This recipe was printed in the Fort Worth Star Telegram and came from Tamara Reese. It actually was the winner of their cookie contest for 2010. These crunchy cookies are chock full of goodies like pecans, toffee chips and chocolate chips, so it's no surprise that they came in first. Also, note that the recipe makes a whopping 7 dozen.
Toffee Temptations
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups toasted, chopped pecans
8 oz bag of Heath Toffee Bits
2 cups semisweet choc chips
3 cups old fashioned oats
3/4 cup butter flavor crisco shortening
3/4 cup unsalted butter (room temp)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tbs Mexican or regular vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 tbs baking powder
1 tbs baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Fill a large bowl (approx 6 quarts) with the butter and shortening and beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. This should take about 3 minutes, depending on how soft the butter and speed of the electric mixer. Beat in both types of sugars, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl. Once combined, continue to beat and add eggs one at a time. Then mix in vanilla extract. Set aside.
In another bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt). Add 1/3 of this flour mixture to butter batter and mix with a wooden spoon. Continue with the second and third additions, making sure all flour is incorporated into batter. Then mix in the oats, chocolate chips, pecans and toffee bits. The batter will be quite stiff, so you may need to mix by hand.
Scoop out rounded tablespoons of dough and place on prepared cookie sheet. You should be able to get 12 cookies on a standard cookie sheet. Place cookie sheet in oven and bake 11-14 minutes, depending how crisp you want the cookies. Once baked, let cool on cookie sheet about 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.