You know those stressful travel days where Murphy’s law is in full effect and basically everything that could’ve gone wrong did? Ugh, all you can do is put one foot in front of the other until you get to your final destination, where hopefully you can immediately crash and hope that the next day will be leagues better. However, there is one thing that can almost immediately turn one of those horrible travel days around; a DoubleTree hotel chocolate chip cookie.
Oh my gosh, if you haven’t tried the greatness that is a hot-from-the-oven DoubleTree chocolate chip cookie, you need to book a trip somewhere (literally anywhere) and make a reservation at DoubleTree. Do it for the cookie. It’s a dense, chewy cookie that’s stuffed to the brim with chopped walnuts and chocolate chips, but that’s not all. There’s something else going on in the mix that’s trickier to pin down, but adds way more flavor than that of your average chocolate chip cookie.
We had to sample A LOT of these cookies before we finally figured it out, but once we did that, we cracked the code and came up with a copycat version that’s just about indistinguishable from the original. So what’s that secret ingredient? It’s old-fashioned oats! Before you get carried away, no, these aren’t oatmeal cookies. The oats, a scant 1/2 cup, are ground up into oat flour and used to supplement the all-purpose flour already in the dough. This lends a subtle, yet distinct flavor that makes these cookies so special.
Trust us, you don’t want to skip this step. You can grind up your own oats or just grab a bag of oat flour if you have other recipes in which you can use it, either way is fine. Once your dough is made, the only thing you have to decide is whether you want large cookies or extra-large cookies. We can confirm, again, due to extensive testing, that both ways are great and that regardless of size, you’ll be eating more than one of these. It’s inevitable, you’ll see!
INGREDIENTS
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup old-fashioned or rolled oats, ground into flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 2 large eggs
- 3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup walnuts, chopped
PREPARATION
- In a medium bowl, combine all-purpose flour, oat flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, whisking everything together until combined.
- In a large bowl, whisk melted butter together with both brown and granulated sugar until fully incorporated, then mix in eggs, lemon juice and vanilla extract.
- Once smooth, stir in dry ingredients, being careful not to over-mix, then fold in chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Scoop 2-3 tablespoons cookie dough onto 2, parchment-lined baking sheets and chill for at least 1-2 hours or up to 24 hours.
- Remove from fridge, gently flatten cookies with your palm.
- Preheat oven to 350º F and space cookies out on baking sheet so they’re at least 1 1/2 inches apart.
- Place baking sheets in oven and bake for 13-15 minutes (if on the smaller side; 10-12 minutes if smaller), or until golden. They should still be soft in the centers.
- Remove from oven and let cool at least 15 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
