Copycat Cookies
There is a
certain hotel chain that gives you warm chocolate chip cookies upon
check-in and I was recently discussing this fact with a friend who
had never had the pleasure of tasting them before. She promptly went
online, found this recipe, and has made several batches for her
family in the span of a few weeks. To be honest, I have not stayed
at this certain hotel chain in many years and therefore cannot really
compare the cookies made by this recipe to the real thing. In the
end, however, it doesn't really matter because these cookies taste
wonderful.
One
interesting thing about this recipe is the addition of lemon juice to
the dough. After much research, the consensus is that the lemon
juice reacts with the baking soda to create a soft, chewy cookie.
Ingredients:
½ cup
rolled oats
2 ¼ cups
flour
1 ½
teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon
salt
¼ teaspoon
cinnamon (I used a rounded ¼ teaspoon rather than leveling the
cinnamon off)
1 cup
unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup
sugar
¾ cup
light brown sugar
2 teaspoons
vanilla
½ teaspoon
lemon juice, freshly squeezed
2 large
eggs
2 ½ to 3
cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli mini chips)
1 cup
walnuts, chopped
Pulse the
oats in a food processor until they reach a fine to semi-fine
consistency. Stir oats together with the flour, baking soda, salt,
and cinnamon in a small bowl; set aside. In the bowl of a stand
mixer cream together the butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and
lemon juice. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until smooth.
Scrape down the bowl. Add the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber
spatula or wooden spoon just until everything is incorporated. (Do
not overmix.) Add the chocolate chips and walnuts, mixing just
enough to evenly distribute them throughout the dough. Scoop about 3
tablespoons of dough at a time and roll into balls. Freeze or
refrigerate the balls of cookie dough for 3 hours, or overnight.
Preheat
oven to 350 degrees and place cookie dough balls 2 inches apart on
parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, just until
the edges are a light golden brown. (Cooking times will vary
depending on your oven and the size of your cookies.) Cool the
cookies and serve! Baked cookies can be stored in an airtight
container with a slice of bread to keep them soft.
Notes: 1)
Although I generally prefer pecans over walnuts, I do not recommend
swapping them in this recipe. I made a batch with each and was
shocked to find that the walnuts produced a better flavor of cookie.
2) The first time I made these cookies I thought I would be really
smart by flattening my cookie dough balls a bit so that they would
store easier for freezing. Unfortunately this resulted in very flat
and spread out cookies. Do not repeat my mistake.
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