Potbelly Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies... Take Two

Over the last year or so, I have noticed that tons of people are finding my blog when they are searching for Potbelly's Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookie recipe.  I originally wrote about the cookies here and how I desperately wanted to recreate them.  The recipe I have in that post is good, but it wasn't quite right.

On Sunday, I picked up a oatmeal chocolate chip cookie for "research purposes" and had my mind set on getting it right this time.  Of course, the ingredients were no longer listed on the back of the bag on Sunday.  Luckily, a reader sent me a scanned image of the bag a week or so ago, so I had that for reference.  The ingredients were all pretty common, except for one type of oil that I did not have. But, I figured I would just try and work with what I had.

And guess what... there is no butter in this cookie.  Amazing huh?

Don't get too excited though. There is lots and lots of margarine.  Butter's evil cousin.

I also noticed that there isn't any baking powder in the cookie, just baking soda.  The texture of the potbelly cookie also doesn't seem to be overly "oat-y."  Potbelly might use quick oats as opposed to regular. Since I only had regular oats, food processing them seemed like the best solution.

The result?  A really, really good cookie.  Honestly, it was slightly better than the one I had on Sunday from Potbelly.  The cookie wasn't as gooey as I prefer on Sunday. But, this recipe isn't quite spot on.  I think the Potbelly cookie might use a cake flour, or a slightly heavier flour in their recipe.  Even though this one wasn't quite perfect, it was pretty close.

Almost Potbelly Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie

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1 cup margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups quick oats (or regular, food processed)
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, cream margarine and sugars. Add in egg, one at a time, beating after every addition.  Mix in vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine oats, flour, baking soda, and salt.  Mix together then slowly add into the margarine mixture. Add about a cup at a time, mix, then add another cup. Do this until it is all blended together.  Mix in chocolate chips.

Form dough into medium size balls, place on cookie sheet covered with a silpat, and bake for about 10 minutes.

I have a bunch of these cookies at my house. Someone needs to come over and take several dozen.  This recipe yields about 40 cookies.

Until we meet again Potbelly...