Can This Be It?

The exclusive, elusive recipe for Mrs.Field's Chocolate Chip Cookie.

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Everyone has a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. Mine used to be this one. I was very happy with it too- it created giant chewy delicious chocolate chip cookies. Until one day I started doing my research and found several recipes claiming that the secret to the chewy Mrs.Field's cookies was ground oatmeal. Ground oatmeal?! And then out comes this article from the New York Times claiming that the secret to chocolate chip cookies is letting the dough sit in the fridge for 72 hours.

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I brushed those "secrets" aside for a few months until recently I had a mad craving for chocolate chip cookies. My curiosity was sparked and I decided that I absolutely had to try the ground-oatmeal trick and the refrigeration trick. I used this recipe, which can be found all over the internet under the name of "Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookies" or "Mrs.Field's Chocolate Chip Cookies".

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What I've found is that refrigerating the dough has always yielded a chewey cookie but this time, I'm not sure if it was the refridgeration proccess or the ground oatmeal that lead to the slightly nutty flavor in the cookies. I was skeptical because of the amount of flour/ground oats to the amount of butter but they turned out chewey with crispy edges anyway. If you are trying to get a chewy (any type of) cookie, my advice would be to refrigerate the dough at least 24 hours and bake until the very edges are just barely golden brown. Let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes (they keep cooking as they cool on the sheet) and then slide them off. I've never had a problem with getting chewy chocolate chip cookies in the first place so I can't say much abou this recipe other than if done right, like other recipes, will give you a chewy delicious chocolate chip cookie.

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"Mrs.Field's Chocolate Chip Cookie"

Cream together

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

Add

2 eggs

1 tsp. real vanilla extract

Mix together

2 cups all-purpose flour

2½ cups oatmeal (blended into a fine powder)

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

Mix all ingredients well, then add one 24-ounce bag of milk (or semi-sweet) chocolate chips and 1½ cups chopped walnuts/pecans (optional). Drop 1" balls on ungreased cookie sheets, two inches apart, and bake at 375° for 6-8 minutes.