Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies head to head

A couple weeks ago my best friend asked me if I had a recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I thought about it for a few minutes and realized that I haven’t made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in long time, so I had nothing to recommend.

As luck would have it, I browsed through the cookie recipes that I’ve pinned on Pinterest and I had several oatmeal cookie recipes on my “to-do” recipe board. I decided to give this one a try because it looked unbelievably simple. And then two weeks later I needed another cookie recipe so I tried this one.

The first ones were a little on the crumbly side, but they have really good flavor. I would definitely recommend giving these a try! I felt the need to add pecans to this recipe, but you can certainly keep it to just chocolate chips!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Adapted from Half Baked Harvest, yields 2-3 dozen cookies depending on size

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 c old fashioned oats
  • 2 c AP flour
  • 1/2 c sugar
  • 1 c brown sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 c canola oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • 4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips (you might want to start with 1 cup and add if needed)
  • 1/2 c chopped pecans (a little more if desired)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Add all ingredients except chocolate chips and pecans in mixing bowl. Mix with an electric mixer until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips and pecans. Batter will be kind of loose and crumbly.

batter up3. Use a spoon or ice cream scoop to portion batter onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. As you portion out approximately 1.5 inch balls or mounds, the dough might not stick together very will, but it should all be resolved in the oven.

ready for the oven

4. Bake 10-12 minutes until cookies are just golden brown. Allow to cool completely.

ready to eat

The second recipe was a little more involved because it added coconut. So they were more like an everything cookie between the oats, coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips. This batter was more moist than the previous recipe, and I think letting it rest overnight gave it really good flavor (note to self: start these the night before you want to bake them!). Both recipes got raves, but I think I’m leaning towards this one if I need to make oatmeal cookies again soon.

Chunky Lola Cookies

Adapted from Ink Lemonade, yields about 20 cookies

Ingredients

  • 1 3/8 sticks of unsalted butter
  • 2/3 c granulated sugar
  • 2/3 c light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 c old-fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 9 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips (about 2/3rds of a bag)
  • 1 1/4 c pecan halves, toasted and chopped
  • 1 c sweetened shredded coconut

Method

1. Cream together butter and sugars with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until well combined.

2. In a separate bowl combine flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Mix with a wisk or wooden spoon.

3. Add wet mixture to dry and fold by hand with wisk or wooden spoon. Fold in coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips.

photogenic batter

4. Allow batter to chill in refrigerator overnight (or at least a few hours).

5. Preheat oven to 350. Portion cookie dough with a tablespoon or ice cream scoop. Flatten the dough balls into thick disks on the parchment lined cookie sheet to encourage the desired shape.

ready for the oven

6. Bake 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool completely on wire rack.

(I’m sorry I forgot to take a pic of the final product)

Back to Basics

Let’s talk cookies. Chocolate chip to be precise. While this may seem basic, it’s something I rarely make. I’ve tried various versions and none of them have really resonated with me as being good enough to add to my standard repertoire. Enter this recipe.

I have a friend at work who bakes from time to time and shares her goodies in the office. I really admire her because she’s such a stud in the office, and seems to be quite the baker as well. Anywho, she makes amazing chocolate chip cookies, so I begged her for the recipe. She forwarded me a link the recipe she uses, and said she thinks the key is recipe that has about twice as much brown sugar as white sugar. Very interesting. I’m always curious about how adjusting some of the baseline ingredients (flour, sugar, eggs, butter), will affect the texture and taste of the final product.

I was looking for an occasion to bake some cookies and lo and behold, it was another coworker’s birthday, and she happens to love cookies. Bingo!

So I made these, and they definitely lived up to the hype. I think I might have kept them in the oven a minute or two too long, so they were a little crispier than I remember, but still quite good. If you need some good old fashioned chocolate chip cookies, give this recipe a try for sure! To add a little extra “je ne said quois” I also made some oatmeal cookies and homemade marshmallows!

The birthday platter

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

from Savory Sweet Life, yields about 4 dozen

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, room temp
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1½ cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, room temp
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 2¾ cups (12 oz) AP flour
  • ¾ tsp. medium coarse sea salt
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1½ tsp. baking powder
  • 2¼ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (about a standard bag and a half)

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 360.
  2. Cream together butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix another couple minutes until well incorporated.
  3. Add the dry ingredients and mix until relatively uniform (try not to over mix). Fold in the chocolate chips last.Batter up
  4. Use a medium ice cream scoop to portion out the dough onto parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 360 for 12-14 minutes or until light golden brown.ready for the oven
  5. Allow to cool and enjoy!out of the oven

party platter

Muffins!

These Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins are a very distinct food memory for me.  I rowed crew in high school which is kind of a niche sport, especially when you’re in high school.  It’s a little bit of a hassle because you have to have a body of water, a boathouse, and of course boats.  Not the most popular high school sport.  Our regatta’s would typically be at the Schuykill or Cooper Rivers (Philly or Camden).  They would typically be weekend-long affairs.  While some of the weekend was spent actually on the water either warming up for a race or racing, there was always a significant amount of downtime that consisted of watching the other races and basically tailgating along the side of the river.

All of the parents of the kids on the team would pitch in to provide the snacks (lots, and lots of snacks).  And my mother would bring these muffins.  They always got raves from all of my teammates.  I love them too.  They seem like such a simple flavor combination: banana and chocolate chips, but some things never get old.Muffins!

I made them recently for some friends to munch on while we were volunteering for some local community service.  A perfect morning treat!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yields almost 24 regular size muffins (definitley 24 if you add walnuts)

Ingredients

  • 2 sticks unsalted butter (room temp)
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • 2 eggs  (room temp)
  • 2 cups mashed banana (ripe!)
  • 2 tsp baking soda dissolved in 2T hot water
  • 3 cups flour
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 cup chocolate chips
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 375 and line the muffin tins with cupcake liners.
  2. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt), and set aside.
  3. Cream together butter and sugar.  Add eggs one at a time, and add vanilla extract to butter and sugar mixture.
  4. Add dry ingredients to wet in a batches.  Try not to over mix.  Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts (if you want).batter up
  5. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins.  Fill them each about 2/3rds full.  Bake them for 20 minutes or until tester comes out clean and top is golden brown.

all done