Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies - Courtesy of Susan

2 ½ cups butter
2 ½ cups granulated sugar
2 ½ cups brown sugar, firmly packed
5 eggs
2 ½ tsp vanilla
5 cups flour
6 cups old-fashioned oatmeal, ground fine
1 ¼ tsp salt
2 ½ tsp baking powder
2 ½ tsp baking soda
24 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 8 oz. Hershey’s milk chocolate bar – grated or ground fine
2 cups nuts – chopped (I use pecans)

Soften butter in the microwave and mix in both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix together with salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Then mix in flour and oatmeal. Add chocolate chips, Hershey bar, and nuts. Roll into balls and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 3750.

A Cuisinart food processor works best for grinding the oatmeal, Hershey bar, and nuts. DO NOT use a Kitchen Aid mixer with this – the dough is too thick. This is a huge amount of dough, it makes 110 -120 cookies. The dough freezes well for 2-3 months, defrost for two days in the fridge. The cookies freeze well and reheat well in the microwave. This recipe is very forgiving to variation. I’ve made it with less sugar, more nuts, and no nuts. Less chocolate and more chocolate. The cookies are always good. The batch at class had a little less sugar and a little more choc. chips, and only a 7 oz. Hershey bar because they don’t make them 8 oz. any more. Watch the cooking time, they can dry out fast because of the thickness of the dough.