and he hooked it up to download Clara’s cloud backup. She’ll have her photos and everything else on her new phone by the time Cliff opens the hardware store in the morning.”
CRUNCHY CHEWY WHITE CHOCOLATE COOKIES
DO NOT preheat oven—dough must chill before baking.
1 and ½ cups melted butter (3 sticks, 12 ounces, ¾ pound)
2 cups white (granulated) sugar
2 large eggs beaten (just whip them up in a cup with a fork)
½ cup white Karo syrup
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup finely chopped pecans (measure AFTER chopping)
4 cups all-purpose flour (pack the flour down in the cup when you measure it)
2 cups white chocolate (or vanilla baking) chips (an 11-ounce bag will be fine)
½ cup white (granulated) sugar for coating the dough balls
Hannah’s 1st Note: To measure Karo syrup, first spray the inside of a measuring cup with Pam so that the syrup won’t stick to the sides of the cup.
Melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl by heating it on HIGH for 90 seconds or until melted. (I use a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup with a spout.)
Hannah’s 2nd Note: You can use a mixer from this point on if you wish.
Pour the melted butter in the bottom of a large mixing bowl and add the white sugar on top.
Mix until everything is well combined.
Feel the bowl. If it’s not so hot that it will cook the eggs, add them now and mix them in.
Add the Karo syrup, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and vanilla extract. Mix thoroughly.
Mix in the finely chopped pecans and mix until thoroughly blended.
Hannah’s 3rd Note: You can use finely chopped almonds or finely chopped walnuts if you prefer.
Add the flour in half-cup increments, mixing after each addition.
Remove the bowl from the mixer. Give it a final stir and set it on the counter.
Stir in the white chocolate (or vanilla baking) chips by hand.
Cover the dough in the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and stick it in the refrigerator.
Chill the dough for at least 1 hour. (Overnight is fine, too.)
When you’re ready to bake, take the cookie dough out of the refrigerator and set it on the counter.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
While your oven is preheating, prepare your cookie sheets by spraying them with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray, or lining them with parchment paper.
Once your cookie sheets have been prepared, measure out ½ cup white granulated sugar and place it in a shallow bowl. You’ll use this to coat your cookies.
With impeccably clean hands, shape the cookie dough into walnut-sized balls. (If your cookie dough is sticky, coat your fingers with sugar and then try to shape the balls.)
Roll the dough balls in the bowl of white granulated sugar to coat them. Work with only one cookie dough ball at a time.
Place the coated cookie dough balls on your prepared cookie sheets, 12 balls to a standard-size sheet.
Press the dough balls down slightly so that they won’t roll off on the way to the oven.
Bake Crunchy Chewy White Chocolate Cookies at 350 degrees F. for 12 to 14 minutes or until they are nicely browned. (Mine took 14 minutes.)
Take the cookies out of the oven and place them on wire racks or cold stove burners.
Cool the cookies on the cookie sheets for 1 minute and then remove them to a wire rack to finish cooling. (If you used parchment paper to line your cookie sheets, you can simply pull it off the sheet and onto the wire rack, cookies and all.)
Yield: 5 to 7 dozen tasty cookies, depending on cookie size.
Chapter Twenty
“Please stop here, Norman,” Hannah said as they approached the visitor parking lot in front of the condo clubhouse. “Mother wants to hold her book launch party here and I have to run in for a second to check out the seating.”
“No problem.” Norman pulled into the spot closest to the clubhouse and got out of the car. “I’ll go with you, Hannah.”
Hannah almost told him that she was perfectly capable of checking out the seating by herself, but before she could form the words, she thought better of it. Norman was protecting her and, if she admitted the truth, she was very grateful to have someone looking out for her. Her encounters with Ross, both in person and on the phone, had left her severely rattled. It made her feel much safer to have someone accompany her inside the large building that would probably be deserted at this hour.
“Thanks,