Chocolate Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. With Chocolate.

2 sticks softened butter
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups a/p flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon (optional, but delightful)
1/2 tsp of salt
3 cups oats (traditional)
1 cup chocolate chips
4 oz baking chocolate

Preheat oven to 350, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Melt the baking chocolate and let cool to room temperature. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside. Cream the butter and sugars together. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well. Add the chocolate and combine. Add the flour mixture and mix well. Add the oats and chips and mix well. Dollop rounded tablespoons onto the sheet and cook 10-12 minutes.

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Oh yes, oh yes. Cookies. I love them even more than pancakes (as my girth will attest to). This is the recipe I reach for when I want something quick, easy and full of chocolate. Well, reasonably easy. Some people have a hard time with melting chocolate and some people seem to just have a pathological fear of making baked goods. Well, screw them. They won't get any cookies. Just so there is no confusion, I am cutting this recipe in half so that is why there is only one egg, etc. If I make a whole one then I will just eat them all, and I don't need that. Ok, first off preheat the oven to 350. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper. You do have parchment paper, right? If not, go out and get some. I'll wait. Parchment paper is the greatest thing to happen to baked goods since ... I don't even know. It's just the best. Try it, you won't ever want to bake without it. You should start by melting the chocolate, then setting it aside to cool. I usually use a makeshift double boiler, but the microwave works fine if you remember to do it at 50% power. Now you want to cream your sugars and butter. Using a hand mixer is really the easiest way to do this but the cupboard where my mixer is is a disaster, so I usually use a spoon. Besides, it's good for the forearm muscles. Once they are well creamed add the eggs and vanilla. Mix them up real good then add the melted chocolate. Now you really should mix together the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon (if you are using it) before adding them to the bowl. I didn't feel like it. I should have though, because now my cinnamon is unevenly distributed. Oh well, I will just have to suffer through it. Somehow. Heh. Now add in the oats and chips. Use old fashioned oats, not quick oats. The texture is much better. Mix it up and there you go! Now turn off the oven, grab a spoon and dig in. What? Oh. Yeah. OR you can drop rounded tablespoons of the dough onto the baking sheet and cook them for 10-12 minutes. If you're into that. Mine are all messy and uneven because I decided to do this on a 85 degree day with high humidity. So my patience was pretty thin. But that's me for you, a master of wise decisions. Cool them on the sheet for a minute, then move them to a cooling rack. I like my cookies a little on the gooey side so I pull out half the batch when they look like this.It's hard to tell in the picture, but the center is still soft and shiny. If you touched it you would pull away some sweet, sweet goo. My girlfriend likes them crispier so I pull out the other half when they look like this. These look pretty much fully set. Compromise, my friends. It's the key to keeping people quiet.