Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies

Grandma's Cookie Jar Oatmeal Cookies - made September 5, 2012 from Land O Lakes Cookies

Life's just been a wee bit busy and I feel like I'm always playing catch up.  But in looking back over this past summer, I realize in the past 8 weeks, I've been in 3 countries, 4 states and 7 cities.  No wonder I'm as behind as my laundry.  It might be a minor miracle I haven't let my blog go completely dark but it probably tells you something about how baking-obsessed I am when I've still managed to fit baking into my crazy schedule.  Sleeping?  Not so much.

I was meeting friends for lunch last Friday before I took off for another mini-weekend away and more friends for dinner at my weekend destination so I needed a cookie for the masses.  Since I'd already done 2 chocolate chip cookies, I switched gears to oatmeal cookies to try out this recipe.  This was a nice, basic oatmeal cookie.  If you bake it just right (not too long), the edges are crispy and the middles are chewy.  If you bake it a little longer, almost the whole cookie has a crunch and even that is pretty good.  The toffee bits got a bit lost in the chewy crunch of the oatmeal so they weren't as pronounced as I expected.  You could leave them out and likely still get a similar result as having them in there.

3 cups quick cooking oats
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups chocolate chips
1 cup toffee bits 

1.     Heat oven to 375˚F.  In large mixer bowl combine all ingredients except flour, chocolate chips and toffee bits.  Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed (1 to 2 minutes).  Add flour; continue beating until well mixed (1 to 2 minutes).  By hand, stir in chocolate chips and toffee bits.  Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto greased cookie sheets.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.

Yield: 4 dozen cookies