It was my son’s 9th birthday over Christmas break and while the big party plans are still ahead of us, it ‘s his teacher’s tradition to celebrate each child’s birthday with a small treat in class.
So, today I’m making my sister, Irene’s Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. She’s had this recipe for a couple of years from a Greek TV cooking show (yeah – American cookies on a Greek TV show! I’ve seen some amazing twists to Greek recipes on TV here in the US too!) She, however, made a few changes to the original recipe, and also adjusted the ingredients to make a larger batch (it seems that there’s never enough of those). You have to try them! They’re crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside, with bits of chocolate that melt into your mouth! The kids love them, and they’re on the healthier side since they use oatmeal and brown sugar. My sister insisted that they should be baked for only 10 minutes. I made them a little larger so each kid would have one, so I baked them a little longer, 12 minutes. They come out of the oven soft but harden later on. The recipe makes about 28 large cookies or 45 smaller ones.
To make things a little more festive and personalized, I wrapped each cookie individually and added a little note that would make the birthday boy happy (how-to at the end of this post)!
INGREDIENTS
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup oatmeal
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3 cups chocolate chips
Preheat oven at 360 F (180 C).
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, oatmeal and chocolate chips. Set aside.
In an electric mixer bowl beat butter, brown sugar and white sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla extract and eggs, one at a time. Stop mixer and scrap bowl in between adding ingredients. Continue mixing until all ingredients become a soft and creamy substance.
Add the flour mix into the mixer bowl, in about three batches, beating and scraping bowl in between, until all ingredients are well combined.
Use two tablespoons to drop portions of dough onto your baking sheet, leaving about 2-3 inches (about 5 cm) in between drops. Bake for 10 minutes or 12 minutes for larger ones.
I wrapped each cookie individually into square pieces of parchment paper (8 1/2 inches – about 22 cm). I made crisp folds on the four sides, tied my little package with some twine and made a small bow. The cute birthday note was made on the computer by typing a repeating message that starts at a different point at the beginning of each line. I took off the right, left upper and lower margins so as to widen the space for my text and use less paper. I typed 3-4 lines and then copy-pasted them on the rest of the page.
With a glass I made perfectly round shapes on the back of each printed sheet of paper and cut out the round shapes carefully.
Handing out those little treats packaged will create less mess, and if some kids want to keep their cookie for later, it will be nicely packed.
Heading off to school now! Hoping these little sweeties will love Irene’s cookies!
