(Happy Thanksgiving to American readers. Happy Thursday to everyone else. Either way, here’s something that has nothing to do with pumpkin or turkey. I think we all need it.)
You might remember a few weeks ago, when I mentioned an experiment I was working on. (Or you might not. It was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it kind of thing.)
What happened was this: I had a sudden, out-of-nowhere craving for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Not just any oatmeal chocolate chip cookies—the ones I used to make when I was a kid: thick and chewy, loaded with chocolate, but not too sugary, and not too big. Pure comfort food. Which would have been fine, but it was just coming up on Hallowe’en, and I didn’t want to be stuck with the 9 dozen cookies that the recipe makes on top of all the leftover candy that I could see in the future.
Now, if I’d been smart, I’d have just cut the recipe in half, or maybe quartered it. That would’ve been the easy, straightforward thing to do.
But, no. I only wanted one or two cookies. I only wanted to make one or two cookies.
I tried adapting my go-to single-serve cookie recipe. It… didn’t work. Tasted good, but they weren’t the cookies I wanted.
So I tried again. And again. (Not right away, because Hallowe’en.)
And here we are. I didn’t manage to get it down to just one or two cookies, I did manage to cut my original recipe down from 110 cookies to four. Share ‘em with a friend. Or keep them for yourself. I won’t tell.
(And, if you’d like the full recipe, all 110 cookies worth, drop me a line, and I’ll be happy to send it to you. It’s slightly different—the cookies end up a little chewier—but it’s my favourite cookie recipe, ever.)
Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies (For Two!)
The ultimate comfort food: the perfect snack on an autumn afternoon.
serves: 2
active time: 8 minutes | cooking time: 12 minutes (plus cooling)
- 1 Tbsp butter, softened
- 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1 egg yolk (discard the white, or reserve it for another recipe)
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 3 Tbsp old-fashioned rolled oats
- ⅛ tsp baking soda
- 3 (heaping) Tbsp chocolate chips
- 1 Tbsp rasins (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment. (The parchment isn’t strictly necessary in this case, but makes cleanup a breeze.)
In a small bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Stir in egg yolk, vanilla, and salt. Add flour, rolled oats, and baking soda, and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips (and raisins, if using).
Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly golden and just set in the middle.
Cool on the baking sheet for 3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
Variation: If you don’t like chocolate chips (really?), don’t have any on hand, or just feel like changing up the recipe, you can substitute nearly anything you like: more raisins, nuts, dried cranberries or other fruit. Just make sure to keep the total to no more than 4 Tbsp of your preferred filler.
Reghan Skerry 