The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

I have tried many, many, many chocolate chip cookie recipes over the years, hoping to find the best one.  I grew up on the traditional Nestle Toll House cookies, and while good, they left me longing for more. 

Thus began the cookie-making exploration.  In the past, I have found success with Alex's cookie recipe, and also cookies where you add a vanilla pudding mix into the dough.  Both are fantastic, but they honestly don't compare to these cookies. 

 

 

These cookies were a result of a fantastic girl's weekend with my good friend, Lauren.  She came to Chicago for a food blogging convention, and invited me to hang-out with her downtown.  We stayed in The Wit Hotel, a Double Tree Hotel.  Upon checking in, they offered us a warm chocolate chip cookie.  It was the best cookie either of us had ever had.  I came to find out that all Double Tree hotels offer warm cookies upon arrival, and that you can ask for more than one whenever the mood strikes you during your stay.  Needless to say, many warm chocolate chip cookies were consumed during that weekend.  

 

I came home and scoured the inter-webs for a copy cat recipe, and found this one.  I was skeptical, because no cookie could be as good as the real thing, but boy were we wrong.  This cookie is fabulous!  I crave them approximately 1,896 times a day. 

I usually don't like nuts in my cookies, but these are ground up, so you can hardly taste them - and they add a nice texture and flavor to the cookie.  Don't omit the nuts, trust me on this one. 

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe adapted from Food Geeks

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1-1/2 tsp. lemon juice
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups semi-sweet, chocolate chips
• 1-1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Grind oats in a food processor or blender until fine. Combine the ground oats with the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
2. Cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla, and lemon juice in another medium bowl with an electric mixer. Add the eggs and mix until smooth. Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture and blend well. Add the chocolate chips and nuts to the dough and mix by hand until ingredients are well blended.
3. For the best results, chill the dough overnight in the refrigerator before baking the cookies (I usually form the dough into rounded 1-inch balls using a cookie scoop, and then freeze.  You can pull them out of the freezer anytime, and cook as many as you'd like).
4. Place rounded dough balls onto ungreased cookie sheet (I use parchment paper). Place the scoops about 2 inches apart. Bake in a 350°F oven for 14-17 minutes or until cookies are light brown and soft in the middle. Store in a sealed container when cool to keep soft.