Here’s a great way to enjoy a holiday classic in a smaller bite. Stuffed in the sweet and soft buttery cookie is a pecan pie filling made untraditional with some chocolate and a peek-a-boo surprise of cardamom for some added spice. While this is not a Southern classic, it is a new pecan pie classic amongst my friends and me.

Here’s the thing-I like tweaking traditional and classic things be it baked goods or pretty much anything. It might be because I have been gifted with impatience and I’ve been bestowed with easily getting bored.

Hmm . . . or maybe it’s all the coffee I drink that keeps me so amped I can’t focus on things like the “traditional”. Well, whether, its caffeine loaded hands or wandering hands, I like getting topsy-turvy with things.

Although I should mention I’ve never been a huge pecan pie fan. I generally find it tooth achingly sweet. That is unless it has chocolate in it to break up the heavy sweetness of the corn syrup. With that in mind I wanted to add one more dimension, a spiced layer-enter cardamom.

I’m glad I did and I think you will too.

Now drop the fork and get ready to go hand to mouth with this classic pie turned cookie with a few sideways tweaking. And since it’s a cookie you can totally have three of these babies before it equals a slice of pie.

A few notes:

As always your palate your preference, skip the cardamom if it’s too untraditional for you. For those that don’t have or like cardamom but still want a spiced kick try replacing with cinnamon.

Toasted nuts make a huge difference in baked goods, so don’t skip it or else you’ll miss out on some deep robust flavors. To toast the pecans: lay them on a bake sheet at 425 degrees for F for about 5-7minutes, tossing nuts half way through.

For the chocolate, I used dark 65% cacao chocolate since that’s my preference, but milk chocolate will work just as well.

Pecan Pie Cookies

Makes approximately two dozen 2 inch cookies

Preparation: Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line bake sheets with parchment.

Ingredients:

Cookie portion:

½ cup butter

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup confectioner sugar

1 egg

1 ½ teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

2 cups flour

Pecan Filling:

1 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

4 ¼ oz chocolate, 65% cacao, melted

1 tablespoon of corn syrup

¼ cup heavy cream

½ teaspoon cardamom

Drizzle Finish:

2oz. chocolate, melted

Instructions: