Holiday Baking

Back in December, I signed up to bake cookies for two events: Christmas Eve service at my church, and the Charity Newsies cookie sale at my work. I decided to bake two recipes from a book I had gotten from the library: More from Magnolia by Allysa Torey. The cover of this book is so mouth-watering I have to share it (courtesy of amazon.com):

I have to say that I think I am in love with this cookbook. Generally when I look at a cookbook to see if it's something I would be interested in, I give it a flip test. I flip to about five random pages and see what recipes I land on. If a majority of those are foods I would NOT be interested in eating or making, then I know it's not a book for me. Well when I did a flip test with this book, every single page I landed on made me drool. And then when I flipped through every page from the beginning, I got really exciting about the baking possibilities. I think I will have to buy this one.

Anyway, for the two occasions for which I had signed up to bake, I decided to try two recipes: Snickerdoodles and White Chocolate Pecan Drop Cookies. I was disappointed in the Snickerdoodles (pictured second above). They were kind of a pain in the butt to make because the dough had to be refrigerated, and I wasn't too thrilled with the results. I actually don't know that I have ever had a Snickerdoodle before, so I'm not even sure if they tasted like what they were supposed to. So I'm not going to post that recipe. But the White Chocolate Pecan Drop cookies were delicious. They were a really nice variation on a basic chocolate chip cookie.

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup (1-1/3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans

2/3 cup coarsely chopped white chocolate

Note: to toast the pecans, place on a baking sheet in a 350-degree oven for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned and fragrant.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter with the sugars until smooth, about two minutes. Add the egg and vanilla extract, and beat well. Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Stir in the pecans and white chocolate. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets, leaving several inches in between for expansion. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly golden.

Cool the cookies on the sheets for 5 minutes, and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.