Oatmeal Cookies with Dark Chocolate Chips OR with (2018 Update) Rhubarb

Had a request today for this recipe, and it's worth sharing it -- it's based on the back-of-the-box recipe from Quaker Oats, but I've been adapting it to my taste (and cupboard) for the past 35 years. When I learned that "brown sugar" in stores was actually just white sugar with molasses added, I changed the recipe to reflect this -- and not pay the higher price of brown sugar! I've found different kinds of rolled oats ("quick" or 5-minute or health-food-store organic) make different textures of the cookie. Lately I use the health-food-store organic, because it's what I have in the house, but I think the recipe sometimes works better with the 5-minute type -- sort of halfway between the textures of the organic and the "quick." And for the chocolate chips, my own taste now is suited best by the Ghirardelli "60% cocoa" bittersweet chips, not as sweet, but I've made plenty of batches of cookies with Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips.

You can vary this by adding coarsely chopped walnuts, or dried cranberries (about half a cup of either one), or you can use raisins; if you do raisins and chocolate chips together, it tastes terrific. If you do raisins without chocolate, add a teaspoon of cinnamon to the flour. UPDATE, May 2018: Add 2 cups of finely chopped (but not crushed; a quarter inch is good) fresh rhubarb if you like! But this version needs to be eaten within a day or so, because the rhubarb has so much moisture.

And definitely, you can make the recipe without the chocolate chips, for plain oatmeal cookies. I've tried whole wheat flour in it and find the cookies get too heavy, but it's worth experimenting if that's what you like. And oh yes, ALL flour varies, even from day to day, so if your first pan of cookies all sort of "melt flat" and come out too thin, add another 2 tablespoons of flour to the remaining dough before making the next pan of them.

           Beth's Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350º and grease two large cookie sheets. (I now use the insulated cookie sheets; if you don't have them and you are using thin metal, you might try 325º instead and add 2 minutes longer cooking. That's what I used to do. And you can avoid greasing the cookie sheets if you use parchment paper on them.)

Mix together in a large bowl, using a wooden spoon:

3/4 cup vegetable shortening (like Crisco)
1-1/4 (that's one and a quarter) cups sugar
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix in a small bowl:
1-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

Dump the flour into the shortening/sugar mix, and mix until mostly blended. Add:

2-1/2 cups rolled oats
6 ounces (half a large pack, or an entire small pack) chocolate chips (and see above for other additions)

Spoon onto the cookie sheets, about a tablespoon of dough per cookie, with an inch and a half between cookies.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from cookie sheets right away and cool on racks. (If you don't have cookie cooling racks, or you're not sure you'll have time or energy to take the cookies off the cookie sheets right away, try using "parchment paper" on your cookie pans, instead of greasing them with shortening. Then you can lift the whole sheet of paper off at once, with all the cookies, and set this to cool on a countertop or table. I try to keep some around, now that I've found out how handy it is.)

That's it! Have fun.