I was watching Italian cartoons and drinking cappuccino in a hotel room when I got this email from Lisa E. telling me about some amazing oatmeal chocolate chip cookies her friend brought to a party. The cookies were so good no one could eat just one…and they were big, too! Given Lisa’s review and the 5 stars the cookies had on Recipezaar, I bookmarked them and waited until I was back home in my kitchen.
Well, I’m back home in my kitchen. Things have been a little crazy around here given the fact we’re moving (!!!), so these easy cookies were perfect for today. Like Lisa’s friend, I substituted butter for shortening, which changed the texture completely but gave the cookies a good flavor. I also used the “quick oats” which were called for in the recipe. I mostly use old fashioned because that’s what I like, but for these I bought the “quick” and you can really see the difference in the appearance of the cookie. Luckily, they tasted great. They had semi-crisp edges, were somewhat cakey and moist, and had tons of flavor from the oats, butter, salt and pecans. Because they had an aura of lightness about them, I can see why ladies at a party would eat multiple cookies.
Lisa’s Friend’s Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
3/4 cups all purpose unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (4 oz stick) unsalted butter, softened
6 tablespoons brown sugar, firmly packed
6 tablespoons sugar
1 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon hot water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cups chopped pecans — toasted
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup quick oats
Preheat oven to 375°F. Sift together flour, soda and salt.
In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugars; add egg and stir until mixed. Stir in hot water, vanilla and flour mixture. Add the oats and stir; stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.
Shape dough into large balls (mine were about 1 ½ inches), arrange on a cookie sheet lined with parchment spacing 3 inches apart, press the dough balls down slightly, and bake 12-14 minutes or until the cookies are nicely browned around the edges and not too pale in the center. The bake-time will vary depending on how big you make your balls of dough. I haven’t baked all the dough, but I think this half batch will yield about 15-18 cookies.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
yummy I love oatmeal cookies
“an aura of lightness”, huh.
I’ve been in search and need of lighter cookies!
Pack, pack, pack!
Cute name for the cookies. Another thing I liked about these is you could taste the salt — in a good way IMO. Now that you mention it, the cookies were kind of light, or seemed that way. Maybe the oats and a lot of pecans kind of kept them from seeming dense. Glad you enjoyed them!
My husband would have an absolute fit if I was baking cookies when I was supposed to be packing up to move.
Moving must be contagious – you, Katrina and Culinary Joe.
yum! and congrats (i think?) on moving! how did you find time to bake??
I have a big weak spot for oatmeal cookies, and I am not entirely against the the chocolate chip variety either. Looks like an awesome recipe, it has been a while since I last did some baking, which is a real shame, cause that’s what I get the most consistent results with in the kitchen. I might give it a try with some raisins.
Glad to see that replacing the shortening with butter works out, I have no desire to even touch that stuff. Thanks for passing this on!
Between chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal cookies, I have to say oatmeal wins hands down! Something about it gets to me, the chewy interior and buttery exterior…mmm. And i love a good friend who is always up for a recipe swap!
Uh, did I miss something—-you’re MOVING???? Italy??? lol
How do these compare to my very favorite oatmeal cc cookie from the infamous Frog Commissary?
I am so incredibly addicted to all of your recipes!! I have never seen so many cookies in just one place!!! I am going to try making these ones this week!! Thanks for sharing!!
You have my utmost admiration, to be mixing moving and baking! These cookies look absolutely delicious, and if they are half the hit the Secret Ingredient Sugar Cookies were at work, they are going to be a regular in the “rotation”!
You are making some short-haul truckers very happy (and spoiled!). LOL 
I just made these cookies with Jamie, and they are really delicious, light and crispy. I think we made them too small, so the bake time was only about 10 minutes and we got 26 cookies out of one batch. But they are still really good!
Yes, the cookies taste great!!!!! I like that you can taste the salt, just a little, it really brings out the flavor of the butter in this cookie. Next time I think I will switch the amount of choc chips and toasted pecans to 3/4 cup choc chips and 1 cup toasted pecans. I am going to make these for a bake sale in a few weeks. What would be an appropriate price for a bag of 2 of these cookies?
This was a wonderful recipe. I used the old-fashioned oats and used choc. chips and Cadbury Mini Eggs. They spread a lot but still held the big candy.