Twenty years ago, one of my catering customers pulled me aside and said, “you must stop using butter, no one wants to eat saturated fat.” I thought about her advice, but my style of cooking is focused on taste and flavor. So I had a bumper sticker made for my car: It’s Better With Butter. Now all of my catering customers would know that I proudly use butter in cooking — because butter does taste better.

At Kitchen Conservatory, we love butter so much that we sell t-shirts with our slogan, “It’s Better with Butter.” Our butter of choice is Plugra, which is a delicious high-fat, cultured, unsalted butter. I use Plugra (which is French for “more fat”) in all of my cooking. Why? Because butter tastes better than any other fat and Plugra is the best-tasting butter.

If you are presented with a cookie made with butter or a cookie made with another kind of fat (margarine, shortening, vegetable oil), which would you eat? Cookies are not supposed to be salad; cookies are indulgences and every single bite of the cookie should be utterly delicious.

Not every cookie can be a Cookie Club member; we discriminate in favor of cookies made with butter! These buttery balls are courtesy of Kelly Gardner, who learned to bake cookies with her grandmother. Kelly has some fun cooking classes that she will be teaching at Kitchen Conservatory, including Girls’ Night Out and Date Night for Couples.

Butter-Pecan Balls

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup finely-chopped pecans (walnuts or almonds can be substituted)
• powdered sugar for dusting

Mix together the butter, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy. Fold in the flour and nuts. Use a disher (#70 or #60) to form into balls and place the balls on a lined cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees until light brown, about 10 minutes. Roll in powdered sugar, then cool.