Oatmeal Cookies with Nuts and Chocolate | Baking with Dorie

The classic chocolate chip cookie recipe calls for equal parts butter, sugar and flour. (Or the simple ratio of 8 ounces/two sticks/272 grams of butter: 4 ounces each of white and brown sugar: 8 ounces of flour.) Combining with 1 cup of chocolate chips, the recipe becomes the magic formula you can take to the bank. Surprisingly, Dorie’s oatmeal cookies with nuts and chocolate follow a similar script, despite a longer list of ingredients.

There is a lot to like about having loads of old-fashion oats in the cookie dough. In fact, oats is the dominant ingredient, exceeding the amount of butter or flour. A little over 10 ounces or 300 grams of oats, to be exact. Does that make these cookies more wholesome that you’d want to pack along on your hikes? They sure taste better and more nuanced than the typical energy bars.

Chocolate for me is always dark chocolate. For the other add-on ingredients, I use walnuts (from the Azores) and cranberries. Nuts can be pistachio, pecan or macadamia. Dorie also suggests raisins and other dried fruits like apricot, dates. There is not stopping to pile on seeds in the mix! Clearly, there is a lot of room to play around with — making the recipe very adaptable.

Mixing is the classic method of creaming butter and sugars in a stand mixer. Then add eggs and vanilla and honey. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, baking soda and oats) in 3 additions. Finally, fold in the chocolate chips, and handfuls of nuts and dried fruits. Drop heaping tablespoons of the cookie dough onto a baking sheet. Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes in a 350°F oven.

Like all things classic, they are timeless and notable.