Oatmeal Cookies with Toasted Pecans and Chocolate Chips

Anything that is has oatmeal as a main ingredient and can be served warm topped with vanilla ice cream, is what I'm about. I love oatmeal for breakfast, granola, traditional oatmeal cookies, honey oat bread, peach crisps...I could continue, but I think you get the picture.

I typically make an awesome oatmeal cookie that calls for two sticks of butter, and while they are delicious, I wanted to try to make a cookie that was lighter but still extremely tasty. Toasting the pecans yields a much deeper level of flavor that stands up to the chocolate in this cookie. If you make the gluten-free cookies, the banana or peanut butter adds an extra bit of sweetness and another level of flavor.

Both of the gluten-free versions of this cookie were served at the Super Bowl extravaganza, and everyone loved them. No one (thankfully) thought the cookies tasted like super-health-freak cookies.

These cookies taste like a bowl of breakfast oatmeal (with a bit of chocolate), so don't feel guilty for taking one or two to the office for breakfast. These cookies are so good, and fortunately, they're not sinfully good--unless you eat the whole bunch!


These cookies will make the perfect ice cream sandwich. Y'all just wait until summertime, because I make baller ice cream cakes. Anyway, for this ice cream sandwich, spread a bit of peanut butter on each cookie, top with a scoop of ice cream, and another cookie. Wrap in saran wrap; freeze; eat when you need a cool, sweet treat. Until summer arrives in full force, simply nuke the cookie in the microwave and top with...ice cream, duh.

4T butter, softened

1/4 c unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 egg

1 t vanilla

1/2 flour (for all you glutens out there, substitute a mashed, ripe banana OR 1/2 cup peanut butter)

1/2 t salt

1/2 t baking powder

2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup pecans pieces
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. To toast the pecans, add them to a dry pan over medium to medium-high heat. Toast for a couple minutes and toss them around in the pan to turn and brown the other side. Once they are toasted and the oils have developed (this means FLAVOR), remove the pan from the burner and cool the pecans while you make the batter.

In a small bowl, mix the butter, sugar, applesauce (for the GF version, add the banana or peanut butter here) very well. Now, add the egg. Add the vanilla. If you're making the glutenous cookies, add the flour, salt, and baking powder. Once that is mixed well, add the oats. If you're making the GF version, just add the salt and baking power before you add the oats. 

Glutenous cookies pre-oats.

With oats, pecans, and chocolate chips!

You're almost ready to fill your house with the wonderful aroma of freshly baked cookies; you just need to add the pecans and chocolate chips. Drop the cookies onto a cookie sheet, but beware: they will hold whatever shape the dough takes when it hits the tray. Another note, make sure the dough is packed together fairly well, because these cookies, when baked the gluten-free way, have the tendency to fall apart just a little. You've got to face the fact that they're rustic; if you're a perfectionist try another recipe. When you use the flour, they only need about 6 - 8 minutes to bake, and the GF cookies need just a bit longer, around 9 - 12 minutes.

Consider yourself honored/lucky/the chosen one, because I am getting ready to share my number-one, top-secret cookie trick with you. When you remove the trays from the oven, wait about 30 seconds, and...wait for it...take your spatula and pat the cookies down. You know how they get a little airy in the oven? This may have no true affect, but I personally believe that this technique makes cookies denser and chewier. I am not about a cake-y, fluffy cookie (or brownie for that matter). I like a solid cookie, a cookie that's not joking around, a cookie that's chewy and moist and flavorful. And even though these cookies are healthy, they don't lack in taste or heftiness. Take or leave it, but I certainly think the tapping technique makes all the difference in any cookie you make.

Regardless of whether you tap or not, after the cookies have cooled on the tray for a minute or two, place them on a wire rack to cool. If you're too impatient, snag one and let me know what you think!