SALTY-SWEET BUTTER PECAN COOKIES

Salty-Sweet Butter Pecan Cookies image

OMG delicious! Addictive! The salty-sweet with the pecans and butterscotch is just the best! Found it on the King Arthur Flour site. The recipe noted - "If you're making smaller (teaspoon cookie scoop-sized) cookies, increase the coating to 1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar mixed with 1 3/4 to 2 teaspoons salt." Nice tips at the site too (like chilling versus not chilling dough & more or less salt) - http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/salty-sweet-butter-pecan-cookies-recipe . Adding to my recipes so as to never ever lose this one! UPDATE - made these for Christmas platters - OMG, they are soo good -crunchy, sweet, salty & pecan toasty! We got 111 cookies from this batch having made them teaspoon-sized - perfect for Christmas platters. Will stick with the 1/2 teaspoon of butter-nut flavor we wimpily opted to use - it was perfect for our tastes.

Provided by Busters friend

Categories Dessert

Time 44m

Yield 4 dozen

Number Of Ingredients 16

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups pecan halves
2/3 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon butterscotch extract (vanilla-butternut & butter-rum flavor fine too)
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour (King Arthur Unbleached)
1 1/3 cups butterscotch chips
1/3 cup granulated sugar, for topping
1 -1 1/4 teaspoon salt, for topping

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 375°F Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.
Place the pecans in a single layer in a pan, and toast till they've darkened a bit and smell toasty, about 8 to 9 minutes. Set them aside.
In a large bowl, combine the sugars, butter, shortening, salt, espresso powder, baking soda, vanilla, flavor, and vinegar, beating until smooth and creamy.
Beat in the egg, again beating till smooth. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is thoroughly combined.
Mix in the flour, then the chips and toasted nuts.
If you're going to refrigerate the dough, cover the bowl, and refrigerate for about 4 to 5 hours; or overnight. Cookie dough refrigerated for 3 1/2 to 4 hours will spread moderately; chilled overnight, it will spread much less.
Mix the 1/3 cup sugar and salt for the coating, and put it in a bowl. To bake cookies immediately (without refrigeration), use a spoon (or a tablespoon cookie scoop) to scoop 1 1/2" balls of dough into the sugar/salt mixture, rolling to coat. Then transfer to the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2" between them on all sides; they'll spread quite a bit. Or use a teaspoon cookie scoop to scoop 1 1/4" balls of dough.
Bake the cookies for 10 to 11 minutes - 11 minutes for smaller cookies, 12 for larger ones. Their edges will be chestnut brown and their tops a lighter golden brown. (For dough that's been refrigerated, add 30 seconds to 1 minute to those baking times.) Remove them from the oven, and cool on the pan till they've set enough to move without breaking. Repeat with the remaining dough.