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Here’s the story behind these famous cookies:
In the early ’80’s, many hotels gave treats (like fresh baked cookies) to their VIP guests. But DoubleTree (Hilton) Hotel decided they wanted to make each one of their guests feel like a VIP by offering every single one of them a freshly baked, monstrous chocolate chip cookie.
Every DoubleTree by Hilton hotel follows this exact recipe and bakes fresh cookies for their guests every single day, all over the world! Apparently, they also spread good cheer by donating these cookies to community members like fire fighters, homeless shelters, doctors and nurses, and orphanages. Isn’t that sweet?
The first word I would use to describe these cookies is behemoth. Because these cookies are nothing if not gigantic and full of hefty, hearty ingredients like oatmeal and walnuts.
Like last week’s batch, I wasn’t sure I was going to be in love with these cookies. I like oatmeal cookies just fine, and I don’t particularly mind walnuts in cookies… just not in my chocolate chip cookies. When I bite into a chocolate chip cookie, all I want to taste is butter, brown sugar, and chocolate. And more butter. I don’t need oatmeal getting in my way, thankyouverymuch.
But these pleasantly surprised me. Since the oats are pulsed into a flour and the walnuts are finely chopped, they simply lend a lot of girth to the cookies without getting in the way of the classic taste and texture you enjoy in a chocolate chip cookie.
We loved these warm and gooey fresh from the oven, but I think they’re just as delicious completely cooled too. Even at room temp several hours after baking, the outside was crispy and the inside was slightly underbaked and gooey.
Oh! And I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to mention this…. the chocolate chips you guys! There are THREE CUPS of chocolate chips in these cookies. By far, that’s the highest chips to dough ratio of any recipes I’ve tried so far. I was even concerned that I wouldn’t be able to get the dough to form a ball with all those chips in the way, but the universe has a way of working out this sort of a thing, and they formed dough balls just fine.
Seriously. Just look at all those chocolate chips.
This cookie means business. Well done, Doubletree!
DoubleTree by Hilton Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield: approximately 20 large cookies
The DoubleTree (Hilton) Hotel gives one of these delicious cookies to each of their guests to make them feel special. One bite and you'll know why!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
- 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
- 2 eggs
- 3 cups miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1-1/2 cups finely chopped walnuts*
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
Grind oats in a food processor or blender until fine. Combine the ground oats with the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
Cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla, and lemon juice in another medium bowl with an electric mixer. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until smooth.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix until dough forms. Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
Chill the dough overnight in the refrigerator before baking the cookies.**
Spoon rounded 1/4 cup portions onto prepared cookie sheet., 2 inches apart. Bake for 15 minutes, until edges are golden brown. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
*I used my food processor to "chop" the walnuts. I like this method, because it chops them so fine and so quickly!
**Easy tip for chilling the dough: scoop the dough before chilling overnight. I scoop my dough onto paper plates, stack the plates, and cover the stack with cling wrap to save space in my small refrigerator. You could also scoop and chill them on a baking sheet or into a tupperware container. Scooping before chilling is so much easier than trying to scoop hard, chilled dough the next day!
