Doubletree Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ever had a Doubletree cookie? I hadn't until 1.5 weeks ago. What's a Doubletree cookie? Well read more about it here but the jist is that each guest gets a cookie when they check in, fresh out of the oven (warmed at the desk but baked on premises) and supposedly if you stay there you can go down anytime and ask for another cookie.

My work event in Santa Barbara was at a Doubletree and on the way to the airport, I remembered about the 'famous' Doubletree cookies. I asked the front desk if I could buy just one (they sell containers), since I'd never had them. The front desk gal was nice enough to just gift me one. It was my 'in the taxi on the way home' snack, it had been smushed in my bag for 2+ hours by then and guess what? It was still friggin' amazing, the chocolate was still a little warm and gooey and quite messy.

I looked at the ingredients and thought that I wanted to try this at home. Then I have no idea what I did with the wrapper. But lucky for me I remembered some of the more unusual ingredients (lemon juice!) so that when I googled the recipe, I chose the one with the exact same ingredients, even down to the Ghiradelli chips.

So how close was it? Very close actually. I chilled the dough for a few hours before scooping which I will not do next time for more than 30 minutes. This is a super soft gooey dough so I think it needs some chilling, but a few hours was too long and the cookies were more puffy than spready...and the original are more spready.

Don't get me wrong, puffy or spready, I don't really care as I am stuffing them into my gaping maw. I think I ate 5 in one sitting on Friday. So these were GOOD. Very close to the one I had 1.5 weeks ago.

I didn't really get any pictures as it was a spur of the moment baking thing, but here is the recipe I used. Unfortunately, I didn't copy the source since I looked at so many recipes, and there are a ton of recipes online that have small variations of this recipe. One note is that I did not use all the butter, 3 sticks is ridiculous in my opinion and I didn't want greasy cookies, I used about 1 stick for 1/2 the recipe and it was perfect.

Make these..and it's my suggestion to stick to the recipe pretty closely. As you all know, I love variations but these are worth it to make AS IS at least once, because they are really amazing. Don't overbake, take them out when they are still soft and a little visually underdone, they will cool to a perfect texture. The Ghiradelli chips do make a difference, they melt perfectly and stay gooey for hours even after the cookie cools.

The one thing that I think Doubletree does, that this recipe omits, is grind the oatmeal to a finer texture, because when I ate them I was surprised to see Oatmeal as an ingredient because there were no big visible flakes at all. But I did not grind mine and you could not see flakes as well...so either way.

Doubletree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 C. butter — softened (i used less)
1 1/2 C. granulated sugar
3/4 C. firmly packed brown sugar
4 eggs
2 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1 tsp. lemon juice
3 C. all-purpose flour
3/4 C. old-fashioned oatmeal — uncooked
3/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
3 C. Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips — Ghirardelli!
1 1/2 C. chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Place the butter in a large bowl and cream lightly with an electric mixer. Add the sugars and beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and lemon juice and mix well. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, oatmeal, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add to the creamed butter mixture and stir well to blend. Add chocolate chips and walnuts and stir to combine.

Using a 1/4 cup measure or a 2-oz ice cream scoop, drop the batter on the parchment-lined pans, leaving 2 -3 inches between each cookie. Bake for 13 - 15 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Remove from parchment and cool on wire racks.