Let’s be clear. These are not oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips in them. They are
chocolate chip cookies with a little bit of oatmeal. Big difference.
Now you’re probably thinking, What’s so Christmas-y about chocolate chip cookies? The answer is –
nothing, really. It’s just the only time of year my family made these incredibly sneak-able cookies,
and it’s the only time I make them, so I associate these cookies with
Christmas. Plus, from what I hear, they’re Santa’s favorite.
Ingredients
1½ cups sifted flour
1 tsp salt
¾ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 cup oatmeal
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup shortening
¾ cup white sugar
1 pkg chocolate chips (12 oz) (I like the Nestle semi-sweet
chocolate chips.)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp hot water
Directions
Preheat oven to 375
Sift flour and measure out the 1½ cups sifted flour
Add salt and baking soda to the sifted flour, sift again and
set aside (Sifting again is important. Don’t skip that step!)
Cream shortening with a mixer
Add white and brown sugar to shortening and cream until
fluffy
Add eggs one at a time, beating the mixture between each egg
Add hot water and vanilla, beat some more until creamy
Add sifted flour, salt and baking soda mixture; mix with
beaters (if you can) or stir with a spoon
Add the nuts, chocolate chips and oatmeal and stir together
with a spoon
Drop small spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet
Bake for 8-10 min
Cookies will not look done! They will continue to cook on
the cookie sheet.
Let cool on cookie sheet
Recipe yields about 3-dozen cookies
Modifications
I’m not a big fan of cookies with nuts, so I usually make
them without the walnuts. Also, I imagine you could make these without the
oatmeal, too. I’ve never done that, but I’m going to make another batch before
Christmas so maybe I’ll give it a try. I’ll let you know how it goes and post
an update. Oh, and I bet you could use half a bag of chocolate chips and have a
bag of peanut butter chips, and that would also be divine. Nom, nom, nom…
Update: 12/24/2012
Yeah, about those modifications above? Don't do them! I made more of these yesterday, and they were a colossal failure. I ran out of shortening and was just a smidge shy of one cup. So I added a little butter. Then I decided to add half a stick of butter because... why not? Then I decided to forego the oatmeal entirely, and I upped the chocolate chips to one and half bags instead.
The result? Cookie puddles. They oozed all over the baking sheets in the oven. It was a mess. Apparently, I used to way too much butter, and shortening and butter are NOT interchangeable. Plus, the oatmeal probably absorbs a lot of moisture, so without the oatmeal plus all the butter, it was a cookie puddle disaster. (But the dough was delicious!!)
So my advice is don't mess with perfection. Follow the recipe exactly as above and ignore my suggested modifications. I don't know what I was thinking... Well, the peanut butter chip thing might still work... Hmmm....
Update: 12/24/2012
Yeah, about those modifications above? Don't do them! I made more of these yesterday, and they were a colossal failure. I ran out of shortening and was just a smidge shy of one cup. So I added a little butter. Then I decided to add half a stick of butter because... why not? Then I decided to forego the oatmeal entirely, and I upped the chocolate chips to one and half bags instead.
The result? Cookie puddles. They oozed all over the baking sheets in the oven. It was a mess. Apparently, I used to way too much butter, and shortening and butter are NOT interchangeable. Plus, the oatmeal probably absorbs a lot of moisture, so without the oatmeal plus all the butter, it was a cookie puddle disaster. (But the dough was delicious!!)
So my advice is don't mess with perfection. Follow the recipe exactly as above and ignore my suggested modifications. I don't know what I was thinking... Well, the peanut butter chip thing might still work... Hmmm....
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