Crispy Crunchy Oatmeal Cookies

I'd like to think that most of the time, I'm a pretty un-selfish cook. I try to accommodate the needs and preferences of the people who will share in what I'm making. If I'm having people over and one of the party is vegetarian or lactose-intolerant, I cook a meal that will satisfy everyone while staying within the high-maintenance (kidding!) person's parameters. I do this daily when I'm just cooking for two; I hide greens by chopping them up or blending them into sweet berry smoothies, I leave out the mustard, and I rarely cook seafood. I even leave the nuts out of cookies. Most of the time.

Sometimes you just need to make something for yourself! You need to put tons of roughly chopped nuts and cocoa nibs in the cookies, and bake them until they're super-crispy. Because that's how you like them. And you deserve perfect cookies.

These are my perfect cookies. Sweet, crunchy, and packed with goodies. So good that I couldn't stop eating the dough. And I even shared them.

But I made them for me.



Crispy Crunchy Oatmeal Cookies
adapted from Joy the Baker

I encourage you to leave out or add in whatever you want to make these into your perfect cookies. Toasted coconut, white chocolate and macadamias? Yes! Dried cherries, pecans and chocolate chips? Heck yeah! This recipe just begs to be customized. Go crazy; these are for YOU.

1 cup softened butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup roughly chopped walnuts
1/2 cup cocoa nibs
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with parchment or spray lightly with cooking spray.

Cream the butter and sugars together in the bowl of a stand mixer until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, beating about one minute after each addition, until fully incorporated. Beat in vanilla.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, and add to the butter mixture. Mix on low speed until the flour is incorporated. Remove bowl from the mixer stand, and fold in oats, walnuts, cocoa nibs, and chocolate chips using a rubber spatula.

Drop cookies by the tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets, and bake 12-15 minutes (for crispy cookies, a little less time for chewy), until golden. Allow to cool for 1 minute on the sheets before transferring to cooling racks.

Yield: about 6 dozen small-ish cookies.