Ruth B's "just A Little Pecan Cookie"

Total Time: 1 hr 30 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup salted butter (about room temperature)
• 1 egg (about room temperature)
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup self-rising flour
• 1/2 cup coarse pecan meal (use the broken pecans)
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 60 pecan halves, to top cookies (select the nice ones)

Recipe

• 1 preheat oven to 350 degrees f. cut parchment liners to fit cookie sheets.
• 2 pulse 1/2 cup (plus a few extra) broken halves or chopped pecans in a food chopper or processor to make 1/2 cup coarse pecan meal.
• 3 combine 1 cup self-rising flour,1/2 cup pecan meal, 1/4 t baking powder, & 1/4 t baking soda in a small mixing bowl and set aside.
• 4 cream the butter and sugar in a medium mixing bowl with a hand mixer scraping down sides until well mixed. add egg, molasses, and vanilla. mix well into the butter sugar blend, again scraping sides down and mixing well.
• 5 stir in about one-half the flour mixture using low speed on the mixer( to keep from creating a flour cloud). then add the second half, stirring again until thoroughly blended. may need to scrape down the sides one more time.
• 6 place small balls of soft cookie dough on parchment paper lined cookie sheets -- the balls should be about 1/2-ince in diameter. then gently press a nice pecan half onto the top of each ball flattening them slightly. these cookies will spread to about 2 inches in diameter as they bake & the pecan will roast. this requires a bit of patience to keep from having dough balls & cookies too large for one pecan half topper. chilling dough an hour will reduce cookie spread during cooking & make handling the dough easier.
• 7 bake cookies at 350 f for 12-13 minutes until medium brown. remove from the oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes, slide parchment sheet onto a wire rack to cool another few minutes, gently remove cookies from parchment paper, and cool completely on wire rack. then transfer to an airtight container when cool. for a more chewy cookie, reduce the cooking time to about 10-11 minutes.
• 8 these cookies will be more chewy when first removed from oven, but will become chewy-crisp when cooled. (1/2-inch dough balls, yield = 60 2-inch cookies -- or -- 3/4-inch dough balls, yield = 36 2 1/2-inch cookies) cooking time will vary depending on how many sheets your oven can accommodate at a time, cooking time given is for using one sheet of 12-16 at a time.