One-bowl oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (made with oil)

In general, I'm a fan of baking with oil and those recipes always appeal to me.  I suppose I feel somewhat "virtuous" using oil instead of butter, plus there's the convenience factor of not having to bring butter to room temperature, as you often need to do before the mixing and baking can begin.

Honestly, it doesn't take all that much to tempt me to bake a batch of cookies!  And this recipe from Half Baked Harvest was particularly tempting since it's just so simple - one bowl to mix everyone up, as you see below. And when a recipe is touted as a mom's specialty and one of the best around, I know I have to try it. 

The secret's in the oil.  The lineup of ingredients include the typical roster you'd expect in an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie but instead of butter, softened and creamed with sugar, you stir in canola oil.  The result is a somewhat crumbly, moist dough.  

I'd say the only tricky part of the recipe is molding the dough balls.  It doesn't want to stick together so you can't simply scoop the dough.  Instead, take spoonfuls of it and squeeze it together in your palm to pack it into a ball.  Be mindful to take some of the chocolate chips and incorporate it into the dough and on top to make sure you evenly distribute them among the cookies.

The little bit of finagling with the cookie dough balls was certainly a worthwhile effort.  In about 12 minutes, I had lovely little mounds of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies cooling on the counter.  The cookies have a great texture - thick, chewy, and moist.  They are chock full of chocolate from a generous amount of chocolate chips.   

I liked these cookies best a bit warm...the chocolate flavor is more intense and the caramel notes in the cookie seem to stand out more.  Enjoy them fresh from the oven if possible but you can always warm them for 10 seconds or so in the microwave.  Cooled, the cookies are still great - with a firm yet moist and chewy texture.  

My son is a big fan of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and these have his stamp of approval - whether warm or cooled!  That always makes a mom feel like she's accomplished a mission.  

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

To me, everyone could use not only a standby chocolate chip cookie recipe but an oatmeal one as well.  This is one of the first cookies I ever made that I thought was a success.  I've since discovered other great cookie recipes, oatmeal and otherwise, but it still has a special little place in my cookie repertoire for being a first - it made me think it was worthwhile to make cookies from scratch at home. 

This oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with toasted walnuts (you could use another type of nut or omit them altogether) is soft and chewy.  A bit of maple syrup in the cookie dough adds a different dimension of sweetness and extra moisture.  With a good 2-cups of oats, it's a great way to get a little extra fiber into your diet.  I like making these cookies for my son, who loves them but wouldn't eat oatmeal on its own.  Yes, I realize there's also butter, sugar, and chocolate chips being consumed here but we are talking about sweets and I'm a firm believer in balance.  Personally, I enjoy a bowl of creamy oatmeal with a little bit of honey and walnuts as breakfast or an evening snack (more so during the colder months) but a good oatmeal chocolate chip cookie is just the ticket on many other days.  Besides, you can't exactly pack a bowl of oatmeal and go on a picnic but these are just perfect for that summer picnic you might be planning.