I have a strange collection of little booklet-style cookbooks. Some are from the 40's or 50's. Some are the kind of cookbook that you could write away for off the back of a packet of baking soda. Some were clearly made and sold as a fund raiser for local community or church groups. In all, I'd say I have somewhere around 20 of these little gems. One of them is from the 1995 graduating class fund raiser from my law school. It contains, not just cheesy law-school humour, but cheesy, college student recipes in spades. Some are good. A lot of them use offensive amounts of mayonnaise or Velveeta. But one of the recipes has served as the basis for 12 years of amazing chocolate chip cookies for me.
In 12 years, I don't know that I've managed to stick to the recipe entirely even once, but the results have always been stellar. The trick, in my opinion, is the ground oatmeal which replaces half the flour. It makes for a cookie that tastes like a marriage between an chewy oatmeal cookie and a chocolate chip cookie. Perfect!
The current incarnation looks something like this:
- 1 cup butter, soft
- 1/4 cup vanilla sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 2 1/2 cups rolled oats (whizzed into flour in your blender)
- a splash of milk
- 1 heaping cup walnuts
- 12 oz bag chocolate chips (minus a few chips to eat while you're cooking)
- 1 cup dried cherries
Whip butter and sugars together on high in a stand mixer until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. mix in eggs and vanilla. Sift together salt, cinnamon, flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and mix in to the butter mixture. If the dough is a little stiff (this will depend on the size of your eggs and the state of your brown sugar) add a little splash (maybe a tablespoon or two) of milk. Mix in the nuts, chocolate and cherries.
Drop by heaping teaspoons full onto a cookie sheet and bake in a 350F oven for approximately 10 minutes - until the edges of the cookies begin to turn a golden brown colour. Remove from oven and let cool on sheets for a few minutes before transferring to cooling racks.
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