Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

After dinner last night, Manissa and I were brainstorming holiday cookie recipes that would be quick to make, and would produce enough to bring to a holiday party. She was thinking oatmeal, so we decided to try the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (reduced fat) from the Joy of Cooking. It was a bit of an experiment since the recipe called for old-fashioned rolled oats, and I only had Irish steel cut oats...

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
From The Joy of Cooking
Makes about 3 dozen

Position a rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat cookie sheets with nonstick spray.

Whisk together thoroughly:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Beat on medium speed until well blended:
1/4 cup corn or canola oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg white
1/3 cup corn syrup
1 tablespoon skim milk
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Stir into the batter:
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (we used milk chocolate)

Let the mixture stand for 10 minutes so the oats can absorb some moisture. Stir in the flour mixture; the dough will be slightly soft. Drop the dough by heaping measuring tablespoons onto the sheets, spacing about 2 1/2 inches apart.

Bake, one sheet at a time, until the cookies are tinged with brown all over and the centers are just barely firm when lightly pressed, 7 to 10 minutes; be careful not to overbake. Remove the sheet to a rack and let stand until the cookies firm slightly, about 2 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool.

The lesson we learned was that Irish steel cut oats are not in fact a good substitute for rolled oats. Although the cookies turned out good (they're all gone), the steel cut oats made them a little chewier and crunchier than they were perhaps meant to be. They are cut much smaller than normal rolled oats, and so I think did not absorb the moisture as much as they were supposed to, so the dough was a little more than "slightly soft." The corn syrup was also an odd choice in the recipe and lent the cookies a cloying sweetness in the background.