Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Source: Martha Stewart

Makes 22 five-inch cookies

You can buy chocolate that has already been chunked, or you can just cut up your favorite chocolate.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk
2 large eggs
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
12 ounces semisweet chocolatechopped into 1/2 inch chunks
1 1/3 cups coarsely chopped (5 ounces) pecans

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set dry ingredients aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter with both sugars; beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, milk, and eggs; mix well. Add reserved dry ingredients, and beat until just combined. Remove bowl from mixer, and fold in oats, chocolate, and pecans. Place dough in the refrigerator until firm, at least 2 hours or overnight.

Heat oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside. Remove dough from refrigerator. Using an ice-cream scoop, shape into 2-inch-diameter balls. Place six balls on each baking sheet, spaced 4 inches apart, and press down

Transfer to oven. Bake until golden, but still soft in center, 15 to 16 minutes. Remove from oven, and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough. Store in an airtight container up to 2 days.

My notes: I always use chocolate chips in place of chunks - it's easier and usually more economical. Strangely enough, I seek out the cookies in the batch that have the least amount of chocolate chips. Because of this, I cut the amount of chocolate chips down to 10 ounces and there were still plenty. This was a very thick batter and didn't seem like it would need to be chilled first, but I chilled anyway since chilling tends to reduce the amount of spreading. The batter for these cookies is quite stiff, but my KitchenAid handled it well, even though the directions call for folding in the last ingredients by hand. I almost never make big cookies unless I'm giving them away. I like to snack too much and smaller cookies are better for snacking. I made regular-sized cookies and baked them for about 12-13 minutes. This recipe makes about 50 regular-sized cookies.

I talked about this recipe HERE.