Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pecan

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking I left an "s" off the end of the title of this recipe. Well you're wrong. And no, there isn't only one pecan in the entire recipe. But there is a subtle background flavor of pecan running through the whole cookie batter that results in a mysterious nuttiness that you can't quite place (unless you're told what it is).

The other day I felt like baking chocolate chip cookies, but I wanted them to be a little bit different somehow. I found a recipe for chocolate chip & pecan cookies in the new Williams-Sonoma cookbook, and decided to make it without the pecans, since I don't like chunks of nut in my cookies. But they are still there, ground in with the flour in a food processor, lending their yummy pecan-ness to the cookie as a whole.

I'd also like to give an honorable mention to a new purchase of mine, the beater blade. It's a new paddle attachment for my stand mixer that has built-in silicon scrapers so you don't have to keep stopping the mixer and scraping down the sides with a spatula. That's right. It's awesome in the most literal sense. And it made these cookies insanely easy to make.

The photo at the top of this entry is of the last lonely cookie. I ate it soon after the photo was taken. Let's all take a moment to mourn for the loss of the Last Cookie. And now you can bake some more.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pecan
Adapted from The Williams-Sonoma Cookbook
makes about 2 dozen cookies

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup of white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup firmly packed golden brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375. Line 2 cookie sheets with silpat liners or parchment paper.

2. In a food processor, combine flour, pecans, baking soda, and salt, and process until pecans are ground into a powder.

3. In the bowl of a standing mixer (or a regular bowl if you're using a hand mixer), beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat well, then beat in the vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture until well mixed, then stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Drop the dough with a cookie scoop or ice cream scoop (or whatever utensil you prefer) onto the cookie sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. Bake, rotating the cookie sheets about halfway through, until golden brown, about 10 minutes total. Let cool on the sheets on wire racks for 3 minutes, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.

Now go ahead and try not to eat half of them before they cool down. Let me know how you do.