Doubletree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookies

I found this recipe online a few years back and it has become my absolute favorite chocolate chip cookie. Why is it my favorite? Because I love it in all stages of its life. There are some cookies that I really only enjoy when they're fresh out of the oven. On the other hand, there are others that I like to eat once they've cooled down. These ones are so good right out of the oven. They are so good when they've cooled off. And they are even still so good on the following day (they're always eaten by the 2nd day so I don't know if they're good beyond that). I love to make big batches of these and freeze them. When I crave a cookie, I'll get one of these out...yes, I even enjoy them slightly frozen.

They call for 3 cups of chocolate chips. I always do at least 2 cups of semi sweet. And then I have the last 1 cup either be another cup of semi sweet, or I'll do milk chocolate, white chocolate, butterscotch, or peanut butter chips, or M&M's. Oh, and no margarine here....use real butter!!!

Oh, and one more thing, I use my 1/4 cup cookie scooper to make these (which is about double the size of a standard cookie dough ball). For some reason they taste better this way than the regular size. The original recipe actually calls for a ROUNDED 1/4 cup portion. If you did that, just add a couple minutes baking time.

Doubletree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookies

INGREDIENTS:

- 1/2 cup rolled oats, chopped fine in food processor/blender (I prefer the texture of the Old Fashioned oats rather than the quick oats, but it is great either way)

- 2 1/4 cups flour

- 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

- 1 tsp. salt

- 1/4 tsp. cinnamon (I let mine be a heaping measurement....closer to 1/2 tsp.)

- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (if I'm pressed for time I'll just take butter from fridge and microwave for 20+ seconds)

- 3/4 cup brown sugar

- 3/4 cup white sugar

- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

- 1/2 tsp. lemon juice

- 2 eggs

- 3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (or do 2 cups semi-sweet and 1 cup of another kind)

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a medium bowl, stir ground oats, flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and set aside.

2. Cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla and lemon juice in a large bowl with electric mixer. Add the eggs and mix until smooth.

3. With a wooden spoon (do not use electric mixer anymore at this point), stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture until well mixed. Add the chocolate chips and stir.

4. Spoon 1/4 cup portion onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes. You'll want the center of the cookie to not look too shiny (or too doughy).