oatmeal chocolate chip cookies + freezer tips
It’s Halloween week, which means different things at our house:
Grant: Just get it over with because November 1st means CHRISTMAS MUSIC!
Jasper: CANDY! CANDY! CANDY!
Maeve: I don’t think she really has any thoughts except that she gets to be Anna from Frozen this year, which means it might be the best night of her life.
Sara: Could I give out something healthy and green instead? Like apples? We should have a party. I should make chili for the neighbors. We should hand out beer for the adults, but not crappy beer, local craft beer. We should get some growlers or pony kegs and have people bring their own cups. But Grant will say if we’re spending money on kegs for a holiday, it will be for CHRISTMAS, the best day of the year. Where can I donate all that candy that I don’t want the kids eating? Is it bad to donate candy?
So, as you can see, we’re a bit all over the place for this holiday (and I talk to myself ALOT!). If it wouldn’t be weird to give out cookies for Halloween, I would make these, which are my favorite cookie ever, which is saying something, because, while I can pass up candy all day long, I can’t resist a homemade cookie. I think they taste like the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies at Paradise, but better because I know exactly what’s in them – and because I usually have some in my freezer.
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1.5 cup old-fashioned oats
- 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Line a large cookie sheet with a nonstick baking mat.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the butter in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add the sugar, salt, and vanilla, and beat until smooth.
- Stir in eggs.
- In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking soda, and cinnamon and mix well.
- Slowly add the dry mixture to the mixer until the wet and dry ingredients are combined.
- Stir in the oats and chocolate chips.
- Stir in the oats, pecans, orange zest, and chocolate chips.
- If you have a cookie scoop (I'm obsessed with this cookie scoop
- for some reason, it makes cookie-making so much more enjoyable for me, which is probably a bad thing), use that to easily drop the dough onto the cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until just barely brown around the edges.
- Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on a rack.
Notes
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
Cookie freezer tips
I love it when friends swing by unexpectedly or at the last minute, so I like to have cookies in the freezer for a quick little treat for such occasions. There’s something so cozy and welcoming about the scent of homemade cookies baking in the oven! This has become a little problematic because homemade cookies are only fifteen minutes away at any given time, company or not, but oh well. Here is my method:
- Make the cookies as directed in the recipe (I’ve tried this to great success with virtually every type of cookie you can think of).
- Go ahead and prep them as if you’re going to bake them. For me, this means scooping them out onto the baking sheet. I don’t worry about spacing though because I won’t actually be baking them. If your dough is on the runny side, you may want to put it in the fridge for an hour to make this process easier.
- Once you have all of the cookies assembled on the cookie sheet, throw them in the freezer for at least six hours (I usually just do overnight). Once they’re frozen solid, dump them in a labeled plastic bag, and put them in the freezer. I like to add the oven temperature to my label if I remember to make things even easier when I actually bake them.
- When you’re ready to bake them, take out as many cookies as you need, put them on a baking sheet, and preheat the oven to the temperature the original recipe calls for. I find that, from frozen, the cookies usually need an extra 3-4 minutes from the original recipe, but it depends on the cookie. Just keep an eye on them as you get to the recipe’s recommended time.
I’m sorry, and you’re welcome!
