Good Food: Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies w/Pecans ... Mmm

I came home from work early today after my lunch -- a not-so-fresh Grilled Chicken Caesar wrap - rocked me the wrong way. I won't name the restaurant location because today was an off day for them. Normally, the food is really good. I'll just put today down as a loss (although I will be staying away from that wrap for awhile). When I arrived home I popped an Alka-Seltzer, took a short nap and after I woke up, what was I thinking about? Food. Ridiculous, really. But I wasn't thinking about eating, more like baking.

Have you ever had the urge to bake? I did today. Chocolate chip cookies with chopped pecans. I had planned on just doing plain chocolate chip cookies but I felt that was a little boring. I Googled chocolate chip cookies because with all the cookbooks I have, not one contained a recipe for chocolate chip cookies, but that probably has something to do with the specific cookbooks I have - Mastering the Art of French Cooking (Julia Child), Cupcake Heaven, RealSimple: Meals Made Easy, LaBelle Cuisine, The Comfort Table (Katie Lee Joel), Cook with Jamie (Jamie Oliver) and a few others. None, containing a recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I stumbled upon The Joy of Cooking website and followed their recipe. I could have done more research, for instance, used a recipe from allrecipes.com, foodtv.com, etc, but I was eager and wasn't in the mood for looking at several different recipes, all of which, probably contained the same ingredients. And surprisingly, I had all the ingredients I needed - most likely because my newest cookbook, Ebelskivers (Williams & Sonoma) contained a recipe for semi-sweet chocolate chips and brown sugar (more on that in a future post).

I put all the ingredients in separate bowls. Too many times I mess up a good recipe by not separating everything out before-hand. It actually saves time.

I started mixing the ingredients and during this time I realized, again, how much I want a KitchenAid Artisan Blue Stand Mixer (blue happens to be my favorite color). I used a hand held mixer, which worked just fine but goodness. I clearly need to return to the gym.

The batter was a little soft so I put it in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes. The recipe called for roughly 30 minutes if the batter was too soft. I couldn't tell what was too soft, but I put it in the refrigerator to be semi-safe (smiles).

The oven was preheated at 375ºF. I covered the cookie sheet with parchment paper (per the directions) but also to help with the ease of the cookies sliding off the cookie sheet. Using an ice cream scooper and a spoon for assistance, I fit about 12 dough drops onto the sheet and popped them in the oven.

After about 14-16 minutes (depending on thickness) I checked a few of the cookies with a tooth pick. No dough stuck to the stick so out they came right onto the cooling rack. One cookie broke in half so between myself and my friends we taste tested...

"You're a keeper!"
"These should be sold."
"A new line of Girl Scout Cookies."

Yes. Those were the words every wannabe chef/cook wants to hear (Yeah - the Girl Scout Cookies comment was a bit much, but I'll take it). My chocolate chip cookies with pecans were amazing! Melt in your mouth, homemade, buttery, chocolate, pecan goodness!