Sweet, Sweet Sunday: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know its cruel to post a cookie recipe in early January but I did my best and waited until the beginning of the second week of the year to share. I considered sitting on this recipe for longer but Jamie loved them, and he's quite the dessert critic, so I knew it was too good not to share.  If you resolved to avoid such treats, file this recipe away until you have a cookieful occasion.  If not, make these immediately, they are AWESOME!  Quick, easy, chewy and not overly sweet.  I followed this recipe with a few minor adjustments based on some of the reviews of it.

Cast of Characters
1 cup of butter, softened
1 cup of light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup of white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp of vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour*
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp of salt*
3 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional, I opted out)

*The original recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups of flour but I found the dough very sticky, so I added a 1/4 cup more.  The original recipe calls for 1 tsp of salt, but apparently that created salty results for some.  One-fourth of a teaspoon worked well for both mine and Jamie's tastes, subtly salty but not overly so. If you generally cook with salted butter, you may want to omit the additionally salt entirely.

1) Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.

2) Combine softened butter, brown sugar and white sugar in a stand mixer and mix until smooth.

3) Add eggs one at a time, and then add vanilla extract to the butter/sugar mixture.

4) Sift together flour, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl.  Slowly add these ingredients to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and stir until combined.

FYI - I love this Pampered Chef Dry/Liquid Measuring Cup

5) Add the oats and chocolate chips and mix slowly to the batter, mix until just combined.  Be careful not to over mix these cookies, apparently over mixing causes them to flatten out during baking.

6) Using a cookie scoop or large tablespoons, drop large(r) mounds of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets.  With a cookie scoop I yielded 36 large cookies.

7) Bake at 325 degrees for 12-13 minutes or until barely brown on the sides.  Cool 1-2 minutes on the sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cool, enjoy with a glass of cold milk.  I dare you to eat just one.  Both Jamie and I were supposed to take some to work since the recipe made so many, but in the end we couldn't part with them; they were too good to share (sorry Corey, you'll get some next weekend!)

Have you indulged in a sweet treat this year, or are you holding strong?  Obviously we've been eating cookies, but the 25 miles last week make it OK, right?  :)