I love you, chocolate chip cookies!!

There are so many baked goods to love; but since childhood, the top of the list has been held by chocolate chip cookies.  They were always made with the Tollhouse recipe found on the back of the yellow bag of chocolate chips.

As a burgeoning gourmet cook I thought there surely had to be a better recipe.  I've tried other recipes in years past and read many more.  I've seen fancy blogs researching and they say they have the world's best chocolate chip cookie.  Perhaps they do have the best, but after my searching I ended up back nearly where I started.

I am a bit of a chocolate snob and no longer use Nestlé's famous chip.  I prefer Ghirardelli Bittersweet chocolate chips.  In the past the recipe had a statement to cream the butter and sugars for several minutes rather than until creamy.  That extra time to properly mix those ingredients really make a difference in my mind.  I've made these cookies for years to many rave reviews. 

My cookies also have Oklahoma grown native pecans.  I found a source for local pecans, a man in a small hamlet that gathers, cracks and picks out pecans.  The pecans this man found are tiny, but so much flavor.  It was a bit of an expedition to meet up with this man.  I drug my sick husband into the car to go with me.  We were to meet up with this man at the "town" post office.  We arrived at the agreed time.  Never have I seen such a busy post office.  I guessed they didn't have local delivery and everyone in the area had to pick up their mail there.  So many people arrived as we sat there, each time we hoped this was the "one".  Finally 30 minutes later a guy comes walking around the corner of the post office with bags in his hands.  This was the guy!  The pecans were beautiful, but so little.  I can't imagine picking them out myself.  I feel lucky to have found these pecans and have many pounds of them in my deep freeze to last out until the next season. 

If you aren't nutty like me, the cookies can easily be made without them.