A rustic, yet delectible cookie

Eid is just around the corner and I know people are starting to think about what they are going to make. Eid is a day to celebrate with family, exchange gifts and eat lots of great treats.  Also, in between the house hopping, is the oh so important Eid nap where your tummy prepares itself for the next round of eating.
When I was growing up, my mom and grandmother would always make a traditional Sindhi sweet dish called keer karkoon. It comprises of full fat milk flavoured with cardamom pods and sugar, slowly cooked over the stove for a few hours. When the milk turns a pinky colour, the rehydrated dried dates are added to it and cooked together.  Unfortunately I have not had any experience of making this dish- mom, it's time for a cooking lesson!

Since there will be no keer karkoon cooking in my kitchen for Eid,  I have decided to bake some cookies instead. The cookie recipe is from Heidi Swanson's site 101 Cookbooks. Heidi's site is the first food blog I followed. It's full of mouth-watering recipes that use a variety of healthy ingredients to tantalize your taste buds. Do check it out when you have a moment.

Now let's get to this cookie recipe. It is rustic, hearty and oh so delicious! It's a combination of old fashioned rolled oats, wheat germ, whole wheat flour, and bitter sweet chocolate. Just thinking about them is making my mouth water! Heidi's recipe calls for the use of 2 cups of sugar. I found that to be a bit much, so I cut it in half.  I also decided to add a bit of cocoa powder for more chocolaty goodness. The original recipe was to make these cookies over sized to make ice cream sandwiches, but I decided to make them a lot smaller and used a small ice cream scoop to shape them.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 3/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats

1 cup whole wheat flour

2/3 cup wheat germ

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsps baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup coconut/palm sugar

2 tsps cocoa powder

2 large eggs

2 tsps vanilla extract

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I baked these cookies on the top rack because my oven distributes the heat unevenly. Use your judgement when placing the oven racks.

In a bowl combine the oats, flour, wheat bran, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder. Mix well.

In another bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the butter until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar for 3 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time and then add the vanilla.  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the mixture and combine until everything just comes together.

You do not want to over mix the batter.  Toss in the chocolate chips and mix well. 

Use a mini ice cream scoop to scoop out the batter in round balls and place them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Make sure to leave space in between the cookies. Once on the sheet, gently pat down the tops of each cookie. Bake for 10 minutes and cool on a cookie sheet.