CHOCOLATE PECAN COOKIES (BETTER THAN PUBLIX BAKERY)

Steps:

• Set oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. You will be using the center rack. Let the cookie dough sit in the bowl at room temperature for about ten minutes to let the bread flour and cocoa thoroughly integrate with the wet mixture. The bowl can be covered to keep out unwanted stuff, but it is not necessary otherwise. After sitting for about ten minutes, mix a little more. You are now ready to pan and bake. The batch of dough makes twelve 3 ½ inch cookies. The baking sheet should be on the center rack of the oven, so you may have to bake two batches of six cookies (like I do), or you can use two baking sheets on two racks, and swap the sheets half way through baking. It is not necessary to grease the baking sheet. The size of each cookie on the baking sheet should equal about 1/12 the total batch (this should be about the size of a golf ball or slightly bigger). Using your fork or other scooper, put the dollops of cookie dough on the sheet, and mash them till they are fairly flat on top, and about 3 inches across. Bake the cookies for 10 -12 minutes (12 works for me). They should rise somewhat while baking, but will fall flat after taking them out of the oven. Let them cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before taking them off (I use a wooden spatula). Baking is very unforgiving, and these cookies are no exception. There are two main reasons I've found that will give you a bad batch. The cookie dough is either too dry or too oily. Or, the baking time was either too short or too long. If it's too dry and sticks a lot to the baking sheet, you can add 1 TBL of soybean oil to the cookie dough in the next batch. If they are too oily, use less oil in the next batch, or add more milk and/or bread flour. If the dough seems oily enough, but bakes too dry, then reduce the baking time (try 2 minutes less).