Soft, Chewy and Addictive

I cannot believe that I actually enjoyed these soft and chewy cookies. In the past, I would have turned my nose up at them and declared them "lau hong" (stale). 

To me, cookies must be crispy and crunchy and I could not understand why some people preferred them soft.

Well, one day I decided to just follow a recipe for Soft & Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. Not only that, I followed the exact sugar measurements. Yikes!!

Yikes indeed. For 190g flour, there was 200g dark brown sugar and 100g granulated sugar. But to be fair, 240g old fashioned rolled oats were also added. But still, this is way more sugar than I am accustomed to.

I did not bake the cookies immediately (due to time constraint) and stashed the cookie dough in the freezer. Where it sat for some 3 weeks hah..hah... That's how enthusiastic I was about these cookies.

And then one weekend, I defrosted a batch of frozen cookie dough. It's really cool to have cookie dough in the freezer, you know. When the craving hits, you are set and ready to bake.

When these came out of the oven, they smelt wonderful. I usually bake my cookies around 20 minutes or more because I love them crunchy but this time I cut down to 15 minutes.

I couldn't wait to have a bite and ate one cookies while it was still hot. Ouch, ouch, ouch! Pleasure and pain. The cookie was crispy around the edges and chewy in the middle. Hey I like this!

Surprisingly, I was OK with the degree of sweet. Sure, it is sweeter than what I have come to expect of my cookies, but it was pleasantly tolerable. 

I couldn't stop eating. Or rather chewing. I am converted. Soft chewy cookies are really good. 

Soft & Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe source : Adapated from Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients :

- 200g self-raising flour

- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

- 250g butter

- 200g brown sugar

- 100g caster sugar

- 2 large eggs

- 1 tbsp molasses

- 2 tsp vanilla extract

- 240g rolled oats

- 1.5 cups chocolate chips

Method :

1. In a mixing bowl, whisk flour and ground cinnamon to mix. Set aside.

2. In another bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy.

3. Add brown sugar and caster sugar and continue to beat until mixture becomes creamy.

4. Add eggs, molasses and vanilla extract and continue to beat until combined.

5. Add flour and fold until well combined (I used spatula at this point).

6. Add rolled oats and chocolate chips and fold until well combined.

7. Chill the dough for about 1 hour to firm it up.

8. Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop cookie dough onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake at 160C for about 12-15 minutes.