Double Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

A lot of these recipes, I have never experienced right from my grammy's kitchen. Seeing her mostly only on holidays, I actually didn't get to try a lot of her cooking (though everything I ever did have was the most delicious food ever). But a holiday standard, for many grandmothers I'm sure, is the cookie. The last time I saw her I left with a giant plate of them. So, I was pretty excited to make my first batch of cookies from these recipes.

For these amazing cookies, you need:

1 and 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 and 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups uncooked quick oats
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and lightly grease a cookie sheet. Then combine the sugar and butter in a large bowl. The recipe says to beat with a mixer at medium speed until fluffy, but I did not own a mixer so I had to put some muscle into it.

This first step basically makes a simple icing:


I remembered being young, probably around ten years old, and being at my friend Janine's house. We would just stick our finger in butter, and then in sugar, and then in our mouths. It sounds disgusting, but it was pure ten year old bliss.

Then you "beat" in the egg and vanilla. In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Just to warn you - this can be quite messy, since as soon as you put anything into the powdery mixture, flour and cocoa shoot out all over your microwave.


Stir the powder mixture into the creamed mixture, and then add oats and chocolate chips.


The dough will be very stiff. You can add up to 1/4 cup of water if needed. I didn't find this necessary. You then form tablespoon sized balls and place on the prepared cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.


I had a hard time picturing what "tablespoon sized" looked like, but they actually turned out perfectly. They didn't all run into one another, which is what has happened to me in the past when I've tried making cookies, maybe because the batter is so dense.


Bake 10-12 minutes (I split the difference and did 11 and they came out perfectly). The recipe makes 4 dozen. There is a note that you can also add an additional cup of chocolate chips and/or 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts if you'd like. Either one is probably really good, but they were very chocolaty so I don't think it's necessary.


Dave loved them. I shared the fact that I had to mix everything by hand, and the next day we went to Target and he surprised me with this little guy!


I'm not sure what's up with my mouth there, but I think I was probably just so excited about my new purple mixer I couldn't control my face. I'm glad he is so supportive of my cooking resolution (of course, it works out pretty good for him too).

Next week - crispy chicken bites with honey mustard and buffalo sauces!