White Chocolate & Macadamia nut cookies

Bob went back to school this week, and to make it a little easier for him, I made him these lovely cookies.

 

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup melted butter

¼ cup brown sugar

¾ cup white sugar

2 large eggs

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups white chocolate chips

1 cup chopped macadamia nuts

 

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

 

In one bowl, whisk  together the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Add the eggs, and vanilla and whisk again. Whisk in the flour, then the baking soda, then the salt. Toss in the white chocolate chips and the macadamia nuts, and fold them into the dough so that they are distributed throughout.

 

Take an ice cream scoop and place equal spoonfuls of dough about an inch or two apart on a cookie sheet. Place the cookie sheets in the over for 10-15mins. Take out of the oven, and let them cool a minute or two on the cookie sheet. 

Pear & Apple Pie with crumb topping

My fridge is full of apples, pears, and peaches fresh from the farms of the Western Slope.  We have more fruit than we know what to do with! B & I had an end of the season picnic this past Friday with our softball team. I got up early Friday morning to make a pie to take, but after getting a look at it, B decided that it was not for sharing. I grew up in a family that believes that pie is an acceptable breakfast food, so this is what B & I had all weekend.

 

*Important note: Fruits give off gases, and the gases given off by apples do not mesh well with the gases given off by pears. Store them separately. We keep our peaches and apples in a basket on the bottom shelf of the fridge, and then the pears in a bowl on the top shelf of the fridge. If you keep pears and apples together, they ripen too fast.

 

Crumb topping:

½ cup flour

¼ cup brown sugar

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

4 tablespoons cold butter chopped into tiny pieces

 

Pie Filing:

I frozen pie crust

4 apples of any kind, peeled & cored, and sliced into bite-sized pieces

4 pears of any kind (feel free to mix types) peeled & cored, and sliced into bite sized pieces

½ cup brown sugar

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon cold butter chopped into tiny pieces

 

Make the topping by mixing all of the topping ingredients together in a Tupperware dish or covered bowl.  Cover the dish and shake the mixture. Set aside.

 

Put the apple and pear pieces in a bowl with the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter. Give it a good stir with a spoon so that all the fruit pieces are covered.  Put the pie filling into a frozen piecrust. Top evenly with the crumb topping.

 

Place the pie (in pan) on a cookie sheet (to prevent messy overflow situations) and place the pie in the oven @ 375 degrees for 40mins.