You can’t eat just one.
I had some time to myself since The Husband was out holding an open house, and it was too hot to make cupcakes. The neighbors’ son, daughter-in-law and two lovely boys had just flown in from Sardinia, and I thought they could use a little American treat.
And this recipe is distinctly American, because it uses an ingredient that is hard to find outside of the U.S.:
Secret ingredient!
Vanilla Jell-O pudding mix. When I lived in the U.K., I tried using Bird’s Custard Powder and it didn’t work at all. I used to sneak a few packs of Jell-O pudding back from the U.S. on my visits, but even then I’d have to chop up a Galaxy bar to make chocolate chips—something that wasn’t readily available in the U.K. at that time either. They probably have them now, but this was back in 1994.
So the little ones, I thought, will love some cookies! And sure enough, there were some takers, not least of all the dad of the little Italian-American family. He’d probably been missing some American-style cookies while in Sardinia!
This recipe was given to my sister way back when from a fellow fireman’s wife. Those firemen loved their sweets, and all the wives seemed to compete on who had the best baked goods. These cookies have been adopted by our family—the pudding mix gives them a certain flavor and helps them stay chewy and moist. I added some oats to the recipe since The Husband prefers them in his chocolate-chip cookies.
These make about 4 dozen, so make sure you’ve got a bunch of people willing to help eat them!
A small ice-cream scoop works perfectly!
Oatmeal Chocolate-Chip Cookies
Don’t try using a regular hand-held mixer for this batter. It will be defeated!
2 ¼ Cups flour
1 teas baking soda
1 Cup butter
¼ Cup sugar
¾ Cup brown sugar
1 (4 oz) pkg. instant vanilla pudding
1 teas vanilla
2 Eggs
12 oz. pkg. chocolate chips
1 Cup regular rolled oats
Combine flour and baking soda; cream butter, sugars, pudding mix, vanilla; beat in eggs one at a time; gradually add flour mixture to creamed mixture.
Stir in oats and chocolate chips. Place by rounded teaspoons on ungreased cookie sheets in 375°F oven for 8 – 10 minutes (preferably 8 min).
I couldn’t resist one bite, just to make sure they were edible…
Use dark chocolate chips if you prefer, although the recipe calls for milk chocolate chips.
I really do need to find my baking racks.
tinykitchenstories 
uh! I could eat the whole bunch, easy!
Good to know–we always have extra!! 🙂
I love the addition of pudding mix!! I so miss jell-o pudding. Sigh.
Thanks! I always thought it was a clever trick. I hope you get some pudding soon! 🙂
Gorgeous cookies, gorgeous pics & definitely unique (wow Jell-O.) That’s a very sweet treat for your neighbours and no doubt one they loved, very much.
Thank you!! Apparently they did go down well, even at our house! 🙂
Love this post, excellent recipe! =)
Thank you! That’s a real compliment coming from a fellow baker. 🙂
Hey Girl! Other Sis here, these look fabulous! I have a Choc. Chip Cookie recipe that I took from Gus’ Mom’s cook book (she can’t remember who came up with it). It calls for only brown sugar, no white at all! The cookies stay chewier this way as well we have found. Of course, you still have to be sure not to over bake them! I add oatmeal, cut the amount of flour, AND I add dried cherries or cranberries, and walnuts or pecans sometimes too! (they end up more like a granola cookie when i start heaping in additional nuts like sunflower and pumpkin seeds) She uses shortening and we use real butter, this as well can make them crunchier so the temp and cook time varies from her recipe. SO I tweak the heck out of it but it is so worth it! YUMMY! I see that you don’t add salt to this recipe, we dropped that from her recipe as well because i think baking soda and chocolate (even the dark stuff) is salty enough so it is not necessary! I will have to try out the pudding though cause it just sounds so darn GOOD! Love ya XOXO
Wow, your recipe sounds awesome! I expect to be shown how to make them on your next visit! 🙂
Yes, birds custard powder wouldn’t quite do would it? Funny thing, my sister-in-law from Australia was visiting over Christmas and was making a dessert that required the custard powder, of course we couldn’t find it anywhere so she used Jello pudding mix instead and her family said the dessert was better than ever!
Yeah, let’s face it–custard from a powder is never going to be good, is it? Especially the English kind, which is full of creamy goodness when done properly. Of course, I only had one bite out of the whole batch of cookies since there’s so much in there that upsets my tummy, but I just LOVE making people happy through food. Maybe I was a Jewish or Italian mother in a past life? 😉
yes, as in most things, custard is so much better when homemade!
Making food for others makes us feel good, it’s kinda like a win-win 😉
You’ve got it exactly right, on both counts! 🙂
🙂
Pudding in the mix really does kick up the sweetness factor! And you’re right…there’s something so quintessentially American not only about Jello as a product, but just in all the quick-to-bake dessert recipes! From pies to cakes and cookies, pudding mix is in them all! (Well, quite alot.) These look delish! And omg, I didn’t know they had dark chocolate mint chunks at Whole Foods. Those look so good! (I’m pretty sure I could eat that whole bag by myself.)
They’re not mint, just dark chocolate–hate to break the news! But thank you for your comment–these *are* good but looking forward to making your almond cookie recipe 🙂
These are just the cookies I was looking to bake this weekend. They look so yummy! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Thank you! I hope you enjoy them!