Monday, March 31, 2008

Caramel Coffee Pecan Sea Salt Cookies



Caramel Coffee Pecan Sea Salt Cookies

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup cinnamon flavored butter spread (I used Shedd's Country Crock)
1 tablespoon instant coffee
2 medium eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup caramel bits

1/2 cup sugared or spiced pecans (I used Trader Joe's glazed pecans)
Sea Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Sift all dry ingredients together and set aside. In another bowl, beat sugars and butters until creamy. Add coffee, eggs, and vanilla, and mix gently. Gradually add the egg mixture to the flour mixture to and mix until combined. Add caramel bits and fold in. Scoop by measured teaspoons onto the parchment lined sheet. These cookies spread quite a bit, so do not crowd. Bake for 5 minutes at 350, until they have melted and spread. At this time, I opened the door and pressed a pecan bit into each cookie, so that it would be joined to the dough, but, not absorbed by it. I also lightly sprinkled sea salt at this time, and baked another 10-12 minutes. Cooking time will depend on your oven -- and this was a hard one to judge. The cookies are thin and sticky, so the doughy factor was hard to gauge. The first batch wasn't done after 10 minutes, so I increased the second batch to 20, which a bid too long. Ultimately, the third batch took about 16-18 minutes for the crispy texture I like.

Taste: I can't really say for sure. I have a bad cold, but, they seem to be good. They smell good. Texture is nice -- crispy and chewy at the same time.

Repeat? Probably not. I just don't like making cookies, it bores me.

Skill: Too much effort for me. I'm not a cookie maker. Or maybe it's because I am sick and shouldn't be cooking (and spreading my cooties in the process).
Easy Variations: If you don't have a bag of caramel bits, you could cut up sea salt caramels by Trader Joe's, or use butterscotch chips. I used Country Crock Cinnamon Spread because I had a little tub languishing unused forever and wanted to use it up. You could substitute shortening. You could mix diced pecans right inside. You could sprinkle the coffee powder on top.
See you. I'm going back to bed.

1 comment:

  1. that combination of flavors sounds wonderful to me, I might have to mess with this recipe.

    ReplyDelete

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