These hearty chocolate chunk cookies are what you need right now

Chunky with crunchy walnuts, chewy with oats, fudgy with chocolate, these bake into thick, craggy disks with crisp edges and tender centers. Chopping the chocolate by hand gives you the obvious joy of big melty chunks, but, as importantly, slivers as thin as splinters that season the dough throughout. Untoasted whole walnuts have a tannic edge to their nuttiness that balances chocolate’s richness while highlighting its bittersweet side. And oats — lots of them — add a nuanced natural earthy sweetness to the white-and-brown sugar base. Each bite gives you everything at once and also something new. You might hit a motherlode of chocolate or a walnut’s crackle, but always with the foundational oatmeal chew of a nicely salted buttery cookie.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies

1 hour. Makes about 3 dozen.

Ingredients

• 14 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 ½ cups packed dark brown sugar
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 4 cups old-fashioned (rolled) oats
• 2 cups walnut halves and pieces

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line 3 large cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Coarsely chop the chocolate into ½-inch chunks, leaving all the flaky bits on the cutting board. Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl or on a large sheet of parchment or wax paper.
3. Beat the butter and both sugars with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed, scraping the bowl occasionally, until smooth and creamy but not fluffy, about 3 minutes. With the machine running on medium speed, pour in the cream in a steady stream and beat until smooth. Scrape the bowl, turn the machine to medium-low speed, and add the eggs one at a time then the vanilla. Beat just until smooth and scrape the bowl.
4. Turn the machine to low speed and gradually add the flour mixture then the oats. Scrape the bowl, add the walnuts, and mix on low speed until evenly incorporated. You should hear the nuts cracking into smaller pieces as the paddle turns. Scrape in all the chocolate chunks and bits and beat on low speed until well mixed.
5. Use a large (3-tablespoon) cookie scoop to drop balls of dough onto a prepared sheet, spacing them 2 inches apart. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Scoop the remaining dough while the first batch bakes, then bake the remaining sheets, one at a time.
6. Cool on the pan on a wire rack. You can wait for them to completely cool or eat them warm. No judgment.

Variations
Salted Chocolate Chunk Walnut Oatmeal Cookies
Sprinkle the tops of the dough balls lightly with flaky sea salt, fleur de sel or kosher salt before baking.

Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Substitute ¼ cup vegetable oil for 4 tablespoons butter. Beat with the butter and sugar and proceed as above.

Make Ahead
The dough balls will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days and in the freezer for up to 3 months before baking.