Mom’s Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Truffles

For Christmas I received a huge bag of chocolate truffles – so yummy, but even after sharing, way too many to eat.  So I pulled out Mom’s old faithful chocolate chip oatmeal cookie recipe.  Growing up we didn’t have many sweets, but often we were lucky enough to get some of these.  Mom’s original recipe called for margarine, but I’ve used butter, which I’m sure she would also do nowadays.  These turn out crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside – the perfect oatmeal cookie, if you ask me. . . and my siblings, and all the neighbourhood kids from way back when.  Back then I thought it was unfair that the other kids always had Ding-dongs and Twinkies, but of course I now realize that I was the lucky one, to get home-baked cookies!

What you need:

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 & 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 & 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

3/4 cup chopped chocolate truffles (or the old-school traditional, chocolate chips)

What you do:

1.  Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg until fluffy, then beat in the vanilla.

2.  Combine the flour, baking soda and salt and mix into the batter.

3.  Stir in the oats and nuts. (add chocolate chips now if you are using them)

4.  Drop be teaspoonfuls onto a baking sheet.  Place a few pieces of truffle on top of each cookie.

5.  Bake at 350F for 12 minutes.

These keep well in an airtight container for a few days, or you can freeze them.  The recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies, and doubles easily if you need a bigger batch.