Favourite things
I have very fond childhood memories of my Mom baking, and eventually teaching us to bake. I then remember my Mom getting irate with us once we learned how to bake, as she'd purchase ingredients with a recipe in mind, and my sister and I would get a hankering for something fresh-baked and use up all the sugar or the chocolate chips. That wouldn't have been all that bad, but before she got home we'd have eaten all the baked goods and left a stack of tell-tale dishes in the sink. It wasn't until we got older that we learned to at least wash the dishes before she got home. That way, she'd just think she'd gone crazy when she went to the cupboard and was SURE she'd just bought another thing of baking soda...
There's something inexplicably quaint about making and eating fresh homemade cookies as a family. We all gather the ingredients and set them up on the table, measure them out, take turns stirring... We really enjoy it, and this recipe is the #1 request in my household. These nubbly (is that a word?) crispy and chewy morsels of heaven are a favourite of not only mine, but all my friends and family. For what it's worth (and call me nostalgic if you must) they taste best if you use a well-seasoned wooden spoon and Pyrex bowls. They taste even better when you are able to make and eat them as a family. I'm sad to admit that I actually waited ALL DAY today for the sun to be in just the right position to take this beautiful picture of what's left of about 6 dozen. I am, however, eating the props as I type this. That one on the top slightly off to the right was especially delicious- had LOTS of chocolate chips.
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup of butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
n.b. semi-sweet chocolate chips are best for this recipe as the milk chocolate are just too much sweet. I also strongly advise against using quick oats (sometimes labelled as instant or fast cooking) because they don't give as nice of a texture and tend to get all mushy in the batter.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together and set aside. In a big glass Pyrex bowl, whip the butter and add white and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and stir frantically with a nice thick-handled, tie-dye stained wooden spoon. If there are little pea-sized clumps of brown sugar, be sure and leave them in - when the cookies bake they make nice little crunchy surprises. If your kids are cracking the eggs, make them do it in a separate bowl because eggshells aren't a nice crunchy surprise. Add the flour mixture and stir some more. I always take the first stir after adding the dry ingredients or I end up having to wipe up all the flour that flies out of the bowl. Taste the batter. It's really delicious. Add your old-fashoined rolled oats. Use a half cup scoop and let the kids count out to 7. My 3 year old loves this the best of all. Then stir in your chocolate chips, and taste the batter again. Still good, isn't it? You'll have to pause now to play eeny-miney-moe to decide who gets to lick the wooden spoon. Exclude your spouse - spouses cheat. You need 2 teaspoons, plus one for each person who helped. Use two of the spoons to drop the cookies onto a cookie sheet in golf-ball sized blobs - the more lopsided the better; use the other teaspoons for intermittently checking to see if the batter still tastes good. Turn the oven light on so the kids can watch. Bake for 11 - 12 minutes. They will be glossy and look almost raw when you first pull them from the oven, but I guarantee you they aren't. Let them cool - the bottoms will be nicely crisped and browned while the tops are perfectly chewy. If you like, try one hot from the oven but be careful not to burn the palm of your hand or the roof of your mouth! Serve with cold milk or hot chocolate. If you can restrain yourself (or want to) from baking and eating these cookies all at once, you can freeze some of the cookies or even some of the batter in a freezer bag to bake later.
There's something inexplicably quaint about making and eating fresh homemade cookies as a family. We all gather the ingredients and set them up on the table, measure them out, take turns stirring... We really enjoy it, and this recipe is the #1 request in my household. These nubbly (is that a word?) crispy and chewy morsels of heaven are a favourite of not only mine, but all my friends and family. For what it's worth (and call me nostalgic if you must) they taste best if you use a well-seasoned wooden spoon and Pyrex bowls. They taste even better when you are able to make and eat them as a family. I'm sad to admit that I actually waited ALL DAY today for the sun to be in just the right position to take this beautiful picture of what's left of about 6 dozen. I am, however, eating the props as I type this. That one on the top slightly off to the right was especially delicious- had LOTS of chocolate chips.
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup of butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups firmly packed light or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
n.b. semi-sweet chocolate chips are best for this recipe as the milk chocolate are just too much sweet. I also strongly advise against using quick oats (sometimes labelled as instant or fast cooking) because they don't give as nice of a texture and tend to get all mushy in the batter.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together and set aside. In a big glass Pyrex bowl, whip the butter and add white and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and stir frantically with a nice thick-handled, tie-dye stained wooden spoon. If there are little pea-sized clumps of brown sugar, be sure and leave them in - when the cookies bake they make nice little crunchy surprises. If your kids are cracking the eggs, make them do it in a separate bowl because eggshells aren't a nice crunchy surprise. Add the flour mixture and stir some more. I always take the first stir after adding the dry ingredients or I end up having to wipe up all the flour that flies out of the bowl. Taste the batter. It's really delicious. Add your old-fashoined rolled oats. Use a half cup scoop and let the kids count out to 7. My 3 year old loves this the best of all. Then stir in your chocolate chips, and taste the batter again. Still good, isn't it? You'll have to pause now to play eeny-miney-moe to decide who gets to lick the wooden spoon. Exclude your spouse - spouses cheat. You need 2 teaspoons, plus one for each person who helped. Use two of the spoons to drop the cookies onto a cookie sheet in golf-ball sized blobs - the more lopsided the better; use the other teaspoons for intermittently checking to see if the batter still tastes good. Turn the oven light on so the kids can watch. Bake for 11 - 12 minutes. They will be glossy and look almost raw when you first pull them from the oven, but I guarantee you they aren't. Let them cool - the bottoms will be nicely crisped and browned while the tops are perfectly chewy. If you like, try one hot from the oven but be careful not to burn the palm of your hand or the roof of your mouth! Serve with cold milk or hot chocolate. If you can restrain yourself (or want to) from baking and eating these cookies all at once, you can freeze some of the cookies or even some of the batter in a freezer bag to bake later.
Comments
As far as waiting for the light to be perfect for your photograph... well, I don't think that's weird at all. Seems perfectly normal and reasonable to me?? The picture turned out great. Yay for portraits of inanimate objects!