure to lightly press the dough together or else it will crumble on the cookie sheet. Not awesome.

7. Bake 10-15 minutes until the tops are lightly golden and they smell done.

8. Eat with a cold glass of milk or with your morning coffee. 

They are such a pretty cookie. But not too pretty to avoid eating them!

The party was a success and the cookies were enjoyed along with some amazing fellowship. It was the perfect end to the holiday season.

So, kiddos, tell me. What cookie recipe are you sad to see go back on the shelf? Or are you going to be a dessert rebel that makes a gingerbread house in July? Let me know in the comments!

Your cookie elf friend,

C

Pecan Sandies

• Time: 45min
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon good whiskey
½ teaspoon good vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup spiced, sugared pecans, chopped (you can use normal pecans too!)

Note: If you don’t want to use whiskey, just add 1½ teaspoons of vanilla extract. You can’t taste the whiskey but it adds a little something to the cookie. And nothing is more southern than whiskey and pecans.

Steps:
1. In your stand mixer, cream together butter and brown sugar until well combined.
2. Add in whiskey and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
3. Slowly add in flour and salt. Mix until combined.
4. Add in chopped pecans and mix until just combined.
5. Place dough into fridge to hang out while oven preheats… temperature for cookie nirvana – 350°.
6. Form 1½-inch balls and flatten them slightly – cookies won’t spread much on their own. Note: The dough is crumbly so make sure to lightly press the dough together or else it will crumble on the cookie sheet. Not awesome.
7. Bake 10-15 minutes until the tops are lightly golden and they smell done.
8. Eat with a cold glass of milk or with your morning coffee.

Snow Day

I hope everyone is okay after Super Storm Nemo whipped through the Northeast. My area only got about seven inches; not enough to keep me sequestered in the house, but it was enough to cast a spell of lethargy over me for the day. All I wanted to do was to stay curled up underneath the covers, drink gallons of hot chocolate, and watch old black-and-white movies. Since I had homework to do, laundry to fold, and no old movies to watch, I decided that I should be slightly productive and do some work. My productive streak ended right after lunchtime, when I decided that I would be a greater asset to society if I made cookies instead of doing my homework.

Since Valentine’s Day is only 4 days away, I wanted to break out the heart-shaped cookie cutters that my mother sent me. She usually bakes heart-shaped sugar cookies and dips them into chocolate, creating the perfect valentine sweet. I wanted to try my hand at these awesome treats, but had one slight problem – I never made cookie dough with a hand mixer. Big problemo…

My hand mixer came into my life when I was unwrapping my Christmas presents this year. I was almost brought to tears because my cousin outfitted my grad school kitchen with various implements that I had been sorely missing. It was the sweetest thing I had ever received. I was very excited because I never had a hand mixer of my own – and now I do! It is a delightful shade of avocado green, which brightens up my day every time I look at it. Despite my excitement, I was worried that it was not going to handle cookie dough as well as my stand mixer at home.

The test was my normal Sugar Cookie recipe, which I cut in half. And I was in for a pleasant surprise. The hand mixer handled the cookie dough well and I was able to get all the dough made and in the fridge in record time. All I needed to do was chill the dough, make the cookies and dunk them into chocolate. After an hour, my kitchen was covered with parchment paper and cookies. It was snow day baking perfection.

To make up for the amount of melted chocolate and sugar cookie dough that I ate, I whipped up a batch of Greek chicken noodle soup. The soup base is similar to normal chicken noodle soup, only that it is thickened with a mixture of eggs and lemon (and cornstarch). It was perfectly tangy and warm, cutting through the butter/chocolate coma my body was beginning to slip into.

It was one of the most relaxing, productive days I have had in a while… Now off to do some homework. Or maybe watch a movie…

C