These was my mom's go-to cookie recipe when we were growing up, and the first cookies I ever learned to make by myself. It's the recipe on the back of the Quaker oatmeal box with semi-sweet chocolate chips. My mom tells me these were also her mother's (my grandma's) go-to cookies as well. When she learned to make them, my grandma impressed upon her the importance of only putting half the bag of chocolate chips in, rather than the full 12 oz bag it called for. I imagine it's because she had 9 children and not a lot of money for chocolate, but I think there is such a thing as too many mix-ins in a cookie. At some point you have to stop calling it a cookie. Plus, I've had too many chocolate chip cookies where the cookie part is an afterthought -- a sugary, tasteless slog just to get to the chocolate bits. The oatmeal part of the cookie is just as good as the chocolate bits here. :)
I still remember the first time I made them because that night I learned an important lesson. I was probably 11 or 12 years old. I got ambitious and made a batch of these cookies after dinner one night while my mom was at work, all by myself. Being that it was my first batch of cookies, I saw that the ingredient list included salt. But sweet things don't need salt, I reasoned, and deliberately skipped it. My mom came home and was pleasantly surprised that I had made cookies and used the oven all by myself (and most importantly I had not burned down the house). I gave her one to eat. She took one bite, and the first thing out of her mouth was "they're good, but you didn't put salt in them!" and I was like "HOW DID YOU KNOW??" Then I remembered a batch of egg bread she had made a while back that we all thought tasted weird. The memory stuck in my mind because it was the weirdest tasting bread I had ever eaten. We both looked at the recipe and mom realized it hadn't called for any salt. I suddenly understood how my mom would know just by tasting. Salt is important, kids.
I had to retrieve the original recipe from my mom's stash because the one currently on Quaker's website halves the salt and then calls it "optional" (as if). You need some salt. It makes them taste better. Reduce it if you must, but do not leave it out completely. Below is the recipe as I make it. I take Grandma's advice with the chocolate chips, and cut some of the butter out because I was too lazy to cut a third stick in half once, and I never miss it.
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RECIPE:
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Quaker Oats, with input from three generations of my family
1 cup (2 sticks/225 g) butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup (150 g) brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (200 g) all-purpose flour
1 tsp (5 g) baking soda
1 tsp (5 g) kosher salt (less if you're using salted butter)
3 cups (260 g) old fashioned oats, uncooked
6 oz (170 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat your oven to 375 F/190 C. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium speed until thoroughly mixed, lightened in color, and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, and mix until well combined. Add flour, baking soda, and salt to the bowl and mix on very low speed until just incorporated. Add one cup of oats at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition until incorporated. Either mix in chocolate chips by hand or with the mixer on low speed until evenly incorporated. Drop by rounded spoonfuls (about 2 tbsp each) or scoop balls of dough with a medium size cookie scoop onto parchment paper lined baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-9 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Makes about 3.5-4 dozen.
Edit 7/8/22: I've made these a couple of times now with half butterscotch chips and half chocolate chips and I really like them this way.
