Categories: Chocolate, Cookies, Oatmeal

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup (3 1/4 ounces) vegetable shortening, trans-fat-free
• 1 cup (7 1/2 ounces) brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cider or white vinegar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 3/4 cups (7 1/4 ounces) King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour, organic preferred
• 1 cup (3 1/2 ounces) quick-cooking rolled oats (or traditional rolled oats pulsed several times in a food processor, to break them up a bit)
• 3 cups (18 ounces; 1 regular and 1 small package) semisweet chocolate chips, or a mixture of chocolate chips and cinnamon chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, shortening, sugars, vanilla, salt, and vinegar. Beat in the egg, then the baking soda and flour. Stir in the chips.

2. Drop the dough, by tablespoonfuls, onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, until they’re golden brown. Note: If you bake the cookies for 12 minutes; they’ll be crunchy around the edges, with a slight bend at the center. If you bake for the full 14 minutes, till they’re almost a light mahogany color, they’ll be crisp/crunchy all the way through. Remove the cookies from the oven, and cool on a rack.

3. Yield: 4 1/2 dozen cookies.

4. Helpful hint: If you’re a multi-tasker who wants to wring every bit of time-effectiveness out of your baking projects, this is a large enough recipe that you can prepare the dough, bake half the cookies, and freeze the remainder of the dough for another time. Or double the recipe, making enough for about 9 dozen cookies. Best way? Scoop the dough you’re not baking in tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheet, as though you were going to bake the cookies; place them close together to save space. Cover the sheet with plastic wrap, and place in the freezer for about 2 hours, till the dough balls are frozen.

5. Remove the sheet from the freezer, and put the dough balls in a plastic freezer bag, removing the air as best you can. A drinking straw, inserted into the almost-closed bag, can be used to suck out air and effectively shrink-wrap the cookies. Keep frozen for up to a month before baking.

6. When you’re ready to bake, place as many dough balls as you like on a prepared baking sheet, and let them sit at room temperature while you preheat your oven to 350°F, for about 15 minutes. Bake partially thawed cookies for 14 to 16 minutes. Or, place totally frozen dough balls on the baking sheet, put into the preheated oven, and bake for about 16 to 17 minutes, till they’re a rich golden brown all the way across the top surface.

7. Variation: For smaller cookies (great for smaller kids!), drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets, and bake for just slightly less time: 30 seconds to 1 minute less than the larger cookies. Yield: 7 dozen 2-inch cookies.

8. ©2006 The King Arthur Flour Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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