Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am admittedly not a great baker. I love to cook.  Bake, not so much.  In cooking you can be creative and do not need to follow a recipe to turn out a great dish.  I cook mostly by instinct and feel and even if I make a recipe a hundred times I can always take liberty with it whenever I feel like it.  You can’t really do that with baking.  If you want your recipe to turn out well you better follow it pretty closely.  That means measuring and weighing and all the things I don’t pay attention to while cooking.  I always say that cooking is an art and baking is a science.

Because of this you will not find very many baking recipes on my blog.  Except for this one.  I love these cookies!  I have been making them for years and they are a hit with kids and adults.  I have always liked oatmeal cookies, but have never been crazy about the raisins in them.  I adore chocolate chip cookies.  So, I came up with the idea to combine the two.

One thing that is unique about these cookies is that I sneak in some whole grains and try to make them a little bit more healthful.  Don’t get me wrong, the recipe does start with a stick of butter and sugar.  BUT, it has oatmeal and whole wheat pastry flour as its base as well.  If anyone has a suggestion to cut out some of the butter and sugar and still taste as good I would love to hear it!  Whole wheat pastry flour is readily available in most supermarkets and can almost always be found at Whole Foods.  If you cannot find it you can use half a cup of regular flour and half a cup of whole wheat flour for similar results.  I have experimented in making these cookies with white flour, regular whole wheat flour and the whole wheat pastry flour is always the best.  Trust me, you would never know that there is whole wheat anything in them. The cookies also have walnuts in them which are rich in omega-3’s and very good for you.  It makes me feel less guilty eating the cookies if I know they are made with a whole grains and nuts.  Most importantly, they taste sooooo good.

Another nice thing about this recipe is that you do not need fancy equipment to make the cookies.  Just two bowls, a spatula and some elbow grease.  If anyone is looking for a last minute recipe for Valentine’s Day you should try these out!

Prep Time: 10 Minutes

Cook Time: 8 – 10 Minutes

Yield: 25 -35 cookies

1 cup quick cooking rolled oats

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking power

¼ teaspoon salt

1 stick of unsalted butter, softened

½ cup packed light brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

½ cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large bowl combine oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Mix with a whisk until all dry ingredients are well combined.

In another large bowl cream together the softened butter and sugars.  Add egg and mix until completely combined.   Stir in vanilla.  Fold dry ingredients into the butter and sugar mixture in three batches.  Then add the chocolate chips and walnuts.  Stir until just combined.  Do not over mix.

Place rounded teaspoons of the cookie dough onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 7 to 9 minutes, until tops are slightly golden.  Allow cookies to cool before serving.