Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

     When I became old enough to cook by myself I would often look through my mom's BetterHomes&Garden cookbooks titled "Pies & Pastries" and "Cakes." I would flip through the pages to look at all of the pretty pictures and the ingredient lists. I wanted so badly to make something from those books, but most of the time I shied away from the complicated steps and ingredients that I had no idea what they were. Setting the books back on the shelf, I would head to the pantry and gather all of the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies. They weren't exactly the fancy confections from the books, but I knew my brothers and my dad would love them so I generally settled for making those. Cookies of any kind became my go-to cooking fix; peanut butter cookies (my dad's favorite), oatmeal raisin cookies, and of course the tried and true chocolate chip cookies. My brothers and my dad would gobble up any cookies I made, but they always made suggestions-- ok, they told me what was wrong with them. And I'm so glad they did because it has greatly improved my cookie making abilities! Most often their complaints were that the cookies were overcooked, or not chewy or soft enough. So, I began to experiment with recipes to see if they would measure up to "the boys" standards. If there was something about the cookie that didn't turn out right I would tweak the recipe, or throw it out all together. By doing this I have collected and tweaked a handful of cookie recipes that turn out just how the doctor-- the football coach-- and my daddy ordered. 

Here is a picture of me and my brothers in the kitchen! As you can see there is cookie dough batter in the big bowl and my brothers are holding on to the beaters. Beaters with batter are the perfect little lollipops and the three of us fought to get one of the two of them. The brother on the left is the football coach, and the one on the right is the doctor. And yes the cotton-headed-ninny-muggins in the middle is me. Look at my hair!

    The other night I was making some cookies to take to a girl's game night and I wanted something new, something fresh, something that I didn't have a good recipe for. I also wanted something with oatmeal in it because I honestly don't have a good oatmeal cookie recipe. I mean, sure I have one that'll do, but I don't crave those cookies. I wanted a cookie recipe to crave. I began googling "soft oatmeal cookie" and the recipe I am about to show you is one of the first ones to pop up. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Those sounded like just the thing I was looking for--and let me tell you after I made them I was sure they were what I was looking for! These cookies were chewy, soft, nutty from the oatmeal, and indulgent from the chocolate chips. Perfect! I took the cookies to the game night and the girls really liked them. But they had an even bigger, unexpected, fan when I got home. Adam came into the kitchen and took a bite of a cookie-- his eyebrows raised a little and he said, "these are good." We went upstairs to get ready for bed and Adam says, "I think I'm gonna go get another cookie." I was surprised because he normally doesn't eat anything before going to bed. He walked back into our room with a mouthful of cookie, and another cookie in his hand. These, people, are good cookies. 

Here is how you make them:

Start by creaming butter, brown sugar, and white sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.

For the full list of ingredients with measurements click here: Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Recipe.

When the butter and sugars are thoroughly creamed, scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add in the eggs one at a time.

I'm going to go ahead and stop right here to apologize for the shadow towards the back of the bowl in these pictures. My stand mixer is the old school kind where the top part doesn't lift, you just have to take off the attachment, and then pop off the bowl. Yeah, that was too much trouble to do every time, so I settled for the shadow. Sorry!

Mix until just incorporated.

In a separate bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Then slowly add the dry ingredients(flour, baking soda, salt) to the wet ingredients in the stand mixer. Turn the mixer on slow so the flour doesn't go flying everywhere :) I've been guilty of that WAY too many times.

Mix this until just combined. It will look like this.

Next add the oatmeal.

This recipe calls for quite a bit of oatmeal and I was worried the cookies would turn out dry-- but they definitely didn't. It was the perfect amount.

Finally add in the chocolate chips and stir gently to combine. The recipe actually called for walnuts too, but I didn't have any so they just got left out. 

Drop the dough onto a baking sheet. I used an ice cream scoop to scoop my dough. Also, the recipe says to use an "ungreased cookie sheet"-- but I generally ALWAYS lightly grease mine. I mean what can it hurt, right?

Bake at 325 degrees for 12 minutes. 

When you remove the pans from the oven, allow the cookies to stay in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Yum yum yum these cookies were good! 

Be sure to eat them with a full glass of milk!

Melt in your mouth goodness :) and hey, you can't feel too bad about eating them because they have oatmeal in them. Lots of fiber! The food pyramid says you need that.

Thanks for reading today y'all!! Did you happen to read my post yesterday, too? I have an idea (watch out for the shameless plug)-- you should follow me! Just click "Join this site" on the right hand side of this page. If you already have a google, gmail, or facebook account it's easy!

Anyways, I hope you all are having a wonderful day! Don't get too bored in class ;) or at work, or home... wherever you may be! Love y'all!