Salted Oatmeal and Pecan Cookies

On Saturday mornings I often run errands with my husband and we have a breakfast date afterwards. This particular Saturday morning I needed to return something to Home Goods so he went along with me. Schmoo is not a big shopper though he can be enthusiastic about shopping if its something he wants to buy (golf clubs have been popular with him lately), is buying a gift for someone or happens to be decorating a new home. One of my husband’s many good qualities is his affability about such domestic matters.

The Jacksonville Beach Home Goods must be printing money. This store is always crowded. By always I mean the 3 times I have been there since moving here in November but still, if you think brick and mortar retail is dead, you are wrong. This store is pulsating with goods for the home and housewives are snatching ’em up!

Speaking of housewives buying goods for the home, guilty as charged. I found a yellow cookie jar that I could not resist and brought it home to the Casa Kitchen just in time for Spring where I think it looks very jaunty…..

In honor of this new cookie jar I decided to make some cookies and oatmeal cookies are easy because the ingredients are almost always on hand and I can feel good about those whole grains. I feel pretty good about the butter, brown sugar, sugar and spices too.

Every cook needs a “go-to” cookbook and mine is a classic…..the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. This is the binder style cookbook where you would purchase new pages every few years as the publisher updated the cookbook. My mother Joan Collins (an accomplished home cook in her own right and my first cooking teacher) gave me my first New Cook Book when I moved into my first apartment in 1987.

I started my cookies with their basic Oatmeal Cookie recipe–

in a mixing bowl beat 1/2 cup softened butter with 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda. Here is where I depart from the cookbook and add a liberal sprinkling of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, 5-6 whole cloves crushed and 1 cup of finely chopped pecans.

Mix the spices and nuts in the dough and add the remaining 3/4 cup of flour and 2 cups of rolled oats. I like to use a pastry knife for cookie dough like this and it helps to chop up the nuts as well. If the dough is too dry you can add water 1 tablespoon at a time until its the right consistency to form a shaped ball.

Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet 2 inches apart and sprinkle the cookies with a light dusting of kosher salt. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 10-12 minutes until edges are golden and remove warm cookies to a cooling rack.

Allow to cool completely and then fill up that cookie jar! Its cold and rainy today in our little corner of Florida and these cookies are the perfect tweet–sweet and salty. Just like me. 😎😘