As I mentioned in the About Me section, my late-Grandma was a talented home cook and baker. What I would give to sit down with her to enjoy some comforting turkey soup or her homemade peach jam on fresh baked bread or peanut coffee cakes and especially her cookies. That's why every time I bake, I think of her and often use some of her old baking tools like the cooling racks you see in the picture.

My grandma's old cooling racks. They make me think of her but aren't the fool-proof good luck charms I thought they'd be as I still make mistakes in the kitchen. But that is the fun of it!

No doubt you'll find a lot of excellent oatmeal chocolate chip cookies out there, but what my family has come to love about this recipe is that it's chalk full of good for you stuff like oats and flax, and real ingredients but won't weigh you down all while still satisfying your sweet tooth. I thought I'd share a few other ideas if you'd like to mix it up. One of which is the usage of chocolate covered raisins (!). When we lived in California with plentiful dried fruits around us, my husband met a Sun-Maid raisin grower that gave the genius tip of swapping regular chocolate chips for chocolate covered raisins in cookie recipes. Our minds were blown.

Another variation I've tried was to swap half of the oats with puffed rice cereal. This was not planned as I forgot we ran out of rolled oats but we ended up enjoying the slight texture change with the cereal added. The last variation I've tried and liked is using softened/room temperature organic virgin coconut oil in place of the softened butter, you can sub 1:1. It's a nice swap that offers a slight coconut taste and chewier texture. You'll definitely want to chill the coconut oil dough prior to baking so they don't spread out a lot.

Variations aside, I know you'll be happy with the original recipe.

Ingredients - Yields approximately 2 dozen

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats, dry

1/4 cup ground flax seed

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt

1 cup coconut palm sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup milk chocolate chips or chocolate covered raisins

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I like to set out the wrapped stick of butter on the stove to soften as the oven heats. Also, set out the eggs to bring to room temperature.
In a medium bowl prep the dry ingredients by combining the flour, oats, flax seed, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon - set aside.
With a stand mixer, hand mixer, or good old fashioned wooden spoon (you'll get an arm workout this route) - cream the butter for 2 minutes until it starts to get fluffy. Add the sugar and Greek yogurt and continue to cream for an additional 4 minutes. Then, mix in eggs one at a time and finally add the vanilla.
Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture and mix until just combined aka no big chunks of dry ingredients showing.
Gently stir in the chocolate. At this point, it is ideal to chill the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Here's why. But, I've certainly went straight to baking when pressed for time.
When ready to bake, scoop onto baking sheets fitted with a Silpat baking mat or parchment paper. I use a medium size scoop which holds about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough.
Bake for 9 minutes. Let cool on the pan for a couple minutes before transferring to wire cooling racks. Store in airtight container and they also freeze well.

Enjoy!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies