Recipe of the Year: Chocolate Chip Cookies
King Arthur Flour’s “recipe of the year” doesn’t have trendy ingredients such as kale or quinoa or pork bellies. It’s not one of those good-for-you green drinks. Nope, the 225-year-old flour company selected old-fashioned Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies as the 2015 Recipe of the Year. The cookies are a specialty of its Bake Truck, which travels the country handing out the cookies as part of the company’s Bake for Good fundraising program.
Last year, the Bake Truck collected over $8,000 for hunger-relief organizations, and after the cookies were handed out, they were consistently praised by thousands of taste testers nationwide as their favorite chocolate chip cookie – ever.
“What’s great about these cookies is they’re soft and chewy, packed with chips, and go beyond the standard chocolate chip cookie with the addition of nutty tasting oats,” said PJ Hamel, web producer for education and community at King Arthur Flour.
The recipe originated from Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, a non-profit organization King Arthur Flour is proud to support, and can be found below. For a gluten-free version, please visit http://www.kingarthurflour.
Recipe for King Arthur Flour’s Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 cup quick-cooking or old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt or 3/4 teaspoon regular table salt
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line several cookie sheets with parchment paper, or lightly grease with non-stick vegetable oil spray.
2) Beat together the butter and sugars until smooth.
3) Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla one at a time, beating well after each.
4) Whisk together the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and add to the butter mixture in the bowl.
5) Mix until everything is thoroughly incorporated. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and mix briefly.
6) Stir in the chocolate chips.
7) Decide what size cookies you want to make. A muffin scoop (1/4 cup) will make 20 large, palm-sized cookies. A tablespoon cookie scoop (4 teaspoons) will make 50 medium (2 3/4″ to 3″) cookies; and a teaspoon cookie scoop (2 teaspoons) will make 100 small (2 1/2″) cookies.
8) Scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1 1/2″ to 2″ between cookies.
9) Bake the cookies for 12 to 15 minutes, until they’re a light golden brown, with slightly darker edges. Their middles may still look a tiny bit shiny; that’s OK, they’ll continue to bake as they cool on the pan.
10) Remove the cookies from the oven, and as soon as they’re set enough to handle, transfer them to racks to cool.
Yield: 20 to 100 cookies, depending on size.