DoubleTree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookies

Have you seen that DoubleTree by Hilton commercial? The one with the “warm welcome” in the form of a perfectly round “freshly baked” cookie handed to a man who just dealt with the rigors of travel, finally sighing in relief at the bite of cookie in his mouth? I thought the commercial was cute when I first saw it, but also wondered how generic that cookie was. How many steps removed was it from a frozen Otis Spunkmeyer?

I arrived in Milwaukee for my business trip after passing a number of carefully calculated trials. I successfully sorted my belongings into 3 separate bins on a conveyor belt, displaying the 3oz-bottled toiletry routine for any TSA agent curious enough to discover the magics behind only having 2 errant zits on your face instead of 5. I waited patiently for a seat assignment that didn’t come until after boarding began, despite a stress fidget that was slowly developing in the region of my left leg. I sat in a cramped metal tube which propelled myself at what, in other circumstances, would be noted as an ‘alarming speed’ through the clouds. I managed to only almost forget one of my belongings in the seat pouch in front of me.

After all this, I was that man in the commercial, sighing in finally achieved relaxation due to the cookie goodness making its way through my mouth.

A lot of this could be attributed to a sense of calm from successfully travelling once again, but the cookie deserves some credit too.

While it wasn’t the best chocolate chip cookie I have ever had, it was more interesting than standard fare. It had a unique texture, from oats and walnuts, but it wasn’t a chunky cookie which is the thing that usually turns me off from these sorts of inclusions. It was soft and gooey and warm.

I mean, it came out of a heated drawer, (I totally need one of those at work) but it wasn’t one of those cookies that would clearly turn hard and lackluster once cooled off. It simply benefited from the warmth as opposed to requiring it.

This one cookie began a cookie trend throughout the trip with me and my coworkers, continuing on with Mo’s A Place for Steaks and an epic dessert consisting of a 9-inch (or so) diameter chocolate chip cookie that was so soft, it could only be considered “baked” in the sense that it spent some amount of time in an oven. It was essentially warm cookie dough with vanilla ice cream on top.

We would return the next day to their sister establishment, Mo’s Irish Pub, for two more orders of this dessert. (In case you’re curious, it was better at the Steakhouse, and not just because it was preceded by steak.) (..although that is another plus.)

And in between all of these massive cookies, I learned a very valuable piece of information from one of my fellow collegues.

If you ask nicely, the kind folks at the DoubleTree Hotel will give you another cookie every day of your stay.

I gained 2 lbs in 3.5 days while in Milwaukee.

Totally normal and healthy.

Clearly, the only solution to this was to continue down the path of gluttony and track down the cookie recipe on the internet so I could eat more of them right at home.

Clearly.

DoubleTree Hotel Chocolate Chip Cookie

Recipe from Top Secret Recipes

I didn’t think this recipe was exactly the same as the hotel cookie, but it was really close. Next time I would still pulse the oats in the food processor, but keep them a little bigger, not so fine, and I would chop the walnuts into slightly smaller pieces. (You can see how big I made the oats and walnuts during my first try in the photos above.)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grind oats in a food processor or blender until fine. Combine the ground oats with the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
3. Cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla, and lemon juice in another medium bowl with an electric mixer. Add the eggs and mix until smooth.
4. Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture and blend well. Add the chocolate chips and nuts to the dough and mix by hand until ingredients are well incorporated.
5. Spoon rounded 1/4-cup portions onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Place the scoops about 2 inches apart. You don’t need to press the dough flat. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes or until cookies are light brown and soft in the middle. Store in a sealed container when cool to keep soft. For the best results, chill the dough overnight in the refrigerator before baking the cookies. (I chilled them for 2 hours because that’s typically how long I chill my chocolate chip cookies.)

Makes approx. 20-30 cookies

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