Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Heather Jones

These are definitely our favorite cookies that we make ourselves, and maybe my favorite ever. Well, for me favorites are situational, but these are a standard for sure. I consider this my own recipe, because even though I started with another recipe I had to modify it quite a bit to fit our own preferences.

I started with a recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies that I got out of our newspaper a loooong time ago, from La Farm, a local bakery. (https://www.lafarmbakery.com/) But that recipe just Did Not Work for me -- the cookies spread way too much, even though I followed it exactly aside from switching out chocolate chips in place of the raisins (which are ick.) So they were crispy where we prefer a softer cookie, even better if it's ooey-gooey right out of the oven. (Warm cookies are THE BEST.)

I don't remember how many batches it took to get it just right, but it was a *lot* of cookies. And we've been making them now for more than ten years. (I know, because I also altered the recipe a bit to be a lactation cookie after I had my first child. We made so many of those!) The best part is, it makes a lot of cookies so you can freeze them in cookie-sized balls and have freshly baked cookies whenever you want!

You can find the full recipe here: https://www.copymethat.com/r/eSAWVHcwb/oatmeal-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather today we are not going to
[00:08]: be cooking from a cookbook we're going
[00:09]: to be making a recipe that
[00:11]: i made myself
[00:13]: um
[00:14]: i started with a recipe that i found in
[00:16]: the newspaper years and years and years
[00:18]: ago
[00:19]: uh but i had to modify it because it did
[00:22]: not work for me at all if i can find the
[00:24]: original recipe i might go ahead and put
[00:26]: it down below but because this is a
[00:28]: recipe that i feel like i developed
[00:32]: i will include all of the measurements
[00:34]: for this
[00:35]: today we are making oatmeal chocolate
[00:38]: chip cookies
[00:40]: i don't like oatmeal raisin the original
[00:41]: recipe was oatmeal raisin and i don't
[00:43]: know if substituting in chocolate chips
[00:46]: instead of raisins made it not work but
[00:48]: whatever
[00:49]: when i first made it it was just flat
[00:52]: did not work at all so
[00:56]: these however are our favorite cookie
[00:59]: i prefer oatmeal chocolate chip even to
[01:01]: regular chocolate chip and we've made
[01:03]: these so many times that my husband
[01:05]: knows exactly what to do to help me and
[01:06]: so he helped me get all the ingredients
[01:08]: ready
[01:09]: and uh we even modified them to be sort
[01:13]: of a lactation cookie
[01:15]: when i had uh babies
[01:19]: eight plus years ago now
[01:22]: um they're no longer babies
[01:24]: uh but so we've made them many many many
[01:26]: times at this point
[01:28]: anyway
[01:29]: to get started we're going to take
[01:32]: some of the oats and we're going to
[01:34]: process this basically into oat flour
[01:38]: these are quick oats as you might be
[01:41]: able to tell they're not this sort of
[01:42]: rolled old-fashioned oats they are just
[01:46]: quick oats and we're going to use our
[01:48]: food processor
[01:50]: and try to get them close to the
[01:52]: consistency of regular flour so
[01:55]: i'm probably not going to pulse it you
[01:57]: can post if you want it takes a while
[01:59]: i'm just going to turn it on and let it
[02:00]: go till it's done
[02:02]: i'm going to call that good enough
[02:06]: and we're going to just take this out of
[02:08]: here and we're not going to use it right
[02:10]: now this was
[02:12]: helps right away this was a cup and a
[02:14]: quarter of quick oats and we have a cup
[02:17]: and a half
[02:18]: that we're going to leave
[02:21]: whole
[02:22]: we're not going to process those
[02:26]: still trying to soften my frozen butter
[02:30]: it's getting there
[02:31]: but something we can do while we're
[02:33]: waiting uh
[02:35]: is we're gonna mix our eggs so we've got
[02:38]: three large eggs
[02:40]: whatever you have is probably fine
[02:44]: that we're just gonna put the whole egg
[02:46]: in we don't have to separate them or
[02:48]: anything
[02:52]: into this bowl
[02:55]: and we're going to add
[03:00]: so we've got our three eggs in the bowl
[03:02]: and we're going to add a whole
[03:04]: tablespoon
[03:06]: of vanilla extract so i use mexican you
[03:10]: can use whatever you like
[03:17]: here we go
[03:20]: so i'm going to just take a whisk and
[03:22]: mix this all up together thoroughly
[03:26]: nicely mixed together
[03:30]: this is probably still a little cool but
[03:33]: we're gonna call it good for now
[03:35]: so i've got two sticks of unsalted
[03:37]: butter
[03:38]: i'm gonna put in
[03:41]: my stand mixer
[03:47]: i'm gonna go ahead and get that um
[03:50]: just sort of beating up a little bit by
[03:52]: itself since it is kind of cold this
[03:55]: really should be at room temperature
[03:57]: it helps
[04:03]: okay
[04:04]: it's on its way to not being so cold
[04:08]: but what we're gonna do now is add the
[04:12]: sugar so we're just gonna cream the
[04:13]: sugar and the butter
[04:16]: and
[04:17]: let's go ahead and do those sugars we've
[04:19]: got a cup of white sugar just plain
[04:22]: white granulated sugar
[04:24]: we've got a cup of light brown sugar
[04:30]: both go in there
[04:32]: and then
[04:33]: we also put in here this is interesting
[04:36]: we put in our salt which i'm using just
[04:38]: some granulated
[04:40]: sea salt i think granulated
[04:42]: yeah just like table salt size not
[04:45]: kosher salt size
[04:46]: um and this is baking
[04:49]: soda so there's a teaspoon of baking
[04:51]: soda and a teaspoon of salt in here
[04:54]: and we're going to add this and cream
[04:56]: all of that together
[04:59]: and this is going to take
[05:01]: a really long time
[05:03]: i'll let you know exactly how long it
[05:04]: takes for me mine is
[05:06]: pretty cold which means it's going to
[05:07]: take a little bit longer for it to sort
[05:09]: of heat up and get creamy
[05:11]: it's supposed to be very light and
[05:13]: smooth and you can stop
[05:15]: every so often and
[05:17]: scrape down the sides make sure it's
[05:18]: getting all
[05:21]: mixed up appropriately and you don't
[05:23]: just end up having some bits up on the
[05:25]: sides
[05:26]: i end up doing that like two or three
[05:27]: times at least so
[05:30]: we'll see how long this takes for us
[05:32]: [Music]
[05:35]: when i do this i do this about medium
[05:38]: heat medium heat medium um
[05:41]: speed
[05:48]: scrape it down now
[05:50]: this is nowhere near done
[05:53]: certainly not light and creamy you might
[05:55]: have seen
[05:56]: that i depends on what my editor leaves
[05:59]: in i
[06:00]: often will
[06:02]: sort of put my hands on the outside of
[06:04]: the bowl when the butter is too
[06:10]: cold to be
[06:12]: quite right yet and that just helps
[06:16]: transfer a little bit of heat
[06:18]: into
[06:20]: the ingredients
[06:21]: helps it go a little bit faster i think
[06:25]: [Music]
[06:34]: this is definitely getting better
[06:38]: kind of see it's gotten lighter it's
[06:40]: gotten creamier
[06:42]: but still
[06:43]: not quite where i want it to be
[06:46]: you can see
[06:48]: sort of
[06:49]: the difference
[06:52]: to what it was before
[06:57]: go another couple of minutes probably at
[06:59]: least
[07:09]: this is pretty much what i'm looking to
[07:11]: see here
[07:15]: it's much lighter much creamier
[07:17]: it's all combined with the sugars
[07:23]: here we go
[07:27]: now
[07:28]: we're going to add our egg mixture in
[07:31]: about three additions
[07:33]: um
[07:35]: let's see
[07:36]: on
[07:38]: yeah this doesn't have to be on low
[07:39]: speed so i'll do it probably on medium
[07:41]: speed
[07:42]: about a third each time and scraping
[07:44]: down in between
[07:48]: [Music]
[08:04]: all right
[08:06]: that's one edition
[08:24]: [Music]
[08:33]: okay
[08:35]: that's my second edition
[08:38]: and one more
[08:42]: [Music]
[08:55]: there we go that's all of our
[08:58]: wet ingredients
[08:60]: combined
[09:04]: now
[09:06]: on low speed we're going to add our
[09:09]: flour i think this is two cups of just
[09:12]: plain all-purpose flour
[09:14]: um so i'm gonna add about half of it and
[09:17]: then i'm gonna add the baking powder we
[09:19]: need another teasp a teaspoon of baking
[09:21]: powder not another teaspoon
[09:23]: um
[09:25]: but i'm going to add about half of this
[09:26]: on low speed
[09:28]: add a teaspoon of baking powder
[09:32]: yes and then add the rest
[09:37]: [Music]
[09:49]: [Music]
[09:57]: so i've got my bake half of my flour and
[09:59]: my baking
[10:01]: powder in here and i'm just gonna scrape
[10:03]: it down
[10:06]: now i'm going to get the rest of my
[10:08]: flour
[10:09]: on one spoon
[10:12]: [Music]
[10:15]: i'm going to try to
[10:16]: tap off the flower that kind of gets
[10:19]: stuck up on the top
[10:22]: scrape it down all of my flowers in here
[10:26]: all of my leavening ingredients are in
[10:28]: here
[10:29]: and now
[10:31]: i'm going to add my oat flour and my
[10:34]: quick oats again on low speed
[10:37]: as it
[10:38]: as it
[10:39]: mixes i'm going to add this now
[10:42]: if you'll notice i kind of made a mess
[10:44]: one thing i've never had
[10:46]: for my mixer is sort of a shoot
[10:48]: sort of
[10:49]: make sure all the dry ingredients go
[10:51]: down in there and don't puff out
[10:53]: if you have one of those let me know
[10:54]: what you think because i've never had
[10:56]: one and i really kind of want one but i
[10:58]: just haven't ever bought one
[11:02]: [Music]
[11:19]: so that was a cup and a quarter of my
[11:22]: quick oats that were processed into oat
[11:24]: flour
[11:26]: and now
[11:27]: i'm going to add
[11:32]: a cup and a half of quick oats
[11:39]: [Music]
[11:41]: all right i'm just gonna sort of get
[11:43]: everything off of this
[11:44]: and stir it up one more time
[11:49]: and then we're gonna add our chocolate
[11:50]: chips i have just
[11:52]: regular old nestle toll house
[11:56]: semi-sweet chocolate chips here
[11:59]: um
[12:01]: you can use what you like so i'm gonna
[12:03]: turn this on low again and the last step
[12:06]: is to
[12:06]: stir in these chocolate chips so this is
[12:09]: a cup and a half of semi-sweet chocolate
[12:11]: chips you can use whatever you like here
[12:14]: i'm going to stir those in just briefly
[12:16]: now
[12:17]: sometimes when i'm scooping these out
[12:20]: the last bits don't have enough
[12:22]: chocolate chips in them and my husband
[12:24]: says you can always have more chocolate
[12:25]: chips in here so put as many as you want
[12:27]: in there
[12:29]: for me i do it like this and then if the
[12:31]: end bits don't have enough chocolate
[12:33]: chips i just add a few more in
[12:36]: [Music]
[12:39]: all right
[12:40]: now
[12:43]: that is it for our cookie dough
[12:48]: and my crazy doll
[12:51]: uh i'm going to put this in the
[12:53]: refrigerator because they do bake up a
[12:55]: little bit better from
[12:59]: um
[13:01]: cold
[13:02]: when the
[13:03]: when the dough has has had a time sort
[13:05]: of rest and it's cold they don't spread
[13:08]: quite as much these don't these don't
[13:10]: spread badly either way
[13:12]: and then we'll show you how we
[13:15]: scoop them out and bake them
[13:17]: my oatmeal cookie batter dough
[13:20]: whatever has been in the refrigerator
[13:22]: for
[13:23]: probably about an hour and a half we
[13:24]: watched a movie so
[13:26]: um i have a cookie scoop here i don't
[13:29]: know exactly how much this is but
[13:31]: rounded sort of heaping tablespoons is
[13:34]: kind of what we usually go for
[13:36]: um
[13:37]: so i'm going to just scoop some out on
[13:39]: here
[13:41]: i have my uh oven heated to
[13:45]: 375 degrees
[13:49]: i'm just going to
[13:52]: plop these out
[13:54]: [Music]
[14:02]: okay so i have about a dozen of these on
[14:04]: the tray i'm going to put them in the
[14:05]: oven in the middle
[14:07]: for
[14:08]: 10 to 14 minutes you can bacon up bake
[14:10]: them up how you like them we prefer them
[14:13]: a little bit
[14:15]: um
[14:16]: soft in the center not super crispy so
[14:19]: we'll probably go on the 10 minute side
[14:21]: i'll let you know how long hours take to
[14:23]: get the way we like them you're looking
[14:25]: for maybe a little bit of brown but not
[14:27]: a lot
[14:29]: um for what we like anyway
[14:32]: um
[14:33]: and while these are baking i have
[14:34]: another sheet with some wax paper on it
[14:38]: um and i will be scooping the rest up
[14:42]: onto that
[14:43]: and
[14:45]: we will put that in the freezer and then
[14:46]: we can just
[14:48]: take those off the wax paper put them in
[14:50]: a
[14:51]: ziploc bag in
[14:54]: the freezer and have cookies whenever
[14:56]: when you can bake them up
[14:58]: right out of the freezer
[15:00]: if they're right out of the freezer they
[15:01]: take a little bit longer just you know
[15:03]: to heat up and everything but uh
[15:05]: yeah that is it for our cookie recipe
[15:07]: i'll show you what they look like when
[15:09]: they're all done
[15:10]: and we'll let you know what we think of
[15:12]: this batch
[15:13]: [Music]
[15:25]: on this episode of cooking the books
[15:26]: with heather you watch me make
[15:29]: my own recipe
[15:30]: um
[15:32]: for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and i
[15:34]: do feel pretty confident calling this my
[15:36]: own recipe because i did spend
[15:40]: quite a bit of time making multiple
[15:42]: multiple batches of this cookie to get
[15:44]: it just right and just the way we wanted
[15:47]: it
[15:49]: many years ago probably
[15:51]: definitely more than 10 years ago i sort
[15:53]: of developed this recipe
[15:56]: i don't
[15:57]: write down a lot
[15:58]: of recipes or a lot of what i do
[16:01]: but since this was a baking recipe and
[16:03]: something i wanted to be able to
[16:04]: reproduce
[16:05]: i
[16:07]: wrote everything down and can reproduce
[16:09]: it very well
[16:11]: um
[16:12]: thankfully because we love them
[16:15]: um
[16:16]: they turned out great as expected that
[16:19]: batch made with the disher that i was
[16:22]: using
[16:23]: i ended up making just about five dozen
[16:26]: i think i had like five dozen plus one
[16:29]: um
[16:31]: once i was all
[16:32]: done
[16:35]: uh so
[16:37]: that's a very large batch
[16:39]: but
[16:41]: all i do is bake off what i want at that
[16:44]: time and then
[16:46]: everything else
[16:48]: i dish
[16:49]: out put on a baking tray with a wax
[16:53]: paper under it put that in the freezer
[16:55]: until it's frozen
[16:57]: and then you can put all of those into a
[17:01]: zip top plastic freezer bag
[17:04]: and
[17:05]: i write what they are
[17:08]: and the time and temperature for baking
[17:10]: them
[17:11]: um
[17:12]: on the bag so that we know you know
[17:14]: exactly i don't have to look up the
[17:16]: recipe every time i want to bake them
[17:19]: and you can bake them directly from
[17:20]: frozen they may take an extra minute or
[17:22]: two but really
[17:24]: with this cookie
[17:26]: it depends on how you like it if you
[17:28]: want it a little gooey in the middle or
[17:29]: if you want it well baked so
[17:32]: you can do it however you like we like
[17:33]: ours
[17:35]: sort of a medium not super gooey but we
[17:37]: do like them when they're warm to be a
[17:39]: little bit gooey in the middle and i
[17:42]: can't remember how long that was i
[17:45]: probably talked about it
[17:46]: right afterwards is somewhere between 10
[17:49]: and 14 minutes
[17:51]: and you just have to kind of keep an eye
[17:52]: on them when they get a little brown
[17:53]: around around the edges only that's when
[17:56]: i usually pull them out
[17:57]: for that
[17:59]: um
[18:01]: it is a little bit fiddly
[18:03]: uh because you do have to grind
[18:07]: the oats into sort of an oat flour
[18:10]: i've never tried
[18:12]: i'm sure somewhere you can probably buy
[18:15]: oat flour
[18:16]: i have to think that's a thing but has
[18:21]: i've never actually looked for it so i
[18:23]: might look for that but i've never tried
[18:24]: it with that but i've always
[18:26]: used quick oats and uh ground them into
[18:30]: a flour-like consistency with the food
[18:33]: processor so that's a very important
[18:34]: part
[18:35]: of the recipe
[18:38]: so if you don't have a food processor
[18:39]: that would be a lot more difficult you
[18:41]: may be able to do that in a blender i've
[18:43]: never tried it let me know down below if
[18:46]: you do try to grind any greens in a
[18:48]: blender if that works
[18:51]: like i said never tried it
[18:53]: would love to know
[18:55]: um
[18:56]: so that part is a little more difficult
[18:59]: you do need
[19:02]: a
[19:03]: mixer i guess you don't probably
[19:05]: probably don't absolutely need a mixer
[19:06]: but it's a very big batch and it gets
[19:09]: very stiff cookie dough generally is a
[19:11]: kind of a stiff dough so
[19:14]: it's
[19:15]: it's easier with a mixer
[19:18]: if you're very strong
[19:19]: don't get worn out really quickly like i
[19:22]: generally do you could probably do it by
[19:24]: hand
[19:25]: but
[19:27]: so the mixer and the food processor and
[19:29]: all that
[19:30]: and mixing the eggs with the vanilla and
[19:32]: mixing things in batches and
[19:35]: scraping it down it's all a little bit
[19:37]: fiddly but we've done it so many times
[19:40]: uh it doesn't bother me at all uh i i
[19:44]: don't generally like things that are
[19:46]: super fiddly or take a lot of steps but
[19:48]: once i
[19:49]: once i get going i'm good
[19:51]: for this recipe because i kind of know
[19:53]: every step it's a little bit
[19:56]: ingrained now my husband even can help
[19:58]: me
[19:60]: with this and has been helping me make
[20:02]: these just about every time i've made
[20:04]: them
[20:05]: recently so
[20:08]: you spread the work around and it's it's
[20:10]: not so bad
[20:11]: and you'll have cookies for quite a long
[20:13]: time
[20:14]: if you put them in the freezer and like
[20:16]: to eat them warm like we do
[20:19]: so if you enjoyed watching me make this
[20:22]: give me a thumbs up
[20:23]: let me know what you think of my recipe
[20:25]: in the comments down below i will link
[20:27]: the full recipe down there as well
[20:31]: so you don't have to watch and write
[20:34]: down all of the measurements or i hope i
[20:36]: didn't forget one that kind of thing
[20:38]: i will link to a full recipe
[20:42]: below text recipe so you can just print
[20:44]: it out
[20:46]: or save it
[20:47]: however you like to save recipes
[20:51]: and
[20:53]: if you've enjoyed watching me make
[20:54]: watching me cook hit the subscribe
[20:56]: button and come back and watch me make
[20:59]: something else next week
[21:01]: [Music]