About 15 years ago, chocolate chip cookies were my go-to Christmas treats. I would bake batch after batch to give away and take to holiday parties and cookie exchanges.
Then one year I gave a batch to my friend, Neil. He immediately asked for the recipe, and before I knew it, he was hard at work baking batches in his own kitchen.
As the years passed, I moved on to other Christmas treats, but my friend kept baking that tried-and-true chocolate chip cookie. He baked so many batches that they became known around the neighborhood as “Mr. Neil’s Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies.”
These are crispy oat and chocolate chip cookies, not your traditional Toll House cookies. They spread as they bake; when hot out of the oven, they are moist and gooey-good. After cooling on a wire rack, they get crispy and are perfect with a hot beverage or a cold glass of milk.
But the best part is they are perfect to give away.
Whether stored in a tin or on a platter wrapped in foil, be sure to include a copy of the recipe. But watch out, they will soon become someone else’s “Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies.”
If you have a favorite holiday cookie recipe to share, send it in an email to Alicia KitchenScoop.com.
Best Ever Chocolate
Chip Cookies
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1½ cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Mix together flour, baking soda and cinnamon. Set aside. Using an electric mixer, cream together the sugars and butter until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. On low speed, beat in the flour mixture just until blended. Stop mixer and fold in the oats and chips with a wooden spoon. Cover the cookie dough with plastic wrap and chill 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and place about 2 inches apart on prepared pans. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until light brown around edges. Cool on pan 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Store in metal tins or on foil-wrapped platter.
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
Each cookie has about 84 calories, 4 grams fat (3 grams saturated), 14 milligrams cholesterol, 1 gram protein, 10 grams carbohydrates, 1 gram dietary fiber, 61 milligrams sodium.
Alicia Ross is the co-author of three cookbooks. Contact her c/o Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106, email tellus@kitchenscoop.com, or visit http://kitchenscoop.com.