Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

A few weeks ago, my sister-in-law picked up some cookies from a local cookie shop and shared a few with us.  I opted to try the oatmeal chocolate chip and I thought it was a nice combination of oatmeal, chocolate and cinnamon.  I really liked the cinnamon with the chocolate.  As  I usually find with bakery products, the cookie was undercooked to my tastes, so I thought I would see if I could replicate it at home. 


For inspiration, I turned to the 1980 Toll House Heritage Cookbook.

I didn't find an oatmeal chocolate chip recipe, but I did find one for Oatmeal Scotchies.  I didn't have any butterscotch chips at home, so I would have had to substitute chocolate chips anyway.  Plus, I would almost always choose chocolate over butterscotch.  Because it is chocolate.

To change the recipe to what I was looking for, I added a teaspoon of cinnamon to the flour, replaced the orange extract with vanilla and substituted chocolate chips for the butterscotch morsels.  And my mom says I can't follow directions!

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Man, these were good!  I couldn't taste the cinnamon as much as in the bakery version, but the chocolate chips and oatmeal are a good match.  Move over raisins, chocolate chips are taking over the oatmeal cookie!

In other news, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous for the last week and the butterflies have been showing up in droves.  We've even had a few migrating Monarchs stop for a visit.  Normally their migration route is a bit west of us, so it was fun to see so many at once.  I managed to catch a photo of one feeding from my bedraggled Mexican sunflower.  This poor flower came up right in the middle of my garden path, so I have been walking around it all summer.  It's about 7 feet tall now and has been blown over twice in storms, but it just keeps on blooming.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (Printable recipe)
adapted from the 1980 edition of the Toll House Heritage Cookbook

Ingredients
2 cups unsifted flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon water
1 1/2 cups uncooked oats
12 ounces chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 375F.  In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; set aside.  In a large bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, eggs and water; beat until creamy.  Gradually add flour mixture.  Stir in oats, chocolate chips and vanilla extract.  Drop by slightly rounded measuring tablespoons onto greased cookie sheets (I used parchment paper).  Bake 10 to 12 minutes.