SPICED TOFFEE CHIP COOKIES

 Spicy Toffee Cookies warm from the oven

On a hot humid day like today most of you are thinking about a cold beer or a pink lemonade on ice.  I waited until the sun was setting so I could turn my oven on and not overheat my house!  Mind you sipping on the iced beverage did help pass the time.

I have had this recipe sitting in a drawer for months with the intention of whipping it up when I had a few minutes.  These contain spices you often associate with the winter season, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger. In my mind warm cookies with a hit of toffee are great for any season.  Just remember if you know anyone with a nut allergy toffee chips contain almonds.

Today during a terrific yoga class the instructor was talking to the class about contentment and enjoying what you have.  We spend so much time thinking about what to do next, our to-do list, how to get more stuff and ways to run around and do more in less time so maybe, just maybe, we can have a half hour to ourselves.

How does this tie into Spicy Toffee Cookies....well it got me to thinking how happy I am in the kitchen and how very content I am in my new space and how happy I am when something I make turns out as tasty as I hope and that lead me to pull out this recipe that keeps getting put on the top of the pile of 'my bake it up soon' recipes but never seems to get done.  So today I took my yoga instructor's advice and enjoyed all my moments of baking up these easy spiced cookies.  I especially enjoyed the "quality control" portion of the exercise.

These are so quick and easy to make they will be added to my regular rotation.

Spiced Toffee Chip Cookies

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar, light or dark
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup toffee bits (I used SKOR bits)
Optional:  3-4 tablespoons of granulated sugar

Beat butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until light.  Add in egg and beat well.  Add in vanilla and mix in well.

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.  Add into butter mixture and mix until incorporated (just until you no flour is visible).  Add in toffee bits and stir in well.

Drop by tablespoonful onto prepared sheets and DO NOT flatten.  (You could roll into balls but I find using a medium or small ice cream scoop is easier as the dough is quite buttery.)  Space cookies about 2 inches apart as they flatten out and spread during baking.

If you wish you can roll the blobs of dough or the little balls in the sugar before placing on the baking sheets.  I just sprinkled some sugar over top of the cookies before baking.

Bake about 12 minutes or until set.

Suggestion:  Instead of toffee bits chop up some Skor bars and add in the chocolate toffee bar pieces.

I don't think you can eat just one of these spicy toffee chewy cookies.