My Families Chocolate Chip Cookies With Pecans

These are the cookies I grew up baking from the time I was three years old. My mom and Mimi (my maternal grandma) used black or regular walnuts and my (Southern paternal grandma) Grandma Barner always used pecans. So many memories are wrapped up in these cookies for me especially making them with my son when he was little. Hope you make memories with your loved ones with these cookies.

 Ingredients:

    2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

    1 teaspoon baking soda

    1 teaspoon salt

    1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

    3/4 cup granulated sugar

    3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

    1 teaspoon vanilla extract

    2 large eggs*

    2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) chocolate chips

    1 cup chopped pecans*

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, dark brown sugar and vanilla extract in large bowl until thoroughly mixed. 

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. 

Drop by rounded tablespoon onto parchment paper lined baking sheets 2” apart.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Servings: I usually get 2 ½ dozen cookies or more depending on how much of the raw dough I eat while making them!

*Notes:

I always crack the eggs into a separate bowl and then put into the bowl with the rest of the ingredients. The reason why I do this is because it makes it easier to get a piece of shell out if it ends up in the bowl then in a bowl filled with other ingredients.

I use pecans because they are very prominent where I live however any nut you like can be substituted.

Easiest Boiled Eggs

I hated boiling eggs because no matter how hard I tried it would end up a complete mess! Until I asked a friend how they always had great looking devil eggs. Her secret peel the eggs while HOT! So I figured I would use my standard recipe and try the peel them while hot method.

Ingredients:
Desired amount of eggs to boil
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons of white vinegar

Directions:

Take a pot that is big enough to hold the desired amount of eggs. Place in the eggs and add just enough water to cover them. Then add in the salt and vinegar.

Set onto the stove and over high heat bring to a rolling boil. Then cover and turn off the heat and let sit for 14 minutes.

Take off the stove and dump into a colander/strainer. BE CAREFUL NOT TO BURN YOURSELF!!

Start peeling while they are hot. I do run cooler water over the egg in my hand if it gets to be too hot. DO NOT let the water touch the eggs in the colander.

As you can see in the picture as they last few were done they started getting harder to peel and left pits in the whites. Overall this is the best my eggs have ever looked!

Oatmeal Scotties

Oatmeal Scottie Cookies

Ingredients: 

 

1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups quick or old fashioned oats/rolled oats

1 11 oz package of butterscotch flavored morsels

 

Directions:

 

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F

Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, and nutmeg in a small bowl.

Beat butter granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl.

Gradually beat in flour mixture.

Stir in the oats and butterscotch morsels.

Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased or parchment lined baking sheets.

Bake for 7-8 minutes for chewy cookies or 9-10 minutes for crisp cookies.

Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; move to wire racks to cool completely. *

 

*If on parchment paper lined baking sheets, you can just slide the parchment off the sheet with the cookies on them to the cooking rack.

Quick and Easy Puff Pastry Peach Cobbler

This recipe was born because I was craving something sweet for after dinner but I did not want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Both Chief and Chase went crazy for this dessert. It was gone before morning!! Chief told me this is a keeper which in our family means it goes in my recipe books that I have been adding recipes too since I was 13 years old.


Ingredients:

Cooking spray
2 cans of peach pie filling
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1/2 cup of caramel bits*
Puff Pastry, thawed but still cold
Cinnamon sugar mixture


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F (Gas mark 4 or 177C).

Spray a 9x9 inch baking pan or dish with the cooking spray.

Add the peach pie filling to the pan. Sprinkle the vanilla extract over the filling. Sprinkle the top of the filling with the nuts and the caramel bits.

My puff pastry topping looks rustic because I used the leftover puff pastry I used to make dinner. You can either do like I did and tear up the pastry and cover the top of the filling or you can roll out the pastry to to fit the dish.

Sprinkle the top of the puff pastry with a cinnamon sugar mixture.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. You want the pastry to be a light golden brown but still flaky.

Makes 4 to 8 servings depending on the size of the people you are feeding!

Can serve alone or with ice cream.

*Notes:
If you don't have caramel bits you can make some by snipping store bought chewy caramels into bits with a pair of scissors.