Pecan Divines

Cookies and milk anyone? You know all those culinary mysteries out there? IMO, most of the stories aren't very good, but sometimes the recipes look interesting. Til today, however, I hadn't tried any of them. I was reading Fudge Cupcake Murder, by Joanna Fluke, and a chocolate and pecan cookie recipe kept calling to me--no big surprise since I love both chocolate and pecans. Essentially they're chewy chocolate chip cookies with nuts, but they're good! If I come across raspberry syrup I might try the cupcakes named in the book's title, but til then, I'll just have to munch on these cookies. I halved the recipe, as the original made 10 dozen, though my teaspoon-sized cookies (raw) ended up making 6.5 dozen. Andrea's Pecan Divines (from Fudge Cupcake Murder, with some changes by me) 1 c unsalted butter, melted 1.5 c sugar 3/4 c light brown sugar 2 tsp vanilla 2 tsp baking soda 3/4 tsp salt 2 eggs, lightly beaten 2.5 c unbleached flour 1.5 c semisweet chocolate chips 2 c med. chopped pecans Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Then, using a hand mixer, beat in both sugars. Add the vanilla, baking soda, salt, and mix. Add the eggs one by one, and mix thoroughly. Add half of the flour and blend well, then add the chocolate chips and pecans, stirring to incorporate them thoroughly. Then add the rest of the flour. The dough will be quite stiff, but mix it well til it's fully blended. Chill the dough for about 10 min. before baking, or else it will be too sticky to work with easily. After 10 min., drop the dough by teaspoons (I made teaspoonish-sized rounded balls) onto cookie sheets covered with parchment paper. You should be able to fit 12 cookies per pan. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 min., or until lightly browned. Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool 2 min. on the cookie sheets before transferring them to a wire rack to finish cooling. My yield: 6.5 dozen.