Cookbook post 3 : Carole Walter's Great Cookies

Well, It is definitely cookie season, so for my next cookbook post/review I'll be using Carole Walter's "Great Cookies: Secrets to Sensational Sweets". I got this cookbook a year or two ago and have made not nearly enough of the recipes (the problem is I can't stop eating them if I make them)

You can visit Carol Walter's website here: http://www.carolewalter.com/index.htm

For this endeavor I chose to make "Carole's really great chocolate chip cookies" and "Chocolate chocolate chip cookies" (find the second recipe her on her website: http://www.carolewalter.com/chocolate_chocolate_chip_cookies.htm

Ghirardelli 60% chips are my grocery store fave (plus I'm poor so no premium chocolate for me:( )
For some reason my picture of the sugar and oatmeal in my food processor disappeared, so you will have to take my word for it. I love the addition of oatmeal to the flour, you can't really taste "oatmeal" but I think it adds a nice flavor ( dare I say complexity?) As I was only making a half batch, I used the crappy hand-held mixer instead of my beloved Kitchen Aid:

Halving the recipe called for half an egg. Usually in these situations I just opt for either the yolk or white, but decided to use my little measuring glass (Wal-Mart special- I love these and buy two at a time since I tend to break them regularly) to find exactly half:

Side tangent upon taking apart the food processor: beware the food processor blade: they are nasty little buggers. I don't know if you can see the barely perceptible scar below my ring-finger knuckle- but my one and only injury requiring stitches was due to said blade. Of all things, I managed to slice through my hand while drying dishes: the blade was sitting in the drying rack, and as I turned to get another dish I impaled my hand through the knuckle. Yes, I am accident prone. I once also nearly gave myself a concussion while flushing a toilet, but that's a whole nother story:

I usually hate using ice-cream scoops to do cookie dough, but in this case it worked well, just dipping the scoop into water after each 2 or 3 cookies

Mmmmm!

What the book promised looks-wise:

My cookies: The recipe warns to not overbake, but I like to live on the edge (i.e. get distracted by shiny/stupid things on the computer and not get the cookies out of the oven fast enough)

I had used my silicone mats instead of parchment, and had a sneaking suspicion that might have been part of the problem; so for the chocolate chocolate chip cookies I baked one half on parchment and one half on silicone. You be the judge:

Parchment it is. The only change I made from the original recipe was to use Ande's mint chips instead of just regular chocolate.

Both cookies, yes, even the ones I overbaked, were delicious- I definitely have to work my way through this one cover to cover.