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CHRISTMAS COOKIES: Jennifer's Folk Fest Cookies

Jennifer Kirkey and Eric Urquhart bake these little beauties for their annual Christmas Cookies sharing party. But the cookies were first made for volunteers at the annual Folk Fest in Vancouver.
oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
Take your oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to new heights this season.

Jennifer Kirkey and Eric Urquhart bake these little beauties for their annual Christmas Cookies sharing party. But the cookies were first made for volunteers at the annual Folk Fest in Vancouver.

 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies (also called Folk Fest Cookies)

 

Recipe makes 48 cookies.

 

Preheat oven to 375 F and have your toasted nuts ready before you begin. 

 

3/4 to 7/8 cups unsalted butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2  teaspoons cream of tartar (if you do not have cream of tartar then use 1 teaspoon each of baking powder and soda.)

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (not instant)

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

2 cups chopped pecans that have been roasted and cooled.

 

Sift the baking soda and cream of tartar into the flour. 

Cream the butter with the sugars in a mixer.

Add the vanilla, milk and eggs. 

Add the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder to the creamed mixture and beat to combine. 

By hand, stir in the oats, chips and nuts. The dough is sticky, and this is a lot of stuff to put into the dough, so the best way is to use your clean hands.

Drop the dough 1 1/2” apart on greased cookie sheets. 

I use a small ice cream scoop or use two tablespoons. 

I use parchment paper instead of greased sheets.

Press with a fork. 

 

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes until brown at edges and set on top.   

Turn halfway through the baking.

Let sit one minute, and then remove to cooling racks.

 

The original recipe is from the Frog Commissary Restaurant in Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania and used walnuts instead of pecans.

Eric bought the cookbook in the late 1970s, and this is still one of his favourite cookies. 

If you use hazelnuts and milk chocolate chips, you get a Nutella cookie. 

This recipe used the organic old-fashioned oats from Famous Foods.

The chocolate chips were 51 per cent cocoa chocolate chips from Costco. They are fair trade and made with real vanilla.

Many of my friends call these Folk Fest cookies as they are my granola bar.  I make many of them to feed my fellow volunteers, and friends, at the Vancouver Folk Fest. These have been dinner for hundreds of people over the last three decades. 

– Contributed by
Jennifer Kirkey