Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies

I woke up to a gray day.  The kind that just oozes cozy laziness.  The kind that makes you want to cuddle up on the couch and start some kind of movie marathon.

When I suggested we spend our day having a Doctor Who-athon or a Lord Of The Rings-athon or pretty much any other kind of -athon my family was feeling, it was met with excitement- and one question...

What were we going to eat?

You can't have an -athon without good eats, can you?  :-)

I ended up making a double batch of my new favorite, Zucchini Tots, a loaf of Pepperoni Pizza Pull-Apart Bread (more on that one in my next post!), and these amazing Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Ok, I take that back- my 8 year-old made these wonderful cookies!

I love sharing my love of cooking with her.  I love explaining the cooking terms, walking her through the directions, and seeing her excitement at the final result.

These cookies were all her, from start to finish.  I showed her how to search for chocolate chip cookie recipes on Allrecipes and let her choose which one we would make.  I had her pull out all of the ingredients she would need.  I explained why we mix wet ingredients apart from dry ingredients.  I explained the difference between white and brown sugar and how to make brown sugar from scratch with molasses in a pinch.  I explained why we were going to chill the dough even though the original recipe didn't call for it.

In short, today was one of those rare days where I really knew I was winning at parenting.  :-)

We all need moments like those sometimes, don't we?

Anyway, these are SO.  GOOD.

She picked well!

Chocolate chip cookies with oats, peanut butter, and chocolate chips.

I could eat the dough with a spoon, it was just phenomenal!

I've followed some great chocolate chip cookie recipes over the years, but these take the cake (er...cookie?)- definitely my new go-to recipe!

Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies

From Allrecipes.com

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup rolled oats

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the peanut butter, vanilla and egg until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the batter just until moistened. Mix in the oats and chocolate chips until evenly distributed. (I chilled for 30 minutes before continuing) Drop by tablespoonfuls on to lightly greased cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges start to brown. Cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.