Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Winter has arrive in NC. We had snow and cold temperatures this weekend, so what better weather for baking cookies? 

Notes: These came out great. I have been loyal to a different cookie recipe for a long time and these may just be my new favorite!

I adapted these from this recipe. I'm a fan of chewy chocolate chip cookies, but these were supposed to be a mix of chewy and crispy. I replaced the shortening in this recipe with butter, in part because I don't have shortening and in part because shortening makes cookies crispier. 

If you use salted butter, just omit the salt from this recipe.

Don't like nuts? Just sub out another cup of chocolate chips. 

The dough was dry after I chilled it, so I ended up balling it up in my hands before putting it on the trays.

The original recipe calls for baking them at 375, but my oven runs hot. I knocked the temperature back for the second batch and that worked better.

Ingredients:

2 sticks (16 tablespoons) of unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup brown sugar

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup pecan pieces

Directions: In a stand mixer, beat the butter, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt together until the mixture is light and creamy. Beat in the egg and vanilla until incorporated. 

With the mixer on low, add the flour and mix until it's about halfway incorporated. Add the chocolate chips and the pecan pieces and mix until everything is incorporated.

Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour and up to 24. 

Heat the oven to 350. Drop the cookies onto two sheet trays, about 2 inches apart. Bake for between 18-20 minutes until light golden brown. Remove from the trays and cool the rest of the way on a rack. Enjoy!

No Bake S'Mores Bars

This weekend when we had the big snow I decided that I needed to have some cooking projects to keep me busy. We were at a party not long ago and friend brought over these s'mores bars. They were so good! I should have asked for the recipe before we left, but I forgot. So, I did some Googling and found a similar recipe. I tinkered with it and got some excellent results!

Notes: These are crispy, sweet, and delicious. The fact that they are so easy just makes it that much better. I found a bunch of recipes for them, but this was the one I modified.

Melting marshmallows is a little difficult. They don't melt as fast as you think. I think the best way to do it is to melt the butter first and then put in the marshmallows. Keep the heat low to avoid scorching them. Let them start to get soft before you put in the chocolate chips. The mixture will become uniform as it starts to melt. It will end up being the consistency of thin peanut butter.

Don't skip out on the extra marshmallows. If you leave them out, you don't really get the full s'mores effect. If you don't want to buy 2 bags of marshmallows, just reserve 1 cup from the 5 1/2 from the bag and up the chocolate chips to 2 cups.

Ingredients:
1 box of Golden Grahams or similar cereal
1 bag of mini marshmallows (about 5 1/2 cups), plus 1 1/2 cups
1 1/2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
5 tablespoons butter

Directions:

Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil and grease the bottom and the sides with butter.

Open up the cereal and put it in a large bowl. Set aside.

In a large sauce pan, melt the butter, chocolate chips, and 5 1/2 cups of marshmallows together over low heat. Stir continuously until the mixture is uniform (see notes).

Pour the mixture over the cereal and stir together. Fold in the extra 1 1/2 cups of marshmallows.

Transfer to the 9 x 13 dish. Butter the back of a large spoon (or spray with cooking spray) and press the mixture into the dish into an even layer.

Refrigerate for 1 hour. Cut into squares. Store in the fridge loosely covered.

Enjoy your no bake dessert!