Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is half of the original recipe size. Usually if it’s just Eileen and myself, I make this recipe size. Cookies are the absolute best when freshly baked. So I bake 2-3 cookies at a time, and I keep the excess dough covered tightly in the fridge for a few days. A half batch is 9 cookies, which is 3 days worth of freshly baked cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon(Really I just eyeball this one) vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup Toll House Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips (Trader Joes are good too, but must be semi-sweet)
• 1 cups chopped pecans (walnuts are more bitter)

Dough Instructions:

1. Start toasting the pecans in a frying pan. Keep an eye on these so they don’t burn.
2. Mix softened butter, sugars, vanilla.
3. Mix in egg.
4. Add dry ingredients on top of wet ingredients, and mix.
5. Taste dough(which contains raw egg + raw flour), and adjust as needed
6. Mix in chocolate chips.
7. Mix in toasted pecans while they are still piping hot.
8. Cover dough and refridgerate for 24 hours.

Baking Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Put a layer of parchment paper on baking sheet
3. Scoop dough out with an icecream scooper
4. Form each cookie by hand into a very uniform disc
5. Bake for 15 minutes, and let cool. The cookie should crunch up a bit while it cools, but shouldn’t be crunchy immediately.

Note: The result is a little crisp on the outside, but still soft in the middle.  Something about the hot nuts makes them a bit richer and helps the texture.