NANCY'S DECADENT HEATH BAR® COOKIES

NANCY'S DECADENT HEATH BAR® COOKIES image

Yield 3 dozen

Number Of Ingredients 12

½ cup Crisco solid shortening
¼ cup butter, softened
1¼ cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (that's not a typo... it's about 3X the normal amount of vanilla)
2 tablespoons milk or cream
1 egg
1¾ cups + 2 tablespoons unsifted all purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt (also a bit more than usual for a batch this size)
12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
6 oz. Heath Toffee Bits
¾ cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Steps:

Preheat oven to 350°. Place length of foil on flat surface (or on cookie sheet, see "Optional:" in Introduction.) In large bowl, beat shortening, brown sugar, milk or cream, and vanilla on medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Add egg. Beat well. Stir together flour, salt and baking soda. Gradually add dry ingredients to sugar mixture, beating at low speed, just until well mixed. Stir in chocolate, toffee chips (and nuts, if desired). Drop by rounded tablespoons 3" apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. (These cookies spread a bit more than regular chocolate chip cookies.) Bake 10-11 min, or until cookies are set. Cookies will appear soft and moist, and a little puffed-up, which will drop as they cool. Do not overbake. Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to foil. Cool completely. Store in tightly sealed container.