• 1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter (don't toss the wrappers)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup old-fashioned (or rolled) oats
• 1/2 cup Grape-Nuts cereal
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 12-ounce bag dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375°F (if you want them really crispy, jack up the oven to 400°F).
2. Use the butter wrappers to grease 2 cookie sheets. Combine the flour, oats, cereal, baking soda, and salt in a bowl.
3. In a second, large bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Gradually stir flour mixture into the butter-sugar mixture.
4. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop batter by rounded Tablespoons, not teaspoons (I like to use a small ice cream scoop), about 2 inches apart onto prepared pans.
5. Bake until light golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Use a spatula to remove cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Three splurge items improve these quite a bit: (1) the best-quality dark chocolate chips you can find, (2) really good cookie sheets—the heavy, high-priced kind from the household section of the supermarket, and (3) a wire cooling rack. Created by Cynthia Gorney From the February, 2005 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine