A salted butterscotch oatmeal cookie that I created for a dear friend’s bridal shower.

Into its creation went a splash of bourbon and a sprinkle of pecans to harken back to Ashley’s southern roots, oatmeal since medical school has injected (pun intended) Ashley with the importance of good nutrition, and plenty of sugar and butter since those are Ashley’s favorite food groups.  Leave the eggs out, and this recipe becomes a scrumptious raw cookie dough – another Ashley favorite.

Ashley, as much as I love her, is one of those strange, twisted souls that can not abide the taste of chocolate.  According to her “it tastes like bitter dirt.”  Ashley is also one of those people who likes to keep things close to her chest.  So when a couple of years ago she secretly confessed to me that she had actually been eating chocolate because Chris had given it to her, it was tantamount to a declaration of love.  Now, two years later, guess who she’s marrying?

A. L. Graham’s

Recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar
• 1 cup Butter
• 1/4 cup Half & Half
• 3 tbsp Bourbon
• 2 Eggs
• 2 cups Flour
• 2 cups Oats
• 1 cup chopped Pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, under medium to high heat, melt the brown sugar and 1/4 cup butter.  The darker you get the butterscotch the deeper the flavor – flirt with the thin line between burnt and caramelized.
3. Once the butter has fully melted into the brown sugar, add the rest of the butter, while stirring, a couple of tbsp at a time.
4. When all of the butter is fully melted in, add the half and half and the bourbon.
5. Give it a few more quick stirs, and then remove the butterscotch from the heat and pour it into a heat proof bowl.
6. For the next few steps you will have to work quickly since you do not want the butterscotch to seize up before you have added the rest of the ingredients.
7. Break the eggs into a small bowl.
8. Beat the butterscotch with a hand held mixer, and add the eggs while still beating.  You want to make sure to beat in the eggs without having them curdle due to the heat of the butterscotch so keep the mixer running.
9. Add the flour.
10. Add the oats.
11. Stop the mixer, and stir in the pecans by hand.
12. Scoop the dough out onto parchment lined baking sheets, and bake for 8-10 minutes.
13. Remove the cookies from the oven, and immediately sprinkle them lightly with coarse sea salt.