Mrs. Field's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Did you ever hear the Urban Myth surrounding the Mrs. Field's Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe? The one where your friend tells you about his/her friend who is buying a dozen Mrs. Field's cookies and sees that they're selling the recipe as well? And then the friend-of-a-friend asks the clerk what the recipe costs and hears, "two-fifty" and says, "helluva deal! I'll take the recipe too and put the total on my VISA card."? And then when the friend-of-a-friend gets home and looks at the receipt (s)he sees that the "two-fifty" is actually $250.00 and not $2.50, tries to take it back to the store but of course they don't accept it since (s)he could have easily photocopied it so (s)he gets so mad (s)he gives the recipe away to as many people as possible in hopes of putting Mrs Field out of business? Have you heard that one?

Well, this is that recipe. My friend, Angela actually conned me into believing this story happened to her cousin (funny, she didn't mention which cousin...). I was shocked when I began hearing the same story from other people, but in the end, who cares? This is my #1 favorite chocolate-chip cookie recipe, it's crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside and it didn't cost me a dime.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 regular sized semi-sweet chocolate bar
12 ozs. chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts (I've actually never added these)

The day before you want to bake the cookies, make the dough. It benefits from a good night of chilling tightly covered in the fridge. Cream the butter and the sugars together in a large mixing bowl, then add the eggs one at a time mixing the first in thoroughly before adding in the next. Add the vanilla and mix. Set aside.

Whisk the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder together in a medium sized bowl. In a food processor place the oats and chocolate bar and process into a powder. Add to the flour mixture.

Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, scoop golf ball-sized portions of dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets and bake for 10-13 minutes, no more. slide parchment with cookies off the hot cookie sheets, wait a minute and remove to cooling racks. Makes 50 cookies. Music to chomp on cookies and get in touch with your inner child with: "Chocolate Chip Chamber Music" by Helen Richman. What are the odds she ISN'T related to musical man-child, Jonathan Richman? See him here singing "I'm a little Dinosaur"