Another family favorite cookie recipe for you! Last weekend, as I was making these cookies for the second time in two weeks, I actually searched my blog to see if I had already posted this recipe before. I was amazed that I haven't! So better late than never... 

You know, I love trying out new flavors and cookie combinations, but more often than not I find myself going back to making a family recipe. And more so now as I've gotten older. I look back on memories and years spent in the kitchen growing up, wondering where the time and years went?! It goes way too fast! 

These cookies are one of my dad's favorite, and I remember baking them in our kitchen during the summer months, and enjoying one (or three) after dinner on our porch. I remember the recipe being so easy to remember, maybe that's why we made them so often. And the dough was always so good we would sneak bites.

If you need a go-to chewy oatmeal cookie recipe, this is your new stand by. It's always been a crowd pleaser in my family - my mom would make them with chocolate chips at times and other times with raisins. Or, split the dough and do half chocolate chips and half raisins. This is originally my great-aunt Donna's recipe and so we always called them "Donna's cookies". When she brought a batch to Easter brunch last month it reminded me of how much I loved them, so I've been making them and giving them out since.

My trick to keep them super chewy and soft is to take them out of the oven before they get too golden brown, you want the middles to be juuuust about baked. They'll finish cooking on the baking sheet as they cool. The result is the chewiest oatmeal cookie ever, if you ask me. :) 

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

(makes about 30-34 cookies) 

• 2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup)

• 1 cup dark or light brown sugar (I prefer dark brown sugar)

• 1 cup white sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 cups flour (I use white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour)

• 2 cups oats (quick oats work best)

• 1 heaping cup of raisins or chocolate chips

Directions: 

1. In a mixer, cream the butter and the sugars until creamy. Add in the eggs, vanilla, baking soda and salt to combine. Slowly add in the flour and then the oats, mixing until just combined.

2. Add in the chocolate chips or raisins. Add more to the desired amount. (I always like to add more!)

3. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 9 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through baking. At 9 minutes, check to see if cookies are lightly golden on edges and almost done in the middle. If the middle seems too undone, bake for 1-2 minutes more. Then remove from oven and let cool on sheets for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

4. Store at room temperature.