Happy Gal-entine’s Day! Treat yo self to these new cookies! Alright, enough with the Parks and Recreation puns. These new cookies are my newest creation for The Leftovers Club. This month I was paired with our fearless leader Elizabeth from Food Ramblings. She made me these delicious Conversation Heart Brownies with Sea Salt. They were phenomenal. So phenomenal, in fact, that people visiting my new apartment ate almost all of them. I think I bribed visitors to show up with brownies? Sorry, not sorry.

Because I am literally always on the go (hence the limited posts), I used a shortcut to make these cookies. I used refrigerated cookie dough as the base. They still tasted delicious and still had homemade touches. It is fun to find shortcuts that you can still put your own personal spin on. Then I cut the dough into hearts. I mean, it is Valentine’s tomorrow after all.

Recipe: Maple Pecan Sugar Cookies

Makes 2 1/2 dozen

What You Need:

• 1 roll refrigerated sugar cookie dough
• 1/8 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• flour, for dusting surfaces
•  

  What To Do:

  1. In a small skillet, heat half of the granulated sugar until it melts. Remove the sugar from the heat and stir in the pecans until they are well coated. Set aside.

  2. Mix together cookie dough, the remaining sugars, and the maple syrup until well incorporated. Add in candied pecans.

  3. Chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour.

  4. Pre-heat oven to 325 F. On a generously floured surface, roll out the dough. You may need to keep adding flour, as the dough gets quite sticky. Make sure you leave it kind of thick, as the thinner cookies burn quicker (which I learned the hard way). Use cookie cutters to make shapes in the dough. Transfer them to an un-greased cookie sheet.

  5. Bake for 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool before you attempt to transfer them.

  

  Here’s what my friends made for The Leftovers Club this month. Make sure you check them all out!

  Citrus Margarita Mix – Mind over Batter

  Banana Bread Scones with a Brown Butter Glaze – Charlotte Turtle

  Chocolate Avocado Muffins – Take a Bite Out of Boca

  Vanilla Bean Shortbread Hearts – Live, Bake, Love

  Bourbon Sugared Pecans and Walnuts – Pinch and Swirl

  Chocolate Liqueur Cherries – Homemade Cravings

  Marcona Almond Blondies – Little Kitchie

  Bite-Sized Cocoa Meringue – Meadows Cooks

  Almond Sour Cream Cookies – Basic N Delicious

  M&M Soft-Batch Cookies – Lacey Moody

  Banana Nut Granola – In The Loop

  Soft and Chewy Snickerdoodle Sprinkle Cookies – Eats Well With Others

  Spinach, Caramelized Onion, and Olive Oil Bread– Cooking with Milton

  Chocolate Drizzled Peanut Bars – The Spiced Life

  Creamy Homemade Chocolate Liquor – Souffle Bombay