.butterscotch chip pecan cookies.

teaching high school entails going to the occasional football game for me. at least once a year, my school's faculty gets together for a little tailgating before a game. we teachers were asked to bring a dessert to share and i wanted to whip up something simple for me and even simpler for hungry hands to grab. hence, cookies. to be exact, butterscotch chip pecan cookies.

here's how i made them. begin by mixing together 3/4 cups of granulated sugar, 1 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of softened butter in a stand up mixer. pre-heat your oven to a low 325 degrees.

once the butter and sugars are creamed together, add 1 tbsp of vanilla. then, on low speed, mix in one cracked egg at a time. i'm not sure why i felt inclined to tell you to crack the egg. if you're adding an egg with shell and all, we've got some bigger problems.

in a separate medium sized bowl, sift together 3 cups of flour, 3/4 tsp of baking soda and 3/4 tsp of salt.

with your mixer on low speed again, slowly add the dry ingredients to your wet ones and mix well. you should expect the dough to be a little stiff.

remove the bowl from the stand up mixer and add 2 1/2 cups butterscotch chips and 1 cup of chopped pecans. stir. if you're feeling exceptionally lazy like i was, you can mix it all with your mixer.

when i make cookies, i've found that lining the cookie sheets with parchment paper makes the post-oven life so much easier. so, go ahead and line yours with some parchment paper too. if you don't have any, spray your pan really well. drop spoonfuls of rounded cookie dough about 2 inches apart and bake for 13-16 minutes. repeat the process until you're all out of dough and full of cookies. you should end up with between two and three dozen delicious cookies.

the great thing about these is that they're a unique twist to a typical chip and nut cookie. surprise the crowd or even your own household with a butterscotch pecan chip cookie and see the looks of yummm on their faces.

butterscotch chip pecan cookies
yields between 2 and 3 dozen cookies
what you need
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 tbsp vanilla
2 eggs
3 cups flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups butterscotch chips
1 cup chopped pecans

here's how
in the bowl of your stand up mixer, combine the sugars and butter until they are creamed together. with the mixer on low speed, add vanilla and eggs, one at a time. increase the speed to around medium and then turn the mixer off. preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

in a separate medium sized bowl, sift together the flour baking soda and salt.

put your mixer back on low and slowly add the dry ingredients in. when all ingredients are combined, remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the butterscotch chips and chopped pecans.

line your cookie sheet(s) with parchment paper and scoop rounded spoonfuls of dough about 2 inches apart on your cookie sheet. bake between 13-16 minutes. you want the cookie to look slightly crispy around the edges and soft in the center. enjoy!