Oatmeal Chocolate Chip

I've made a few batches of these cookies recently, due to a couple of Costco overpurchases. My wife bought a gigantic bag of chocolate chips a while ago, thinking she'd make some chocolate mousse to take to work for her annual Bastille Day celebration. Those have been sitting around for a little while. Then, more recently, we bought 4 pounds of salted butter in 1 pound loafs, instead of the usual UNsalted 1/4 pound sticks. So: cookies.

Let me just state for the record right now: These cookies rock. They're by far my favorite cookies ever, and have been for a long time. That's partly because of how I make them, some of the secrets of which I'm going to share with you right now.

First, the recipe. This is an easy one. It's on the bag. Follow the directions, but toss in about a cup of old fashioned oats with the flour or before the chips. Easy.



And yum.

Now: This picture illustrates a few things to do right (ie; my way):


(Yeah, tilt your head to the right. I dunno, it looked fine on my computer...)

1. Silicone baking sheets. I actually have a couple of brands of these - Silpat, Matfer, whatever, they seem to work the same. They make the cookies bake up nice, though, and cleanup is super easy. I wish I had actual half-sheet pans that they fit on better, but haven't make it to my local restaurant supply house for them.

2. Dough scoop thing. Yeah there's probably a correct term for this. What am I, a pro? Anyway, the scoops make all the cookies the same size, so they cook up evenly. Plus it's easy and fun to scoop them out. These are my default purchase every time my wife or I feel obligated to buy something from a Pampered chef party. I have like three different sizes now; they come in handy for different types of cookies, as well as other things. (I have no idea what size this is - I thought they were labeled, but I can't find a volume on this one. Medium, as far as the three that I have are concerned.)



See how nice those cook up?

3. Nine minutes. The recipe says nine to eleven. Sure, it differs from oven to oven, but I like them undercooked. I went ten on my last batch, and it was too much.

4. Take them out and let them sit for a couple minutes before you transfer them to cooling racks. This lets the bottoms brown up and firm without overcooking the rest of the cookie.



5. Multilayer cookie racks. Two words. Counter. Space. Plus they look cool.



6. Kitchen mascot. Very important for kitchen morale.

And there you go. Hope you have as much success as I have.