Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Up until recently, when I wanted an oatmeal cookie, I went straight to my Grandma Maxie’s recipe. Then I made the recipe for Classic Oatmeal Cookies from my favorite cookbook, The Joy of Cooking.

If Grandma Maxie were still alive, I’d have to give her the sad news that her recipe is no longer on a pedestal.

These cookies are delicious. My mother even asked for the recipe.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies
from The Joy of Cooking

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

1-2 cups milk chocolate chunks (we like Trader Joe’s pound plus bars)
3 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Instructions:
These are my directions because I’m too impetuous to wait for the butter to soften:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Partially melt the butter in a large bowl in the microwave on 50% power. Add the sugars, eggs, and vanilla. Whisk well until creamy. Sift the dry ingredients together and fold into the butter/sugar/egg mixture with a spatula. Add the raisins (or chocolate), oats and nuts.

Use a small ice cream scoop or large spoon to drop tablespoon sized mounds of dough onto an greased cookie sheet. Bake for 6-9 minutes, rotating the cookie sheet halfway through, or until the cookies are evenly browned on top and almost firm in the center. Let the cookies sit on the sheet for a few minutes to firm up and remove them to a wire rack to cool.

Makes about 3 dozen.