This recipe for the Best Ever Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies was developed by fluke, as a product of quarantine baking. I googled a variety of oatmeal cookie recipes, shortlisted them based on how attractive the images looked and how well-curated the blogs were. And then I winged it to make more use of the ingredients I have more sufficient stocks of at home than others.

The baking time for these cookies  is longer. I cook them low and slow which ensures a crispy exterior and soft/chewy but still fully cooked center. It’s not the easiest cookie recipe because it requires your cookies to bake and then rest at various temperatures, but hey, the best things in life require a little working for.

Here’s the recipe (yields 18 ice-cream scoop sized cookies):

Ingredients:

• 1/8th cup honey
• 3/4  cup coconut oil (you can use butter instead if you want crispier cookies)
• 1/4 cup butter (I’ve tried it with all coconut oil too, but a smidge of butter leads to crispier and a bit more spread out edges)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (for a healthier alternative, you can mix coconut sugar with molases)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsps cinnamon powder
• 1 tap salt
• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (you can use walnuts instead if you don’t like chocolate).

Method:

Cream the honey, brown sugar, coconut oil (or butter), eggs and vanilla using a whisk or electric whisk. This will be the wet mixture

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl then (salt, oats, flour, cinnamon) and fold this dry mixture into the wet mixture.
2. Fold in the chocolate chips, cover the dough with cling film and chill in the fridge for 3-4 hours. Even overnight is fine.
3. When you’re ready to bake, remove the dough from the fridge and leave on the kitchen counter for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 160 degrees
5. Scoop out cookie dough into 18 even sized balls and place them on a thick based cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Do not flatten the cookies as you want the centers to remain soft and chewy. I actually use a Scanpan roasting tray for this because of how thick and non-stick it is, and I don’t even have to grease the tray. You can also use a Silpat mat.
6. Bake for 20 minutes (that’s right, low and slow) , then turn off the oven and leave the cookies in for an additional 5-10 mins. Because the cookies are really thick, this will ensure you get that crispy exterior and a soft center that’s still fully baked and not raw.
7. My roasting tray can only accommodate 9 cookies so I have to repeat this process twice, but if you have a big oven and a bigger tray/Silpat mat, you’ll be able to get done in a single go.
8. Store in an airtight container once completely cooled. Shelf life on the counter top, in room-temperature and away from direct sun is around 3 days.