Sunday, August 30, 2009

Chocolate Chip and Pecan Cookies

These are delicious - crunchy and chewy all at once (a bit like that old Harry Enfield comedy sketch on Armadillos for the Dime bar ad - crunchy on the outside, smooth on the inside!) Although these are a little bit crunchy on the inside too from the addition of the nuts! Here's the video clip for those who remember Harry Enfield's classic sketches and even for those who don't!




Back to serious stuff now
This recipe is an amalgamation of a few different choc chip recipes I have in various books, and my variation is the addition of chopped pecan nuts.
Walnuts are another alternative. In either case, they are delicious cookies and much nicer than any shop-bought ones. But then what cookies can beat good home-baked ones?



Ingredients
  • 6 oz/175g plain flour
  • 6 oz/175g sugar - I use 4 oz dark brown and 2 oz white mixed
  • 4 oz/125g butter -soft, room temperature
  • 1 egg - optional
  • half-teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (bread soda)
  • quarter-teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 6 oz/175g chocolate - milk or dark - in chips or chopped up good quality chocolate - not cheap cooking chocolate
  • 2 oz/50g chopped pecan nuts - lightly roasted in oven for about 5-10 mins at 100 degrees centigrade - careful now - don't burn them!
Method
  • Simplicity itself - just bung all the ingredients - except the chocolate and pecans - into a bowl and mix them well with an electric mixer.
  • (I use the hand mixer for these as it's faster than setting up the Kenwood, but that's irrelevant once the mix isn't too heavy for your machine. Why, you can do it by hand if you prefer the creaming-butter-and-sugar method, but that's too labour intensive for a lazy slob like me!)
  • Then add the chocolate chips and nuts and mix in well, preferably with a spoon or knife as the mixer can chop them up too finely.
  • Bake in the top of the oven for about 15 mins until golden brown, being careful not to burn them.
  • Cool on a wire rack
  • Sit down, and enjoy with that essential cuppa tea - or even coffee - and a good book or blog to read!

3 comments:

Irene said...

Those cookies look delicious and I'm sure that if I were to make them, I would eat every one of them, because that's the kind of woman I am. Very greedy when it comes to cookies with chocolate in them. Thanks for the recipe. I like it when you add them. I still remember the rhubarb pie.

Catherine said...

Haha Irene - I am sure you would find them very more-ish! They are pretty nice but they are quite rich so I find one or two does it for me.
I just added the video clip for a laugh, it is from a hilarious British comedy show, Harry Enfield does a number of different characters, including this country bumpkin with a West Country accent.
Hope you're well, haven't commented on your blogs lately but then I am running around too much!
Catherine

Rudee said...

I can almost smell them baking. Today would have been a perfect day to bake cookies. Maybe tomorrow I'll go fetch the ingredients. Thanks for the recipe.