Oatmeal Chocolate Butterscotch Pecan Cookies
I’ve tried a lot of oatmeal cookies, but this one has them all beaten. Adapted from a recipe posted on Smitten Kitchen, I was doubtful at first about the quantity of chopped pecans the recipe called for (2 whole cups – that’s a heck of a lot of nuts!), but I stand humbly corrected. I was wrong to doubt. These are the sweetest, crunchiest, loveliest cousins of the chocolate chip cookie ever.
I made these for Eli for Valentine’s Day, albeit a week late (no shame on me, though – we were both late V-Dayers), and they were apparently the perfect accompaniment to Sunday’s NASCAR race. In fact, at one point, he used my laptop to check standings online, and when I opened it the next day, the keyboard was full of cookie crumbs. I don’t know if that necessarily attests to the superiority of the cookies, but they certainly left their mark.
I’ve recently become a fan of mixing chocolate and butterscotch chips half and half in things, so that’s my main deviation here, along with adding a teaspoon of vanilla. What makes these so unique, though, on top of the quantity of finely chopped pecans, is the spice mixture – cinnamon, nutmeg, and a dash of cloves add depth that’s unexpected in a cookie laden with chocolate and butterscotch chips. They look like an ordinary variation of oatmeal cookie. They are not.
I did have a couple of mishaps while making these that I have to share here, just because they’re funny now (they definitely weren’t funny at the time). I have one of those choppers with the rotating blade, the kind with the removable bottom, which is how you release whatever you’ve just chopped. I used it to chop the pecans for these, and while I was chopping away with great force (nuts tend to stick on the blade, and chopping takes a bit more effort than, say, a tomato), the chopper slipped on the countertop, the bottom came off, and chopped pecans flew everywhere. There were even bits of chopped pecan in the coffee pot. I stopped mid-chop, wiped up the counter, swept the kitchen floor, began again…and did it all over again not a minute later! Suffice it to say I threw out at least a cupful of pricey pecans. I was so frustrated I actually broke a sweat. As a result, I’ve decided to invest in a chopper with a screw-on lid.
Oatmeal Chocolate Butterscotch Pecan Cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Cream together:
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted sweet cream butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup white or raw cane sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
Beat in:
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
In a separate bowl, whisk together:
1-1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
Add the dry mixture to the wet a half cupful at a time, mixing after each addition until fully combined.
Stir in:
1 cup rolled oats
2 cups chopped pecans
6 ounces chocolate chips
6 ounces butterscotch chips
Drop by teaspoonfuls onto baking sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes, until golden. Remove to a cooling rack.
Makes about 3 dozen.