Recipes

Peach Pecan White Chocolate Cookies

Sometimes at night, when my characters aren’t whispering in my ear, and I can’t sleep, I think about ingredients for recipes.

“If I combine this with that, what would it taste like?” questions roll through my thoughts in those wee hours of the morning.

Such was the case when I thought about combining peaches, pecans, and caramel.

My first try, I used caramel bits and they were like hard little rocks in the cookies.

The second attempt, I added white chocolate and left out the caramel. The cookies had a wonderful flavor, but they spread too much and were chewier than I wanted.

The third time was the charm. These cookies turned out so well and I’m happy to be able to share the recipe with you today!

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 cup fresh ripe peach pieces (about 1 large peach)

1 cup pecan pieces

1 12-ounce bag of white chocolate chips

2 2-ounce bags of Werther’s Original soft caramels

DIRECTIONS:

Wash and peel a ripe peach, then cut into small pieces. Set aside.

Cream butter with sugars in a large mixing bowl on medium speed. Add egg, then blend in vanilla. Add in baking soda, then flour. Stir in peaches, pecans, and white chocolate chips.

Cover bowl and refrigerate for at least an hour.

While dough chills, unwrap caramels and cut each piece into thirds. Set aside. (The caramels need to be soft. A hard caramel – like Kraft – will not work!)

Remove dough from fridge and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon to gather about a walnut size ball of dough. Push a piece of caramel into the center, making sure it is surrounded by dough, then set dough balls on a parchment-paper covered baking sheet.

Bake 12-15 minutes, until dough is set but not yet brown. Remove from oven and cool a few minutes in the pan, then transfer to a baking rack to finish cooling.

Store in an air-tight container for up to five days.

Yield: Approximately 4 dozen cookies.

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