Oatmeal Scotchies

Oatmeal Scotchies
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I love having friends and family who share my passion for food. I love emails and late night chats about the latest recipes we've tried and giving each other pointers. My cousin, Merissa, is quite domestic and I have fun keeping up with all of the food she cooks and bakes. She gave me this recipe to try out and it was practically perfect. She told me that this recipe happened to be a "accidental magic." You know those moments where you are in the midst of making something and you don't have enough of whatever the recipe calls for? Then you just start throwing in a little of this and that in of whatever you have on-hand? Happens to me all of the time. That's one of the fun things about baking and cooking is that a recipe is just more of an outline and not a set of rigid rules; you get to create and make the recipe your very own. That's why I love baking and cooking so much. The butterscotch chips became the "accidental magic" in this recipe.

These aren't your "cakey" oatmeal cookies, but rather are chewy and so buttery. Most oatmeal cookies have  just chocolate chips, but these have a mixture of semi-sweet and butterscotch. The butterscotch chips are amazing! It takes oatmeal cookies to new heights. I also love the incorporation of pecans with the chocolate. These have so much chocolaty chunk goodness that it's practically sinful. I also added a little bit of cinnamon. It's just enough to add that finishing touch.

Here's what you need:
-1 C butter, softened
-1 C brown sugar
-1/2 C white sugar
-2 eggs
-2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
-1 1/4 C all-purpose flour *High-altitude bakers: add 1/3 C extra flour
-1/2 tsp. salt
-3/4 tsp. baking soda
-3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
-3 C quick oats
-1/2 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips
-3/4 C butterscotch chips
-1 C pecans, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. *Sea-level bakers preheat to 325 degrees

2. In a large mixing bowl cream butter and sugars together with an electric mixer. Add eggs and vanilla and beat mix until well-incorporated. Add flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. Mix until incorporated. Add the oats, baking chips and pecans and stir by hand until all incorporated.

3. Drop mixture by the spoonfuls on a parchment-lined baking sheet or lightly greased baking sheet.

Chocolaty Chunk Goodness
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4. Bake for 11-12 minutes. Edges will be slightly brown and top will still look under baked. Remove from oven and cool on baking sheet for 5-7 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cute gifting idea.
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These will keep in a cookie jar or an air-tight container for a week or so. I also like making a double batch and either freezing the baked cookies or the frozen scoops of dough for a quick treat when company comes over.

To make from frozen cookies: scoop dough out on to a baking sheet as if you were going to bake them, but put them in the freezer instead. Once scoops of dough are frozen, transfer them to a gallon Ziploc bag. I like to write the name of the cookie and the baking temperature and time amount right on the front. Then all you have to do is pop them onto a tray and bake. I like to put the frozen cookie dough on to the baking sheet and let them sit in the oven while it preheats. Bake about 2 minutes extra from the recommended baking time.

You can also bake the entire batch of cookies and once the cookies are completely cooled, you can put them in an airtight, freezer-safe container with waxed paper separating the layers. Or I have placed 2 cookies in a sandwich bag and put several of those bags into a Ziploc bag for freezing. Any way works well, it's just personal preference.



Enjoy and Happy Baking!


Here's the printable recipe.