German Chocolate Toffee Cookies

Oh. My. Yum. I think I found my new favorite cookie! No seriously, these are that good. We said farewell to summer this past weekend with a nice, relaxing trip to the beach. But before we headed towards the crashing waves and white hot sand, I was itching for a tasty batch of cookies. You know, something for everyone to munch on while we worked on our tans. I cracked open my baking book and flipped around a few recipes until I came across this one, which I had previously marked as "want to try", so I decided to go for it. The yield amount was huge, so I cut the recipe in half (can't eat too many cookies at the beach or the bathing suit starts to become less cute). Unfortunately for my beach figure, these cookies were too delicious... I ate about four of them fresh out of the oven while I was still baking, a few more later that night for dessert, and of course a couple the next morning for breakfast. Matt had his fair share too and by the time we were packed up with the car loaded, we only had about half of the batch left. Not quite as many as I intended to share. :) And needless to say, what was left of the cookies was devoured the first day of our trip and everyone had the same reaction I did... YUM!

Ingredients 
Yields about 40 cookies
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups sugar  
1/4 cup packed brown sugar   
2 oz German sweet chocolate, melted and cooled
2 eggs
1 tsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup English toffee bits
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
Preheat oven to 350°. Line baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda and salt to combine; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, shortening and both sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in melted chocolate. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in water and vanilla. Gradually add in flour mixture. Stir in toffee bits and walnuts.  

Roll into 1 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and place on wire racks to cool.

Source: The Taste of Home Baking Book