• Yield: Serves 12 to 15


This recipe has made the rounds, and never fails to impress. It’s all the satisfaction of crisp, sugary, brown-buttery chocolate chip cookies for very little time and effort. Perfect for weekday baking, gifting, compulsive snacking, and making friends and influencing people.

Try a variety of chip and nut combinations in the mix—I love bittersweet chocolate chips and pecans, but consider cashews and butterscotch chips, shredded coconut, salted peanuts, and more—this workhorse of a recipe can take it.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup/225 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

  • 1 cup/200 g granulated sugar

  • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt

  • 2 cups/256 g all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled

  • 1 cup/170 g chopped pecans, lightly toasted

  • 1 cup/170 g bittersweet chocolate chips (60% cacao)

Midwest Made book cover with various dessert dishes on tabletop Midwest Made by Shauna Sever

Directions

Position a rack to the center of the oven and preheat it to 350°F/180°C. Have ready a 12 x 17-inch/30 x 43 cm rimmed baking sheet.

In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter and vanilla. Add the sugar and salt and continue to whisk until the mixture thickens and appears pastelike. Switch to a wooden spoon or spatula and mix in the flour. Stir in the nuts and chocolate chips. Press the mixture into the ungreased pan in a thin, even layer (use the chocolate chips as your guide—try to get them in as close to a single layer as possible throughout the dough, and you’ll have the right thickness).

Bake for 23 to 25 minutes, or until light golden brown (the edges will be a bit darker than the center), rotating the pan 180 degrees every 7 to 8 minutes during baking. Let cool completely before breaking into charmingly irregular pieces. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.


Reprinted with permission from Midwest Made © 2019 By Shauna Sever, Running Press

Shauna Sever
Shauna Sever is the author of the cookbooks, Marshmallow Madness!, Pure Vanilla and Real Sweet. Her latest book is Midwest Made. She is also the voice behind the baking blog Piece of Cake. She's appeared on The Today Show, Food Network, Home and Family, Serious Eats, Chow and Ulive.com. Her writing and recipes have been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine, Food and Wine, Bon Appetit, Fine Cooking, Family Circle and USA Weekend.