Who Stole the Cookie From the Cookie Jar?

Lil Jon stole the cookie from the cookie jar!

Cold day in New York, so I thought it was time to get the baking gear out and settle in for Round No. 2. of Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Alas, I raided the pantry but could not find the light brown sugar. I substituted molasses for it instead, which worked fine. Just be aware that the result will be slightly darker.

This recipe is by far the best one I've tried yet. Everyone from my family to my friends and even my dog (shhh -- you're not supposed to give your dog chocolate!) can attest to the buttery, melt-in-your-mouth flavor of these scrumptious morsels. The marriage of oat and chocolate (with its offspring: walnut and vanilla extract) will have a long lifespan, I predict.

Cookies really aren't the same without butter, so don't even think about using margarine. The health effects of margarine are debatable, but something that most people don't recognize is that the hardening of vegetable oils used in the making of margarine actually produces the saturated fat they fear so much in butter. Plus, margarine often has trans-fat, resulting from hydrogenation. This information is not usually disclosed to the public but is studied by naturopathic physicians, who specialize in natural medicine.

On to the recipe...

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Submitted by: Panthera

"I modified Beatrice's Excellent Oatmeal cookies very slightly. I came up with something that my boyfriend went CRAZY over! I've never seen him enjoy cookies to that extent! He said I blew his mother's recipe away."

Recipe Rating: 4.6/5
PREP TIME: 15 min.
COOK TIME: 12 min.
READY IN: 55 min.
Original recipe yield 3 1/2 dozen

INGREDIENTS:
-1 cup butter, softened
-1 cup packed light brown sugar (or 2 tbsp molasses)
-1/2 cup white sugar
-2 eggs
-2 tsp vanilla extract
-1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1 teaspoon salt
-3 cups quick-cooking oats
-1 cup chopped walnuts
-1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Tollhouse)

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 325 deg F.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended.

Close-up of choco-oat batter

Mix in the quick oats, walnuts and chocolate chips. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. (No need to butter the sheets -- you'll find there's already plenty of butter in the mixture.)

Second batch: Not too sweet, not too rich. Just right.

3. Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven.

Crumbly first batch

Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Eat your heart out, Marg R. In

Final step: Consume!

Lil Jon, age 7, gobbled down four out of the five cookies on his plate. His chocolate-drenched mug left behind traces of his sticky behavior.