Best of Baking: A Taste of New Hampshire's Riverbend Inn (Recipe: Toffee Walnut Cookies)

Today we're baking Toffee Walnut Cookies from the Riverbend Inn B&B!

Chock full of subtle toffee and walnut goodness, these cookies are the first to surpass traditional chocolate chip cookies as my overall favorite. Funny thing is, I never saw it coming

Think of these Toffee Walnut Cookies as the Clark Kent of the cookie world: mild-mannered, attractive, yet at first glance...plain. But hear me now: it would be a mistake to let this cookie's unassuming exterior fool you. What lurks inside is pure, buttery, toffee-walnut bliss: a cookie so refined it begs to be savored, bite after tantalizing bite.

If you're looking for a recipe to please the masses, I think you'll find these cookies are your Superman. Served warm from the oven and paired with ice-cold milk, hot coffee or your favorite tea, consider this your invitation to enjoy a taste of the lovely Riverbend Inn without ever leaving the comforts of your home.

Enjoy!

Toffee Walnut Cookies

A "Best of" Inn Cuisine, recipe courtesy the Riverbend Inn, as featured in the 2009 13th Annual Inn to Inn Cookie & Candy Tour by the Country Inns of the White Mountains

• 2 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 & 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 & 1/2 cups Heath English Milk Chocolate Toffee Bits (found in the baking chip section of your local grocery; may substitute chopped Heath Candy Bars)
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

In a medium-large bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking soda; set aside. In a separate, smaller bowl combine toffee bits and walnuts; set aside. Using an electric mixer, cream butter until fluffy; add sugar and beat for a couple of minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then vanilla. Alternatively mix in toffee mixture and flour mixture, a third at a time, until well blended. Chill cookie dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat liners. Spoon out dough and roll in small 1-inch balls (about the size of a large marble). Place balls three inches away from each other on cookie sheet(s). Bake for 10-12 minutes, until edges are just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cool on sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

Yield: about 6 dozen cookies

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Comments

[elaine dano]

HELP! I was on FoodGawker.com and came across the recipe for Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cookies. They were so delicious! I bookmarked the page and I went back today to write down the recipe and the link isn't working! I tried to find it, but it just led me back here.

This was the original link:
http://inncuisine.com/fresh-from-the-oven/confessions-of-a-dough-o-holic-recipe-sour-cream-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Any hope of me getting a copy of that recipe?! Please help! Thanks!!!

[Sandra Hale]

Hi & thanks for writing. Inn Cuisine recently switched blog hosts & servers, and not all of the recipes are appearing on the new site as of yet. The cookie recipe you are referring to IS schedule to appear on the new site, but I'll bump it up in the rotation just for you & drop you an email when the recipes goes live.

Thanks again for writing! Glad you enjoyed that recipe...

Sandra, Publisher, Inn Cuisine