• Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
• In a small sauce pan over the stovetop melt 11 tbsp of unsalted butter and set aside to cool completely.
• While your melted butter is cooling, take out a large cookie sheet and line it with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
• Now that the butter is completely cool, pour it into a stand mixer or bowl (if using a hand mixer), and add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, mix together on medium speed until well combined.
• Add 1 1/2 cups of unbleached all purpose flour to the butter mixture and mix on medium-high speed until well combined.
• Lastly, pour in 1 tsp of vanilla extract to the cookie dough mixture and mix on medium speed until well combined.
• The cookie dough will be a crumble like consistency. Not to worry! You are doing great. This is where your hands come in...
• I recommend keeping the cookie dough inside of the mixing bowl to knead it for a bit with your hands to create a smoother cookie dough consistency before scooping it out with a tsp to start forming little cookie dough balls.
• Grab a teaspoon and scoop out some cookie dough from the mixing bowl; if it is a little more than a teaspoon, that is ok! Now, put the cookie dough in your hand and knead it until it is smooth, then roll it between both of the palms of your hands to form a little cookie dough ball. Repeat this step until you have filled your lined baking sheet with cookie dough balls. Make sure you place each cookie dough ball two inches apart.
• When you have finished placing the cookie dough balls on to the lined baking sheet, grab a table fork, and lightly press down on each cookie dough ball. This will lightly flatten each cookie and add a simple design.
• Pop your cookies in a 350 degree oven and bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes.
• Let the cookies cool for 10 minutes and then enjoy! These cookies are so delicious as is. However, if you want to add a special touch to these cookies you can make the following cookie topping...

Cookie Topping

• Add 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips to a medium glass mixing bowl along with 2 tbsp of whole milk and melt together over a double broiler or in your microwave. Once the chocolate is completely melted and a smooth consistency, pour the melted chocolate into a pipping bag, cut the tip of the pipping bag, and then drizzle chocolate over the top of each cookie.
• Add 1/3 cup fresh pecans to a ziplock bag and then finely crush the pecans with a rolling pin into small pieces by lightly beating them with the rolling pin. You can also add the pecans to a food processor and pulse them into small fine pieces. Whatever you prefer! If you have had a tough day the rolling pin method might make you feel better.
• Sprinkle the finely crushed pecans over each chocolate drizzled cookie. Let the cookies sit for a few hours allowing the chocolate time to dry or you can pop the cookies in the refrigerator for an hour. Once the cookie topping has dried you can fully indulge in these amazing cookies!