If you're in the mood for chocolate chip cookies, but with a little twist, try Ground Oats Chocolate Chip Cookies! Or at least that's what I call them to distinguish them from the other gazillion chocolate chip cookie recipes. Or sometimes I call them the Todd English cookies because the recipe is from one of this books, The Figs Table. This is an older book, but really good one. It's has various appetizer, pizza and pasta type recipes, but also a surprisingly great dessert section. One of my favorite dessert recipes of all time, White Chocolate Challah Bread Pudding, is from the book. But Ground Oats Chocolate Chip Cookies are way less time consuming.
Ground Oats Chocolate Chip Cookies Notes
I like these a lot. They have the perfect level of sweetness and light crisp edges with soft centers. They're also packed with chunks of chocolate and nuts. The oats, which are completely pulverized, add depth and flavor, but aren't really recognizable in the cookie.
Here's a picture of them right out of the oven. With all of the nuts and chocolate, these cookies are fine warm but really good when they've completely cooled and the chocolate has re-set. Or at least in my opinion.
Half Batch Egg Halving Trick
If you want to try a half batch, you can halve one egg and one yolk by doing the following: Set a small bowl on a scale and set tare to "0". Crack one egg into the bowl and note its weight, which should be around 52 grams. This means that the yolk weighs about 18 grams and the white weighs 34 grams. So discard 17 grams of white. That leaves you with 1 yolk (18 grams) and ½ a white (17 grams) so about 35 grams. This may seem like a pain, but the higher ratio of yolk means more lecithin and that higher ratio of lecithin makes the cookies softer.
Recipe
Ground Oats Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup walnut or pecan pieces
- 20 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature (285 grams)
- 1 cup light brown sugar, packed (200 grams)
- ½ cup granulated sugar (96 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice or 2 teaspoons espresso powder dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
- 1 large large egg
- 1 large large egg yolk
- 2 cups all purpose flour (260 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup rolled oats (90 grams)
- 3 cups any combination of semi-sweet bitter sweet chocolate chunks
Instructions
- Toast the nuts in a large skillet and let them cool completely.
- Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and both sugars; Beat in the vanilla, then beat in your choice of 1) lemon juice or 2) dissolved espresso. I used lemon juice. Add the egg and egg yolk and beat just until eggs are until blended into the batter.
- In a separate bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and kosher salt. Add the flour mixture to the batter and mix just until well-blended. Add the oats to the batter and stir just until blended. Stir in the cooled chopped nuts and chocolate
- Chill the dough for at least an hour. Note: I portion it first. By that I mean I scoop it onto plastic wrap lined dinner plates, cover and refrigerate until firm.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Spoon large tablespoonfuls of dough 3 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet; bake one sheet at a time for 13-15 minutes or until cookies are brown around edges but still soft in the middle. Allow them to sit on the cookie sheet for 3 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.
- The yield is supposed to be 48 cookies, but I tend to make mine slightly larger and wind up with fewer.
Anonymous says
how do you get cookies to be soft and chewy like the cookies from millies and fresh bakeries?? I cannot work it out! every batch of choc chip cookies i make turn out cakey or crispy...:-(
advice anyone??
Anna says
That Todd English knows what he's doing! LOL.
Glad you liked the cookies. If you can find it (and I'm sure you can on the Internet), the Fig's Table cookbook is a good one. There's also one called The Olives Dessert Table which you might like even better.
Debbi says
I finally tried these and I love them! I used semi sweet chips, white chocolate chips and cut up a milk chocolate bar. They were awesome! I chilled the dough overnight so the cookies were very thick after cooking which I love! Thanks!
Judy Castranova says
Hi Anna. Like your website changes. I tried this recipe because am always looking for a better chocolate chip cookie and was intrigued by the lemon juice among other things. Here are the changes I made: Used 4oz Smart Balance Buttery Spread and 8 oz. unsalted butter; 1-1/4 cups white sugar, 1 Tbsp. molasses; added 1 Tbsp. cornstarch; reduced salt to 1/2 tsp. and used sea salt; added 2 Tbsp. quick oats not pulverized along with the pulverized cup of oats; 1 cup Hershey mini Krackels chopped, 1 cup semisweet morsels and 1/2 cup milk chocolate morsels which was 1/2 cup less chocolate than recipe called for. They turned out scrumptious -- crisp on the edges and tender and soft inside --this recipe is definitely a keeper. Will be trying the Jacques Torres recipe soon and am wondering how you think the two recipes compare, since they have some similarities? Will be posting the recipe with my changes and a link to your site on my blog. Regards.
Anna says
Cookleitz, I liked them a lot too. The only issue I had was that they didn't taste as good the second day. That is, they didn't keep well. Like most chocolate chip cookies, these are best eaten the same day.
cookleitz says
I made these over the weekend and liked them a lot. I used the bottom of several bags of chips - white, milk, semisweet chocolate and butterscotch. Next time, think I will use semisweet and some Heath Toffee bits to mix it up a bit.
Anna says
Amela, photographing food feels weird at first, but you get used to it. Your husband will too. My husband now requests that I photograph whatever it is he's cooked. I only feel creepy taking pictues of food at restaurants. Wish I could get past that, but it just feels wrong. Plus, flash bothers other diners. Still, I am always amazed at these pictures people post of meals they've had in various restuarants.
Debbi, I used a cut-up Lindt dark bar, a handful of Ghirardelli bittersweet chips and at the end, I stuck some milk chocolate into the baked cookies. As a rule, I don't bake milk chocolate...I just stick it in the cookies at the end.
Sandra, yes. One whole egg plus 1 egg yolk. You'll have an extra egg white to deal with. I kept mine on the kitchen counter all day, then realized I didn't have a use for 1 egg white and threw it out.
sandra says
So the recipe has one whole egg and then the yolk of another, correct? Just checkin....
Debbi says
What did you use for chocolate chips and chunks? It looks like you have dark and milk chocolate in there. I am SO going to try these next week. Always looking for a reason to make chocolate chip cookies!!