What about this?

What About This? celebrates its one month anniversary today, so in appreciation of all of you who’ve been loyal followers and to those of you who just stopped by for a peek, here’s a bonus post! Your positive feedback and great comments have encouraged my creative spirit. This is my sixteenth post and I can hardly contain all the thoughts and ideas I still have for this blog!

So in celebration of W.A.T.’s one month birthday, I baked cookies! I hadn’t tried this recipe before, but was very pleased with the results. The cookies have a nice crunchy exterior and a soft chewy center – the best of both world’s in my mind! Here are my tweaks to the recipe: I added a half-cup of Heath Bar Bits. I don’t like my cookies overly sweet, so I resisted temptation to add more. I also toasted the pecans ahead of time. Toasting brings out the flavor in nuts. Because I like chunky cookies, I added more coconut than the recipe called for and because I didn’t have a bar of semisweet chocolate to cut into chunks, I used a bag of chocolate chips.

Here’s my adaption of Martha Stewart’s Cowboy Cookies:

Ingredients

Makes about 3 dozen.

* Vegetable oil cooking spray
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
* 3/4 cup granulated sugar
* 3/4 cup light-brown sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
* 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into 1/4-inch chunks (1 cup) or chocolate chips
* 3 ounces (3/4 cup) pecan halves, toasted
* 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (more if you like coconut)
* 1/2 cup toffee bits

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder.
2. Beat butter and sugars with a mixer on medium-high until pale and creamy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low, and slowly add flour mixture, beating until just incorporated. Beat in oats, chocolate, pecans, coconut, and toffee bits until combined. (Dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)
4. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or a small spoon, drop dough onto baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart.
5. Bake until edges of cookies begin to brown, 11 to 13 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to a wire rack, and let cool for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks. Let cool. (Cookies can be stored up to 3 days.)

Enjoy this recipe and thanks for your continued support of What About This?