Turn of the century

Everyone has heard of pregnant women having cravings for or aversions to certain foods.  I fortunately didn't have too many problems with that in either of my pregnancies.  The only aversion I really had was to most meat when I was pregnant with Brianna.  It wasn't a problem with Gillian.  And with Gillian, I had a thing for mint chocolate chip ice cream (HEB Creamy Creations, for those of you in Texas).  I had a scoop of it just about every day for several months.  We're talking quite a few gallons all together (I don't really want to think too hard about the total).  And now, while I do like it once in a while, I can definitely live without it.  

When I was grocery shopping at Central Market Friday night, I was reminded of a craving I had during the last month of my pregnancy with Brianna.  I don't normally like really sweet things.  I'd rather eat chocolate. =)  But I ate Nestle butterscotch chips by the handful.  I went through several bags.  Most of the time, I can hardly stand to look at them, since they're so sweet.  Well, what I found was a display of several flavors of Guittard chips that I hadn't seen before.  Butterscotch, Green Mint, and Cappucino.  I don't really like coffee-flavored things, so I wasn't tempted by the cappucino ones.  I did think about grabbing a bag of the mint ones, to put in something chocolate.  But a bag of the butterscotch ones immediately jumped into my cart.  =)  Honestly, I think I'm going back for more, maybe tomorrow--they are full 12-ounce bags, for $1.69 each!

As soon as I got home, I opened the bag for a taste.  Wow.  Very smooth and creamy.  Sweet, but not overpoweringly so.  I started trying to figure out what to make with them, so I wouldn't just eat them all out of the bag.  My first thought was Oatmeal Scotchies.  I haven't had them in forever.  I was all set to make the dough last night, when I discovered a problem--I only had about a cup of oatmeal.  Oops.  So I thought some more.  I had pecans, which I thought would be good with the chips.  And I've been playing around with my standard chocolate chip cookie recipe, adding whole wheat flour to it.  So here's what I came up with:

Butterscotch Pecan Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1 1/2 cups (6 3/4 ounces) all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur)

3/4 cup (3 3/8 ounces) white whole wheat flour (King Arthur here, too)

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans, toasted

1 1/2 cups butterscotch chips

You can mix the dough in a stand mixer, but I usually just use a large mixing bowl and a wooden spoon.  Cream together the sugars and butter.  Beat in the vanilla and egg.  Mix in the flours, salt and baking soda.  The dough will be stiff.  Stir in the nuts and butterscotch chips.  You can use the dough right away, but I prefer to refrigerate it at least overnight.  

If the dough is chilled, take it out of the fridge so that it can soften a bit while you preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Line a heavy baking sheet with parchment paper.  I use a #70 disher (which holds about 2 teaspoons) to scoop the dough onto the baking sheet.  Bake for 11-13 minutes, until the edges are golden brown.  Let the cookies rest on the pan for about 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.  Yields 5 dozen cookies (about 2 1/2 inches in diameter).  

The verdict?  Delicious!  Not too sweet.  The toasted pecans add a really nice touch.  Jamie really liked them; not surprising, since he loves butterscotch.  Both girls ate them as well, although Brianna had to complain about the pecans first.  =)  I think most of these are heading out the door to other people so I don't eat them all.  

Oh, and the post title?  This is my 100th post!  I'm amazed at how much my blog has evolved since I started.  My pictures are a lot better, for one thing. =)  And next month is my blogiversary, so I'm trying to come up with a good way to celebrate.  I don't know what I was thinking, starting it two days before Christmas.  Like people with birthdays on or near Christmas, I don't want it to get overlooked because of the timing. =)  We'll see...