Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

I have been having the worst cravings for these lately.  Even the last time I went out to eat, I ordered Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies for dessert.  The ones the restaurant made were good, but nothing beats warm cookies right out of the oven.  So I decided to make a bunch of these and freeze batches so I can make small batches whenever I want.

But my first problem I noticed was that my brown sugar was as hard as a rock.  Not sure what is wrong here.  It's in a sealed container, I have one of those terra cotta moisture catching thingies in the jar....it's still rock hard.  *shrugs*  So I will chisel off exactly the amount that I will need for my cookies and bring it back to life, mwhahahahaha....*coughs*  or at least make it soft again.

The next step is to get a glass of water and place the brown sugar and the glass of water in the microwave.  I microwaved it for 30 seconds at a time, try to crumble it and microwave it again.  Till it reaches the desired softness that I want.  I think I microwaved mine for 3 or 4 minutes.

Though I wasn't paying attention and probably microwaved it a tad longer than I needed to here.  Honestly it's not a problem as long as it's used right away.  Actually I would only use this method if I was going to use it right away.

See now it creams well with butter.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

1 1/2 cups Butter

1 cup Raw Sugar

1 cup Brown Sugar

1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

3 Eggs

2 1/3 cups Unbleached Flour

2 1/2 cups Chocolate Chips( I used Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Chips)

1 1/2 cups Pecans, chopped

Cream the butter, the raw sugar and the brown sugar together in your mixer until nice and fluffy.

Add the baking soda and the vanilla and mix till combined.  Over low speed add the eggs one at a time.  Add the flour a 1/2 cup at a time till combined.  Remember to scrape the sides down to make sure everything is incorporated.

Now remove the bowl from the mixer and hand stir in the chocolate chips and the pecans.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spoon out about a tbsp of cookie dough and roll into a ball.  Place onto a cookie sheet that has a silpat mat on it.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just start to brown.

Let cool for 5 minutes on the tray.  Take off and enjoy while they are still warm.

Now the most important part.  Setting yourself up so you have warm cookies whenever you want them.  Get a large baking sheet.  Roll out as many cookie balls as you can fit on the tray without them touching.

Put these in the freezer for 1 hour.  They won't be completely frozen but they will be frozen enough not to stick together.  Remove and put as many as you want to bake at a time in pint size freezer bags.  I usually add 6 per bag since there are 3 of us.

Baking these frozen cookies is a little different then when they were refrigerator cold.  You can either thaw them in the fridge and cook them with the directions above...But who are we kidding, no one has the patience for that.  So instead we will bake them frozen for 14-18 minutes at 350 degrees.  This is so easy you'll never buy refrigerated or frozen dough again.

So you have your price?  Your soul for a cookie.

-- James Patterson