Cookies

Last Wednesday, I had four of my 9th confirmation students over to bake cookies. They had been begging -- actually, one of them had been begging -- ever since the ninth grade retreat that they should bake cookies together before their confirmation. The one who begged said she had the best recipe for chocolate chip cookies, except that her recipe used Heath bits instead. So I went out and bought some Heath bits and made her promise to bring her recipe to confirmation.

Last Wednesday, she did not come to confirmation class. She had a band concert. But we were still committed to the cookie-baking idea, so they all piled into my Toyota and sped over to my house, where we did the fastest and most cursory confirmation lesson in the 2,000 year history of confirmation. (Sample question: Why is it called the Lord's supper? Sample Answer: Because it is a supper, and because it is the Lord's.) I had them working on some things together while I pulled out bowls and measuring cups and flour and sugar. Oh, and a recipe. What recipe would I use??? Luckily, there was a recipe on the back of the Heath bits package, and it was awesome. This is it:

1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup Reese's Creamy Peanut Butter (I used whatever peanut butter we had)
1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/3 cups (8 oz. pkg) Heath Milk Chocolate Toffee Bits, divided

Heat oven to 375F. Beat shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Add egg; beat just until blended. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture. Stir in 1 cup toffee bits; reserve remainder for topping. Drop by heaping teaspoons about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet, top each with reserved toffee bits. Bake 7 - 8 minutes or until set. Do not overbake. Cool 2 minutes. Remove to wire rack. Cool completely. About 3 dozen cookies.

All four girls took turns mixing and measuring and dropping and sprinkling. Nobody yelled at each other that they weren't doing it right, even when one girl spilled milk she was measuring into the batter. We did deviate from the recipe in one way: they all agreed that we should sprinkle the remaining bits right after the cookies came out of the oven.

Everyone took a few cookies home. I still have one bag of toffee bits left. Anyone?