Giant Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Source: A variant of the Anna's recipe at Cookie Madness

1 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled (about 5 minutes)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup finely chopped, toasted pecan pieces (I skip toasting when using nuts in baked goods - they seem to toast well enough during the baking process)
2 cup dark chocolate chunks (or semisweet chunks)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment.

2. In a medium bowl, stir (by hand) butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth. Stir in the egg and vanilla, being careful not to overbeat.

3. Mix together the bread flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and stir into sugar mixture. Stir in oats, pecans and finally, chocolate chunks.

4. Chill dough for at least one hour. (The dough is quite stiff - a bit crumbly actually - and I'm not sure chilling is necessary. I might try adding a couple of tablespoons of milk next time to get the batter to come together a bit better.)

5. Drop by packed quarter cupfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.

6. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from baking sheets to cool on wire racks. Let cool completely

7. Source: Anna created this recipe based on two other recipes

My notes: I used to be a Toll House only girl, but I finally started branching out and trying new recipes last year. I love the flavor of Toll House, but I find that Toll House are more soft than chewy and I am really fond of a chewy cookie. I also love the heartier, more substantial cookies that I've had at various bakeries. The Giant cookies have a great buttery flavor, but are not super soft - they are crispy on the outside, but chewy on the inside. I don't make the cookies giant - I prefer regular-size cookies. The batch I made only made 24, so sadly (but also fortunately) I was not able to sample very many. The recipe I am including here will be doubled for a more typical batch of 48.

Variation: Instead of chocolate chips, I have made these using about 2 cups of toffee chips and replacing the pecans with macadamia nuts. They were quite good this way, but I'd also love to try them with toffee and pecans.

I talked about this recipe HERE.