Chewy Caramel Pecan Cookies

That's a pretty picture, isn't it?

I'm not afraid to admit that this was batch number two of cookie dough and about 3 hours later with approximately 18 cookies burnt, squished, flattened, and broken all sitting in the trash can.

You might as well count this post as my Kitchen Confessional because I'm about to share it all.

I know that it's easy to look at a picture and assume that the ingredients all just fell into place and a perfect little cookie just popped out of the oven, but that's not always the case. I had burnt so many of these cookies that when the final batch came out, I didn't even want to eat one.

The reason I wanted to share this troubling day of baking with you is that I know someone that struggles with baking. Someone that I know gets very upset when the recipe doesn't work or the final result doesn't look like the picture. So I wanted you to know, if you bake these cookies and they don't look exactly like my picture or the picture of any recipe, that's okay. Baking is a science and there's a ton of outside factors that could play into your dessert. Besides the most important part is that it tastes good!

And if that fails, ice cream is always a beautiful dessert to serve up!

Recipe notes:

You might wonder why it's necessary to refrigerate the dough for an hour only to then let it come to room temperature. The reason why is because your butter which started off at room temperature has definitely gotten warmer as you've worked in the sugar, dry ingredients, and the pecans. So the butter needs to firm up again before you bake it so the cookies don't spread as much. You don't want the dough to sit out for an hour before you bake it, just like 20 minutes or so, so the dough is easier to scoop and shape!

It's best to top the cookies with the caramels at the last minute of cooking so they don't burn. I had a lot of troubles with the caramel melting too much and burning, causing the cookies to burn as well! The last-minute addition allows the caramels to get slightly melty without negatively affecting the cookie!

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

½ a teaspoon of salt

½ cup of butter, room temperature

½ cup of packed brown sugar

¼ cup of sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla

¾ cup of chopped pecans

Chewy caramel candies, about 10

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together.

Then, in the bowl of a stand mixer, add in the room temperature butter and the sugars. Cream together until light and fluffy.

Add in the egg and vanilla.

Slowly, spoon in the flour mixture. Towards the end, the stand mixer might get a little slow, but that just means the cookie dough is almost done!

Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and hand stir the pecans in!

Cover and chill the dough for about an hour, or overnight if you need be!

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bring the cookie dough out to warm up slightly while the oven preheats.

In the meantime, prep the caramel candies. I unwrapped mine and cut them into four pieces. Then, I take a small piece and roll it into a ball in my hand!

Using a cookie scoop, place dollops of cookie dough onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake for about 10-15 minutes. At the last minute, take the cookies out and add two to three caramel dots to the top. Place them back in the oven for the final minute.

Bring the cookies out to cool. The cookies will be slightly soft on top but golden brown on the bottom! The caramel should be soft and just starting to spread on top of the cookies.

Sprinkle with a pinch of flaky salt and these cookies are good to go!

These cookies are the perfect balance of sweet and salty! The pecans add a nice little crunch to the smooth creamy caramel. They are just too good to only eat one, or two, or maybe three...

-Holly Michelle