Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

 It is a wonderful thing to have a good, trusty cookie recipe.

It’s good because a trusty recipe can be changed, added to, and amended to create all kinds of different cookies.  I have a lot of recipes that are what I consider ‘base’ recipes.  They are fine on their own, but add a little of this and a little of that and you have a whole new dish that you can add to your rotation.

The ‘base’ recipe for these cookies is my Chocolate Chip Overload Cookies.  Lovely on their own.  Better than lovely, in fact, but the perfect place to start when a craving hits, or in my case when a special request is made.

I received a request for a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie cake for a birthday.  I make pan cookies at the holidays every year, so I took my pan cookie know-how and applied it to this recipe.  This recipe made one 10″ cookie cake and 3 dozen small cookies for me, but you could easily make one 14″ cookie cake, or one half sheet sized pan cookie.  It is versatile, and really tasty!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies   Yield 3dozen cookies and 1 - 10″ cookie cake

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs, cold

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 - 12 oz bags semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 cups quick cooking oats

Heat the oven to 350 F and line two sheet pans with parchment paper, plus an ungreased 10″ cake pan

In a bowl mix the flour, baking soda, and salt until well combined.  Set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer cream the butter and two sugars until mixed, but not fluffy.  Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well.  Add the vanilla and cinnamon.  Stir to combine.

Pour in the flour mixture and stir until the flour is almost absorbed, then add the chocolate chips and mix until the chip are incorporated and no flour remains.  (You may need to do this by hand)

Using half the dough to start, press the dough evenly into the cake pan, making sure the dough reaches 1/3 of the way up the pan.  Scoop the remaining dough into 1? balls onto the prepared sheet pans. 

Bake the cookies for 15 to 18 minutes, or until the edges are golden.  Allow the individual cookies to cool for 3 minutes on the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.  

Enjoy warm.

Bake the cake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the top of the cookies is golden brown all over and it is pulling away from the pan slightly.  Cool the cookie cake completely before running a thin knife around the edge and turning out.  Decorate as desired.

Serve with smiles and well wishes!