Pengen Treats

Skip the mixer for these. The whole base starts in a saucepan, where sweetened condensed milk melts together with chocolate and butterscotch chips and a little butter into a glossy, caramel-rich pool. That condensed milk is the secret to their soft, almost candy-like chew.

Once it’s smooth, vanilla and flour go in to pull it into a soft dough. You drop spoonfuls onto the sheet, crown each with a pecan half, and bake them briefly. The pecan is more than decoration, toasting in the oven into a buttery crunch against the fudgy cookie underneath.

The bake is fast, just 7 to 9 minutes, and they’ll look barely set when they come out. That’s the goal. These are meant to stay soft and chewy, so resist baking until they look firm or you lose that melt-in-the-mouth texture.

Chef Tips

• Melt the chips and condensed milk over low heat, stirring constantly so the chocolate doesn’t scorch.
• Work fairly quickly once the flour is in; the dough stiffens as it cools.
• Pull them while they still look soft and underset; they finish firming on the hot sheet.

Variations

• Swap the pecan for a walnut half or a whole toasted almond.
• Use all chocolate chips, or all butterscotch, to lean the flavor one way or the other.