Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough November 14, 2015, recipe adapted from Being Spiffy

The holidays are coming up fast and I’m inevitably getting pulled back into the kitchen. I haven’t even really been gearing up for my usual baking so this isn’t even the start of my holiday baking. I’m still debating how much of my “usual” I’m actually going to do now that I’ve gotten out of the habit of baking during every moment of my spare time.

But I am getting requests, namely from my nieces as they head for their holiday gatherings. One of my nieces is more of a cook and she doesn’t bake while the other one is the baker and doesn’t cook. But they each asked me for cookie dough to bring down to their respective gatherings and I was happy to oblige. For my niece who’s the cook, she wanted oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for her boyfriend’s family. Actually, we had to compromise since she wanted the traditional oatmeal raisin cookies and we know how I feel about raisins. Not that it should’ve mattered to me since all I had to do was make the dough and I wasn’t going to be the one eating them, raisins or not. But still. You know, because raisins.

I have bags upon bags of chocolate chips (thanks, Costco) so I had to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough. I don’t have a go-to recipe for oatmeal cookies so pinterest was once again my friend. I went with this recipe based on the picture alone and because it met my criteria for oatmeal cookies: more oatmeal than flour and it had more brown sugar than granulated so I knew it would provide the right caramelized/brown sugar overtone I look for in a good oatmeal cookie.

I baked a taste test cookie in my little convection toaster oven and it turned out fairly well. I think I took it out a minute too soon and ate it at slightly warm temps when I would’ve been better off baking it a trifle longer and waiting until it was almost fully cooled. Despite that, this was still a good cookie if you like oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Not sure I’ll remember it in a month as it doesn’t stand out to my jaded taste buds but it was still good. And my niece liked it too.

1 cup butter

3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 small package Jell-O instant vanilla pudding mix
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups flour
3 cups oatmeal, old-fashioned or quick
1 cup chocolate chips

1. In stand mixer, cream together butter and sugars. Add Jell-O and mix until combined. 
2. With mixer still running, add eggs, one at a time.  Add vanilla.
3. Pour in dry ingredients and blend until no streaks of flour remain. 
4. Add oatmeal and chocolate chips, stirring in by hand or using the lowest setting on the mixer. 
5. Using a cookie scoop, portion dough into golf-ball size balls. Cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight. 
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Space frozen cookie dough balls evenly on baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges just start to brown and middles no longer look raw or shiny.