“Imma make you girls a hump day treat…” Okay, yes, my mom did not wear a hot pink Juicy Suit, like Mrs. George in Mean Girls, while she made after school snacks for me and my friends. She might have left the excessive Juicy Couture wearing to me and my sister, but she was all about the after school treats. In the spirit of back to school, think back to your after school snacks: was there a better surprise to await you than a hot cookie? Negative, ghost rider. These cookies were my childhood. We used to double the recipe and take them to our family reunions and when I dressed up as Debbie Fields for Biography Day in third grade, these were the cookies I had as my prop on my cookie tray. As such, as now refer to them as the “Mrs. Field’s Cookies.”

Side bar: I’ll have to dig up the picture of me on Biography Day, it’s GOLD. I look like an overweight, middle-aged colonial woman who lost her skirt to a pair of scissors.

Ingredients:

-1 cup of butter (softened)

-1 cup brown sugar

-1 cup of sugar

-2 eggs

-1 T. vanilla

-2 1/2 cups of oats

-2 cups of flour

-1/2 t. salt

-1 t. baking powder

-1 t. baking soda

-1/2 t. espresso powder

-12 oz chocolate (dealer’s choice of wafers, chips, or chopped chunks!)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. In a stand mixer, cream together sugars and butter, add in eggs one at a time until well combined, and then add vanilla.

3. In a food processor combine oats, flour, salt, baking soda and powder, and espresso powder, pulse until oats are powdery.

4. Turn the stand mixer back on a gentle stir and slowly add in the dry ingredients. Once combined, add in the chocolate of your choice and mix in!

5. Shape into golf ball size dough balls and place onto baking sheet.

6. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until done to your liking. I found that the 12-13 minute mark ensures the gooey center and crunchy top—also know as the perfect cookie.

7. Let your inner cookie monster shine!