Double Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

This is a nostalgic recipe.  My mom would make this cookie a lot while we were growing up.  It's one of those recipes that we were always bound to have the ingredients on hand.  She'd throw a batch together by memory as we were getting ready for school and the first tray would be out of the oven and into our lunch boxes before we ran out the door to catch the bus.  On those days, we'd come home to rows of the chewy, chocolatey oatmeal cookies cooling on the counter.  How she didn't eat them all while we were away and they were sitting out like that, I'll never know, but they were always a welcome sight!


Double Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks or 16 tablespoons) butter softened or margarine
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup flour
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups quick cooking rolled oats
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar.  Add egg, water and vanilla and mix thoroughly until fully combined.  In another bowl or on a piece of waxed paper, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.  Stir into wet ingredients and mix just until a soft dough is formed.  Stir in oats and chocolate chips.   Drop cookie dough by tablespoonfuls about 1" apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 9-12 minutes or until cookies are set, but centers are still soft (not wet).  Remove from oven, allow to cool 5 minutes on cookie sheet, then remove with a spatula and transfer onto a cooling rack or layers of paper towels to finish cooling.  Makes about 3 dozen cookies.