Mrs. Field's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Whenever I want to make cookies, my mom usually begs me to make Mrs. Field's chocolate chip cookies (occasionally she will request the fluffenutter cookies, or ginger cookies, but mostly it's these).  This is an old recipe that my dad used to use, from our beloved old orange recipe files.  I think it may be type-written (that shows how old it is!).  The paper is wrinkled and stained and covered with notes in Mom's handwriting ("they are very good, everyone loved them!  Crunchy outside chewy inside and oatmealy tasting!" for example; also, "I use a 12-oz bag of choc. chips. It was plenty").  I don't know why it took me so long to finally agree to whip them up. Maybe it's the fact that is makes 120 cookies, or the note that Mom has about how it was "difficult to make the whole recipe in the mixer.  It's do-able but fills it right up."  Then again, my mixer is practically twice the size of hers, so that was not going to be an issue for me.

Anyway, I finally decided to make them when I was going on the Ajemian family vacation in Ogunquit, Maine.  One of the best parts of that vacation is what they call "picky time."  Picky time is when everyone brings out delicious food that they brought from home and we just snack for hours, ruin our dinner appetites, but still go eat lots of dinner later :) It's so fun!  Anyway since most of our pickies are savory, I thought I'd bring these cookies as a sweet alternative.

The recipe really does make 120 cookies, which was a bit much, and requires an entire pound of butter.  I only had 2 sticks, so I decided to halve the recipe (and still get 60 cookies, which is more than enough!).  As an FYI, that works just fine if you find yourself needing less than 120 cookies.

Anyway, there is a secret to these oatmeal cookies.  Oatmeal cookies can sometimes have kind of a gross texture.  The oatmeal can be so chalky and dry, and tough to chew.  The secret here is to dump the oatmeal in the food processor and make an oatmeal flour.  That way, as Mom wrote, you get the "oeatmealy" taste without the texture of flakes of oatmeal.  Genius.  Make these cookies and enjoy the oatmealy chocolate chippy taste :)

Recipe:

Mrs. Field's chocolate chip cookies
recipe from Dad's orange recipe files
yield 120 cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups butter (or 4 sticks)
2 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups flour
5 cups oatmeal
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
24 ounce bag chocolate chips
Optional: 3 cups chopped nuts (any kind) and/or finely-grated 8 ounce Hershey bar (I did the nuts, no candy bar)

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream together the butter and the two sugars.

2) Add the eggs and vanilla.

3) Put small amounts of oatmeal into a blender or food processor (mine did it all at once!) and blend until it turns to powder.  Put all oatmeal powder into a bowl, and mix in flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

4) Mix together the dry and wet ingredients.  Add chocolate chips, and nuts and grated candy bar if using.

5) Make golfball sized balls of dough and place on greased cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Mark passing around my cookies at picky time!  They were a hit with all my future in-laws :)