What chocolate recipe series would be complete without featuring chocolate chip cookies?

My mama always added oatmeal to her chocolate chip cookies. That way you don’t feel guilty about eating them for breakfast; the oatmeal practically makes them cereal bars. Right?

For the first several years of my childhood, my mama used the recipe on the Nestle Toll House chocolate chip package. But then one day someone gave her a photocopy of the urban legendary Neiman Marcus cookie recipe. There’s also a Mrs. Field’s version of the same urban legend. Anyway, the story around the recipe may have been a myth, but the cookies themselves are tried-and-true! My mama never went back to the Toll House version. She bought airbake cookie sheets and a melon-ball scooper, and her cookie baking was never better!

Fast forward a decade or two and imagine my delight when I discover my sweet friend Kate uses the same recipe! Somehow cookies just taste better when someone you love bakes them for you, and it had been a dozen years since I’d tasted cookies so similar to what my mama’s tasted like.

I watched Kate make these cookies one afternoon, paying close attention to see if I was missing a step. It turns out that Kate rolls the dough into balls by hand, rather than using the melon-ball scooper. This may seem insignificant, but it makes a big difference in the final product.

Tried-and-True Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 cups butter (softened)
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 4 cups flour
• 5 cups oatmeal
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 24 oz. chocolate chips
• 6 oz. Hershey bar (chopped into small chunks or grated)
• 3 cups nuts (optional)

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients. Add chocolate chips, Hershey bar chunks, and nuts. Scoop out by the spoonful and roll into balls. Bake on ungreased cookie sheets at 375 degrees F for 6 to 8 minutes. Makes 112 large cookies.

Things I’ve Learned that Mama Didn’t Teach Me:

• 112 large cookies may be too much of a good thing. I often half this recipe.
• If you forget to half the recipe, put un-baked cookie balls on wax paper and then slide several dozen into zip-lock freezer bags and freeze them. You’ll thank yourself later, I promise.
• Baking cookies on metal cookie sheets can be tricky in some ovens. I have had the most success using a Pampered Chef baking stone and baking them a few minutes longer.
• Let the cookies rest 3 to 5 minutes before moving them onto a cooling rack. They hold together best this way.
• God often shows His love for us through our friends. True friends are a gift from Him, whether they bake or not. But isn’t it lovely when they do?

Happy baking! And be sure to check out the other chocolate recipes in this series entitled “If It Isn’t Chocolate, Why Bother?”

• If It Isn’t Chocolate, Why Bother? #1: cookies
• If It Isn’t Chocolate, Why Bother? #2: pie
• If It Isn’t chocolate, Why Bother? #3: cake
• If It Isn’t Chocolate, Why Bother? #4: brownies
• If It Isn’t Chocolate, Why Bother? #5: crepes