Chocolate-Toffee Cookies with Toasted Pecans

I had bookmarked this recipe when I first came across it on the blogs that I read. They looked like a rich chocolate cookie with tasty toffee chips. They are a bit unusual in that they use very little flour and butter, but lots and lots of chocolate. And toffee chips. And nuts!

When I got the dough made and put it in the refrigerator to chill, I was quite worried as the dough (or batter really) was really fluid and I didn’t think it would form up. I chilled it for over an hour, and it did firm up some, but I was sure these were going to spread a lot when I baked them, and I was right. I think I could have made these a lot smaller (maybe using a teaspoon rather than a tablespoon) and then they may have worked. The one batch that I did made as regular cookies were really great once they cooked completely. They had sort of melded into several cookie globs, but boy were they good!

I had a lot of dough left and I thought about what to do with the rest of it. I thought I would try scooping it into mini muffin cups and that worked ok, but it was hard to get them cooked all of the way through and therefore were virtually impossible to remove them from the pan. I also made some in my pan that is sort of a square muffin pan. Those worked the best, but were still a challenge to get them out of the pan cleanly.

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 pound semisweet chocolate chips (bittersweet is ok too)

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

1 3/4 cups (packed) brown sugar

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

5 1/2-ounces milk chocolate toffee bits

1/2 cup toasted pecans, chopped

Toast the pecans in the oven or microwave. Set aside to cool. Chop the pecans when cool.

Melt the chocolate and the butter using a double boiler set over simmering, not boiling, water, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat, but keep chocolate warm over the hot water.

In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. In a large mixer bowl, beat the brown sugar and eggs in bowl until thick, about 5 minutes. Add the chocolate to the sugar mixture, then add the vanilla. Stir in flour mixture, then the toffee bits and pecans. Cover with saran wrap and chill batter in the refrigerator until firm, about 30 minutes. (My batter never got all that firm.)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with silicone baking mats. Spray a tablespoon measure with cooking spray, then drop heaping tablespoonfuls of batter onto sheets, spacing 2 1/2 inches apart. Periodically spray the tablespoon again to help the batter drop onto baking sheets easily. Alternatively, scoop the dough into miniature muffin pans.

Bake cookies at 350 degrees , until tops are dry and cracked but cookies are still soft to touch, about 15 minutes.

Adapted from Baking and Books who got the recipe from http://www.epicurious.com/