Valentine’s Day Chocolate Chip Pan Cookies

Valentine’s Day Chocolate Chip Pan Cookies

I wanted to take a recipe that I knew my family liked, and give it a Valentine’s Day makeover. My husband has always liked the Nestle Toll House pan cookie recipe. His grandmother, Faye (the same one that inspired the Texas Sheetcake Cookies For Santa post), Made a big pan for him anytime he went back home to South Texas.

The original pan cookie recipe can be found on the back of any Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips bag. You can also access the complete ingredient list and instructions here, from Very Best Baking. The Toll House recipe elevates chocolate chip cookies into a divine chocolate chip brownie-like chunk of happiness.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and grease or spray a 10 x 15 inch jelly roll pan. My house-shaped Wilton baking pan was thicker, and had less area than the pan called for in the recipe, so I lowered the temperature to 350 degrees. This is a good idea if your pan is dark, or smaller (which will make the batter thicker) than 10 x 15 inches.

Combine 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teas. baking soda, and 1 teas. salt in a small bowl. Mix well, and set aside.

Mix together 2 sticks of softened butter, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 3/4 cup brown sugar, and 1 teas. vanilla in a large mixing bowl. I softened my butter first, then mixed in the sugars and vanilla, then mixed the 2 eggs one at a time.

For the last mixing step, add 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 cup of chopped pecans. At this point I switched to a wooden spoon for mixing.

Press the dough into your pre- greased pan.

I baked mine for about 20 minutes. I took it out when the edges were just a slight bit crispy. It turned out perfect! Every pan and oven is different. I recommend checking it after about 15 minutes.

Now for the fun part! I used 1 can of Pillsbury White Fluffy Frosting, a heart-shaped cookie cutter, an icing bag with a star tip, parchment paper, scissors, some x and o sprinkles from Walmart, and 1 cup of Valentine m&ms. I’m not sure why the 1/2 stick of butter is in the picture, or why the Valentine m&ms are missing. ?

Make a door pattern by folding the parchment paper in half first, then cutting an arched shape. This is a great technique for cutting any symmetrical shape.

Lay the parchment door on the cookie house, then use the star tip (filled with your Pillsbury Fluffy icing) to make icing stars around it. Remove the parchment and fill in the door with icing. Place your m&ms.

Place the heart cookie cutter on your cookie house, like it’s a window. Fill the cookie cutter in with icing, then carefully remove it.

Add x and o sprinkles to the heart window, then go around the outer edge of the cookie house with the star tip. The fluffy icing doesn’t work quite as well as decorator’s icing, but it works better than regular can icing. Another secret to using can icing for decorating- just add a little powdered sugar to stiffen things up.

You’re done! That’s my favorite part of every project. I hope your family loves it as much as mine does. If you make your own, put a picture in the comments, and I’ll add it to the post!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Kristie

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Read Sweet N’ Simple Valentine Flag here

Read Make A Valentine Bulletin Board In Less Than An Hour here

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