Nuts! If You Prefer More Recipes...

Since I wrote last week, the only thing I’ve done that could possibly be counted as gardening is to water my many houseplants.

Granted, they do create green spaces in my house, but that doesn’t begin to compare to seeding, weeding, and harvesting a garden or doing yard work.

Since watering plants indoors can’t be stretched to fill a column, I’m throwing more recipes at you. None of the ones I shared last week have yet been made but I’m still planning to.

But that means these new ones I made need to be eaten to free up freezer space. I’m sure I can make that happen, even though Dennis still turns up his nose at things with nuts in them. My church family will help.

I was on a pecan kick, probably because I didn’t get a slice of pecan pie at Thanksgiving. People share lots of recipe links on Facebook, and I have an extensive file of saved recipes. I finally delved into those.

The following ones I’m sharing here are sinfully good. (I’ve copied out a few others that will probably get made this next week.)

Pecan Pie Cookies

BASE

• 1 C brown sugar, packed

• 3/4 C unsalted butter, softened

• 1 large egg

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 2 C flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1/4 tsp salt

FILLING

• 1 C pecans, finely chopped

• 1/2 C brown sugar, packed

• 2-4 Tbl whipping cream OR milk

• 1 tsp vanilla

• Pinch salt

Oven at 350. Line 2 sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Beat first 4 ingredients until creamy. Add the rest on low, beating until well mixed. Shape into 2” balls, place 2” apart on prepared sheets. Make indentations with thumb or back of a spoon.

Filling: stir all ingredients EXCEPT the cream together, then stir in the cream until thick. (If using milk, you probably won’t need but 2 Tbl.) Scoop a rounded spoonful of mix into each cookie. Chill 20 minutes. Bake 10-12 minutes until just turning golden. Cool on the sheet a bit, then finish cooling on a wire rack. Store airtight up to 3 days, or freeze 1 month.

Chocolate Toffee Bars

BASE

• 1 C salted butter, soft

• 1 C brown sugar

• 1 1/2 C flour

TOPPING

• 14 oz sweetened condensed milk

• 1/4 C butter

• 1 C mini chocolate chips

• 1 C Heath toffee bits

Oven at 350. Cream base ingredients together, then press into a 9x13” pan. Bake 20-22 minutes, until slightly golden. Cool 30 minutes (do not skip this step!) or longer. In a medium saucepan, heat the sweetened condensed milk with the butter over medium heat (5-10 minutes), stirring until very thick. Spread over cooled base. Bake 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and evenly sprinkle chocolate chips on top. Bake 2 minutes to soften chips, then spread the chocolate with a rubber spatula, then sprinkle with the toffee bits. Cool & cut into bars.

Once I got to the topping part, I discovered my opened bag of toffee bits had gone rancid. What a stink that is! I found an unopened bag of butter brickle, so I used that instead. They’re still excellent. When spreading the melted chocolate, it mixes with the condensed milk/butter layer, but don’t pull up the base layer. I would caution to cut into bars before refrigerating so they’re still soft enough to cut easily. Voice of experience here.

Crumbl Pecan Pie Cookies

COOKIE

• 1 stick butter, soft

• 1/3 C vegetable OR canola oil

• 1/2 C sugar

• 1/4 C powdered sugar

• 1 egg, room temp

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 2 1/3 C flour

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 1 tsp soda

FILLING

• 5 Tbl butter

• 2/3 C brown sugar

• 1 1/4 C chopped pecans

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1/3 C heavy cream

• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

• Pinch nutmeg

• Pinch salt

Oven at 350. Line sheet with parchment paper. Cookie: Cream butter, oil, and sugars together. Add egg and vanilla, mixing well. Mix in flour, salt, and soda. Form into 9 large balls. Gently flatten on sheet to 1” thick, use rounded 1/4 C measured to make a depression in each for the filling. Bake 8-9 minutes. Cool on sheet.

Filling: in medium saucepan over medium heat, mix the butter, brown sugar, and nuts until sugar dissolves, stirring to coat nuts. Bubble 1-2 minutes, then add the rest, whisking to combine. Remove from heat, top cookies. Cool 20-30 minutes. Store air tight at room temp up to 4 days, in fridge 1 week, or freeze. Zap in microwave to warm.

Since this is a sugar cookie base, this recipe is very different from the first one I shared. I didn’t want nine huge cookies, so I made about 30 regular-sized ones. I plan to use this base again, and top with Hershey kisses, or dark chocolate chunks, or even use the peanut butter/chocolate-based topping from my recipe for mock Twix bars. I might just frost them with a simple powdered sugar frosting or the cream cheese frosting normally used on carrot cake.