Chocolate Chunk Cookies!

Katie here (the baker of duo). Always looking for an excuse to bake, I thought I'd make some cookies for the students in the MCAT class I taught over the Christmas break. Being a firm believer that all things baked should never come from a box with a pretty picture on the front, I decided to make a unique chocolate chunk cookie from scratch.


Recently I compiled a cookbook of favorite family recipes. In the process my Aunt Rita sent me an awesome chocolate chip cookie recipe (with oatmeal & peanut butter!!) so I decided to give it a whirl.


Starting off, I beat:
1 stick of softened butter
1/2 cup of shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter

I only had about 1/3 cup so I upped the shortening a little so my consistency wouldn't be compromised. Word to the wise - never substitute low fat margarine for butter or shortening. I did this once and ended up with burnt, paper-thin cookie crisps....not what grandma use to make. Be extremely cautious with substitutions in baking.


To round out the wet ingredients, I added 2 eggs & 1 tsp of vanilla extract


Now here's the trick, to get the flavor of oatmeal without the appearance, I processed 2 1/2 cups of oats.


Throw the oats in a separate bowl and mix with:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder


Little by little (about 3 portions), add the dry ingredients to the wet ones. Try not to over beat your dough, this will make your cookies tough.
After mixing, the dough was pretty dry so I was a bit worried.


Now for the chocolate! I used one 12 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chunks (Wal-Mart ran out of 12 oz chocolate chips). I ended up liking the chunks better anyway.


I dropped the cookies in palm-size globs about 1 inch apart on an ungreased, foil-lined baking sheet (for easy cleaning). I was able to do this by hand since the dough was dry.


Finally, I baked the goodies at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. The recipe made about 4 dozen cookies.


They were a little crunchier than I would have liked (I like mine chewy), next time I may try adding another stick of butter. But it didn't seem to bother my MCAT class, they ate all of them.