Old-School Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

My go-to recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies has been the one of the lid of Quaker Oats since I was about 7 years old. I've flirted with other oatmeal cookie recipes once or twice, and the ones Caleb used to make are great, but I've never found a recipe to replace the Quaker one. This time, it's different. I didn't expect to, but I loved these cookies (and so did everyone else who tried them).

The old-school oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from Baked Occasions are crispy and caramelized around the edges, soft and chewy in the middle, packed with huge chocolate pieces, and more flavorful than any other oatmeal chocolate chip cookie you'll find. It's true these require more advance planning than your average oatmeal cookie, since the dough needs to rest in the fridge, but these cookies are worth the extra patience (plus - most cookies are better after a rest in the fridge).

To achieve their perfect level of chewiness, these cookies draw upon a combination of textures from finely ground, coarsely ground, and whole rolled oats. This does mean you need a food processor or dry blender to grind most of the 3 cups of oats. The addition of molasses and cream contributes to the chewiness of the cookies, while adding a creamy richness that's absent from your run-of-the-mill oatmeal cookie.

After a rest in the fridge, my dough smelled (and tasted) so boozy I was concerned the cookies would be overpowered by the 12-year old single malt whiskey I'd used, but after baking the alcohol wasn't noticeable and just the deep, slightly smoky, aged vanilla flavor remained. The teaspoon of ground cinnamon in the dough isn't in your face at all, it just adds a tiny kick at the end of each bite.

I used a combination of semisweet chocolate chunks and bittersweet chocolate chips from Ghiradelli in my batter (instead of only the specified semisweet chunks), and would highly recommend a blend of chocolate, like semisweet and milk chocolate/butterscotch/toffee.

These oatmeal chocolate chip cookies were a huge hit. At this point, I've made all of the cookies from Baked Occasions, and these oatmeal cookies and the brown sugar walnut cookies are definitely my favorites (the rest have been pretty great too). Head over to Baked Sunday Mornings for the recipe and to see what other bakers thought.