Big Sur Chocolate Chip Cookies
Maida Heatter's Big Surs are very large chocolate chip cookies. You can bake them immediately or shape the dough into balls, chill it, and bake later.
Servings 12 cookies
Cost 5
Ingredients
- 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened (¾ cup) (170 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed (140 grams)
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar (65 grams)
- 2 large eggs (medium would be okay too)
- 1 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour (190 grams)
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ cup quick cooking rolled oats
- 1 ½ cups walnuts, chopped
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- With an electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy..Add the vanilla and lemon juice and then both of the sugars and beat to mix.
- With mixer on medium speed, add the eggs one at a time, increasing speed after eggs are added. Scrape sides of bowl often.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients.
- On low speed or by hand, add the dry ingredients and then the rolled oats, scraping the bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula and beating only until mixed. Stir in nuts and morsels. The batter is pretty sticky.
- Spread a pastry mat or a big sheet of foil or parchment on the counter to drop your portions of dough on.
- Use a ¼ to ⅓ cup measure to scoop out big mounds of dough. Shoot for 12, but you can make up to 15. They'll be sticky. Dampen your fingers a little with some water to prevent sticky, and shape into neat mounds. At this point you can also chill the mounds if you want to shape them even neater while cold.
- Otherwise, just proceed with the recipe. Arrange mounds 4 inches apart (give them room to spread) on parchment lined baking sheet. You can leave them as mounds if you want chewy centers, or if you are trying to achieve crisp cookies make them evenly flat.
- Bake two sheets at a time for 16 to 18 minutes (I prefer baking one sheet at a time), reversing the sheets top to bottom and front to back as necessary to ensure even browning. Bake until the cookies are well colored; they must not be too pale. Watch carefully.
