Savannah Chocolate Pecan Chewies

I finished up my bag of pecans from the Green Valley Pecan Store with this recipe. These cookies tasted like and had a similar chewy/delicate texture to my Chocolate Frosting Cookies. The pecans added a wonderful crunch. Peanuts would work great, too.

Ingredients
½ cup chopped pecans
¾ cup powdered sugar
⅓ cup cocoa
2 Tablespoons flour
Pinch of salt
1 egg white
¼ teaspoon vanilla

Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Combine powdered sugar, cocoa, flour, and salt. Mix in egg and vanilla. Stir in pecans.
Drop tablespoonfuls of dough onto the baking sheets.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool completely.

Yields 1 dozen

Adapted from The All-American Cookie Book

Pecan Fudge Squares

This recipe produces a very fudgey, chocolatey bar. The crunch of the pecan pieces mixes well with the slightly under-baked gooey texture of the bars.

Ingredients
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
¼ cup butter
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
¾ cup all-purpose flour

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In the microwave, melt together chocolate chips and butter until just combined. In a separate bowl, combine the sweetened condensed milk, egg, vanilla, and salt. Stir in the chocolate mixture. Add the flour and pecans.
Pour dough into a 8x8 or 9x9 baking pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Yields 24 squares

Adapted from The All-American Cookie Book

Chocolate Pecan Chubbies

While in Tucson, we visited the Green Valley Pecan Store. All sorts of delicious, high-quality pecan treats were for sale. The pecan pie is amazing as are their candied pecans. I picked up a big bag of pecan halves to use for a few recipes I’ve adapted from The All-American Cookie Book. These chewy chocolate cookies are rich and decadent, and the pecans provide a nice crunch. Shockingly the extra chocolate chips mixed in at the end aren’t really necessary.

Ingredients
½ cup chopped pecans
1 cup chocolate chips
1 ½ tablespoons butter
⅓ cup flour
⅛ teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
⅓ cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup chocolate chips

Instructions
In the microwave, melt together 1 cup of chocolate chips and butter until just combined. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Gradually add the chocolate mixture into the sugar mixture. Add in the flour mixture, pecans, and chocolate chips.
Refrigerate the dough for 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Scoop tablespoons of dough onto the baking sheets. Bake 12-14 minutes until set. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes.

Yields 18 cookies

Chocolate Iguana- Tucson

Recently I traveled to Arizona for a week of fun and discovery in Tucson, Phoenix, and the Grand Canyon. It was a fantastic trip (and seemed so much more amazing than when I went to Arizona as a kid).

Downtown Tucson is a great area to walk around. We stopped for lunch at the family-run Chocolate Iguana and had a great lunch (soups, salads, sandwiches offered) and took some treats to go. The chocolate chip cookie I tried was a great afternoon snack. About the size of a saucer, it was very filling, but not overly rich or heavy. The cookie itself was buttery with a TON of chocolate chips. At $1.75, the price was right, too. Chocolate Iguana also has a variety of breakfast pastries and fun hard-to-find candies. 

It's definitely worth making a pit stop here. For more information, visit their website: http://www.chocolateiguanaon4th.com/. 

 
Also on our trip, we took along some snacks. I can never be too far from cookies! I tried two cookies from Pepperidge Farm- Nantucket (double chocolate chunk) and Captiva (soft brownie-like cookie). While neither were as good as homemade, both had great chocolate flavor and fulfilled the crispy/soft baked description on the package. Packages of eight cookies are roughly $3.00 each. Find them in your local grocery store.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip

Oatmeal chocolate chip are one of my favorite cookies. Inspired by a recipe in Nancy Baggett's The All American Cookie Book, I incorporated her recipe and made a few adjustments to my lighter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. The result was fantastic! The cookies are crispy and chewy and have just the right balance of oats and chocolate chips. The recipe makes four dozen cookies. I ate five pretty soon after they came out of the oven. Later in the day I had five more and started to seriously contemplate whether or not to keep these all for me instead of bringing them to work to share. Ultimately I did decide to share, and my colleagues also had a hard time controlling themselves around these. Now I don't feel as bad... :)

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2 cups rolled oats

2 cups mini chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Cream together butter, shortening, and sugars until well blended. Mix in egg. Gradually add in the flour mixture. Stir in oats. Finally fold in the chocolate chips.
Spoon tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheets. Press down slightly on the tops of each cookie.
Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden.
Yields 4 dozen.

Lowney's Brownies

One of the earlier brownie recipes was created by Boston chocolate maker Walter M. Lowney in the early 1900s. It didn't have instructions and has very basic ingredients. Sometimes the simplest recipes are the best. I was concerned the brownies would not be chocolatey enough, but they absolutely were, and the nuts provided a great crunch to what would be otherwise overly cakey brownies. These brownies are so fast that they're definitely worth a try.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 ounces chocolate, melted (I used dark chocolate)

2 eggs

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup pecans, chopped

1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 8x8 baking pan with foil.

Cream together butter and sugar. Add in melted chocolate. Stir in eggs. Add flour, pecans, and salt until just combined.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Cool completely before removing from the pan and cutting into squares.

Yields 16 brownies

Creative Cakery

As the name implies, Creative Cakery specializes in amazing cakes. We actually had the chocolate chocolate chip bundt cake for our wedding. Now we have it for every anniversary and birthday.

Since their cakes are so delicious, I figure their cookies would be good, too. Each cookie is 50 cents and is of small to average size. I tried six of their flavors.

Chocolate Chip- the best of the bunch- lot of chocolate chips, thick and chewy

Peanut Butter- dry, skip it

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip- a close second place, great chocolate and peanut butter combination

Gingersnap- soft, very strong molasses flavor

Snickerdoodle- soft, classic snickerdoodle cookie

Maui- coconut, butterscotch, and macadamia nuts- good flavor, but the cookie was dry

Visit their website at www.creativecakery.com. Stick with the cakes, though.

Coconut Pecan Chocolate Chip

I have made a lot of cookies with coconut and chocolate, but this one is definitely the best so far. This recipe has just the right amount of coconut, and the chopped pecans add a nice crunch to even out the chewiness of the coconut. Mini chocolate chips don't overpower either ingredient and also add a nice texture. The cookies themselves are soft, light and thin. This cookie was inspired by a recipe for German Chocolate Pecan cookies in Nancy Baggett's The All American Cookie Book. She recommended toasting the coconut and pecans, but I skipped this step since I was short on time.

Ingredients

2 cups coconut

1 cup chopped pecans

1 3/4 cup flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

1 Tablespoon corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
Cream together butter and brown sugar until well blended. Mix in egg, corn syrup, and vanilla extract. Gradually add in the flour mixture. Fold in the pecans, coconut, and chocolate chips until just incorporated.
Spoon tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheets. Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden.
Yields 2 dozen.