When I was growing up, “Mrs. Fields Cookies” had just gotten its start, and recipes purporting to be hers abounded. My mom got this

A little thin, but great flavor!

one from her mom and would make them using a quarter cup of batter per cookie, which does make cookies roughly the size of Mrs. Fields’. I remember one of my friends thinking that the resultant huge cookies were the best things ever. I took over production of said cookies when I was maybe eleven, and before long I had this recipe memorized. The recipe, as I wrote it down probably in high school (to judge from my handwriting) reads as follows:

4 eggs

1 lb butter

2 c. sugar

2 c. brown sugar

_______________

1 t. salt

2 t. baking soda

2 t. baking powder

2 t. vanilla

4 c. flour

5 c. oats

1 pkg chocolate chips

400 degrees for 5-6 min.

I know the line indicates “cream above ingredients” but don’t recall any other technique specifics. Basically, everything goes in the KitchenAid, then it gets scooped out in cookie-sized dollops & baked. (I did have to bake them for 8-9 minutes but that’s typical of my oven.) I am sure that “flour” means white flour & believe that “oats” means old-fashioned (not quick) ones. I made a full batch yesterday–for the first time in at least a decade (I usually halve it), and substituted in one cup of wheat flour. I also added the flour a cup at a time and mixed in between, which cut down on the spillage issue. A full recipe strains the capacity of my old-school KitchenAid. It also makes over 5 dozen big cookies. I figured I’d freeze a bunch, but 24 hours & 6 guests later, I only have about a dozen left.

This recipe works so well at high altitudes & with an electric oven, which is my way of saying that yesterday’s cookies were, in my opinion, a bit flat & that this has been an issue for many of my recipes here in Chicago. They also crumbled easily, though that could be the result of not letting them cool completely. Should I be adding more flour?