I’ve always known that I’m a left-brained girl.  Math was my best subject, I like binary arguments, most of my books are organized by type and author, and I get tingles up my neck when I get to look and find things on maps.  This is why I’m most comfortable baking.  It’s a formula that needs to be followed.  You mess with the science of grams and teaspoons, you mess with the muffins.  I have little creative confidence when it comes to really good cooking, so my efforts are usually more muted.  I’m not usually bold enough to take a chance on ingredients or technique because a chef’s finesse is usually required.  I don’t got finesse.

But when given a formula to follow, I can try to push the boundaries a little… and act like a chef.  Like say, adding frozen blueberries to a cookie batter.  Dust with a little flour and they act just like chocolate chunks.  Or adding oats to a non-oat batter.  There are many resources to tell you how to adjust the magic formula so that you can safely add oats without it affecting the outcome.  But, oats are not simply oats.

Oh what?!

Remember, dear baker, there are instant oats, quick cooking oats and large flake oats.  Did you check which oats you could add safely?  It’s a little late to ask that question when I’m pouring the large flakes into the batter.  Somewhere, I do believe, my left-sided baker’s brain knew that I was doing it wrong (quick cooking is the best bet) but I went ahead anyway with my plans to bake like a chef.

What this means is that I only have a rough estimate of what quantity of oats I put in this recipe.  Large flake oats don’t “soak” up the batter very well and so to get a good cookie batter consistency, I had to keep adding the flakes.  I had to know like a chef when it was just right.  As you can see, I did end up with cookies.  And my coworkers told me they were happy with them.  That made this chef happy.

White chocolate oatmeal blueberry cookies

Makes about 5 dozen.

2/3 cup melted butter
2 cups lightly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons hot water
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 – 2 cups large flake oats (adjust until you have a batter that holds together)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup frozen or fresh blueberries (do not thaw if using frozen)

Heat oven to 375 degrees.  In large bowl, beat melted butter, brown sugar, eggs and hot water until smooth.
In medium bowl, mix together flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir into butter mixture until blended.
Stir in chocolate chips. Lightly dust frozen blueberries with flour if using.  Stir in blueberries.  Drop from small teaspoon onto ungreased (or parchment covered) cookie sheet.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to rack and cool.