chocolate chunk cookies with toasted pecans

Last night, I was flipping through Peggy Cullen's cookie book, Got Milk? and came across these simply amazing looking cookies. Deep, dark, chocolatey, with the sweetness of toasted fresh pecans I just got from a friend in Alabama - well, let's say it does the word "decadence" justice.

Apparently, I'm still on my "I love anything chocolate" kick!

The recipe worked perfectly, but the book says the recipe makes 28 cookies - using a 1 1/2 inch ice cream scoop, the total was only 19 - so if you need to make a lot, doubling the recipe makes sense.

To make:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Line two cookie sheets with foil or parchment.

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1 t. vanilla

1/3 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa

1 large egg

1 cup King Arthur flour

1/2 t. baking soda

6 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate ( I used one 4 ounce bar of Ghirardelli 60% cacao and it worked fine)

1 cup roughly chopped pecans

Toast the pecans in a toaster oven, or the regular oven - just don't forget they're in there! Toast just enough for them to smell deliciously toasty. Cool pecans well before adding to dough.

In mixer bowl, beat together the sugar, butter, salt and vanilla until creamy.

Beat in the cocoa, then the egg. Scrape down the mixer bowl and beat briefly again.

Add the flour and baking soda and mix on low until combined.

Mix in the cooled pecans and the chopped chocolate.

Using a 1 1/2" ice cream scoop, scoop out balls of dough about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets.

Bake for exactly 10 minutes . Remove baking sheet and let cool five minutes, before removing cookies with a spatula to a cooling rack.

This makes 19 cookies, using the ice cream scoop - 19 delicious, stupendous chocolatey cookies!

Enjoy!

Featured on TasteSpotting!