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Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Borrowed from Tina Smith at Cherry Hill Cottage)

2 sticks unsalted butter
2 ¼ cups bread flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 ¼ cups brown sugar
1 whole egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 T milk
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Melt butter in heavy bottom medium saucepan over low heat or allow the sticks of butter to come to room temperature and place in large mixing bowl. Allowing to come to room temperature cuts down on chilling time. Sift together flour, salt and baking soda then set aside. Cream sugars and flour mixture, then add the egg, yolk, 2 T milk, vanilla then mix until combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Next add nuts and chocolate chips. Chill the dough well-it should feel hard to the touch. Use small ice cream scoop and quickly shape into 1” balls. Place onto parchment lined baking sheets-6 to a sheet. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies every 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheets for even browning. Cool completely and store in airtight container.

***Note: The snack plate I have the cookies on is a reproduction of Clementine Hunter's painting called "Threshing Pecans" purchased at Melrose Plantation in Natchitoches Parish.

Information about Clementine Hunter obtained from Wikipedia that some may find interesting:

Hunter has become one of the most well known self-taught artists. People often referred to her as the Black Grandma Moses. She is generally credited as being a social historian capturing portrayals of various scenes of a dying plantation life, including picking cotton, gathering pecans, washing clothes, baptisms and funeral scenes. Hunter was noted for painting on any materials, particularly discarded items such as window shades, cardboard boxes, jugs, bottles, and gourds. Her paintings rarely run larger than 18 by 24 inches and her work has generally been considered uneven, with her work from the 1940s to 1960 considered to be the best.

It is very hard for historians to sort out myth from fact in the stories and legends that surround her life. Though she became a hugely respected artist and is today considered a folk art legend, Hunter spent her entire life in (or near) poverty. It is said that she never truly grasped the worth of her own artwork, and in her later life would often sell paintings for a few hundred dollars.

One of the more well-known displays of Hunter's artwork is located in a slave's quarters (referred to as an "African House") on the grounds of Melrose Plantation. The entirety of the walls are covered in a mural Hunter painted in 1955; it depicts scenes of Cane River plantation life. Upon its original completion a local newspaper ran the headline: "A 20th Century Woman of Color Finishes a Story Begun 200 Years Ago by an 18th Century Congo-Born Slave Girl, Marie-Therese, the original grantee of Melrose Plantation."

Hunter co-authored Melrose Plantation Cookbook with Francois Mignon. Ms. Hunter died on January 1, 1988.