I’m in full recovery mode over here.  From a sleep-deprived, exhausting absolutely amazing weekend with family.  We headed down to my hometown in Iowa to celebrate something pretty darn major in my family.  My parents’ 50th wedding anniversary.  Can you handle it?  I can’t.  I can’t handle so much about it; how quickly time flies, how much they have accomplished in 50 years and, more than anything, how they define what marriage is all about.

I’ve told you before and I’ll tell you time and time again, friends, I am blessed to no end to have been brought up by these parents of mine.  Not because of how much they have done for me or how selfless of parents they are, but because of how they do it TOGETHER.  And so well.  Nick and I have enormous shoes to fill in that department; and from what my eyes have seen it all comes down to teamwork.  And empathy. And respect.  And simply learning that it isn’t all about ourselves and that it is okay to let things go and pick your battles-thank you, Mom and Dad, for teaching me all of these values by example.

So, needless to say, this weekend involved a lot of celebrating.  My five siblings, myself, spouses, 17 crazy-amazing grandchildren and some top notch aunts and uncles.  And as you are aware, in my family, celebrating and food tend to go hand in hand.  These Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Chunk cookies were one of my contributions to the  celebrating.  I’d say they were graciously accepted by all-there was not a morsel left of the double batch I made.  

Now I’m not going to beat a dead horse here.  You all know my feelings on lifestyle and eating.  These cookies right here explain my mentality in a nutshell; live a little, don’t deprive yourself, indulge once in a while, and attempt to make food ‘better’ nutritionally.

These cookies are my ‘go to’ recipe when an occasion calls for sweets.  They are soft and chewy with a tiny bit of crisp around the edges.  They are indulgently sweet with a hint of salt.  And that chopped dark chocolate?  It’s melty and gooey and just plain phenomenal-chocolate chips will never compare.

I have made some simple nutritional swaps from the original recipe I was inspired by and it’s left me with nothing but deliciousness.  Sweet, ooey-gooey deliciousness.  I hope you enjoy this one!

Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies

notes: coconut palm sugar can typically found in any market in the health food area-you can swap brown sugar if you’d prefer.  This is my go-to gluten free flour blend but any all purpose baking mix will work in this recipe as long as you can swap it for all purpose flour 1:1.

adapted from this recipe

Ingredients

1 2/3 Cups Rolled Oats (be sure they are gluten free to keep this recipe GF)

3/4 Cup Gluten Free All Purpose Flour Blend

1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1 1/3 Cups Chopped Dark Chocolate

1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter, softened to room temperature

3/4 Cup Coconut Palm Sugar

1 Large Egg, room temperature

1 Tablespoon Pure Maple Syrup

2 Teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. In a medium sized bowl whisk together the oats, flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt; set aside.

With an electric mixer or hand mixer cream together the sugar and butter until smooth, about 1 minute.  Add the egg and mix 1 minute on high speed.  Add the maple syrup and vanilla and mix for 1 additional minute on high speed.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in the oat/flour mixture.  Mix on low speed until ingredients are just combined.  Stir in the chocolate chunks.  Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes or up to 3 days before continuing on.

Roll the dough into golf-ball sized balls (approximately 2 Tablespoons in size) and place on the prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart.  Bake for 8-9 minutes or until bottoms just begin to turn golden (the centers will still look undercooked).  Cool before removing from the baking pan and store in an air tight container for up to 5 days.  Makes 18-20 cookies.