Have you tried simply reducing the amount of sugar used in your regular recipe?

share your oatmeal cookie recipe?

I would try Colleenoz's suggestion of reducing the sugar, and perhaps using dark chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate.

I agree about the Toll House recipe. Better just to reduce the sugar. You can probably get away with reducing a quarter or it, but I'd step down gradually to find your desired sweetness and see how the baking changes as you do. For instance, with significantly less sugar they probably won't spread as much. At some point you might have to alter the hydration.

Similarly, to the sugar, I would simply put in fewer semi-sweet chips than look for a less sweet chip. It is, after all, the One True Cookie.

We switched our chips over to something that was a less sweet semi-sweet chip years ago. I hadn't tried just decreasing the sugar, as I feared it would throw off the moisture balance of the recipe, but it sounds like I need to experiment.

This is the recipe I use for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. They're fantastic, and I regularly get asked by the recipe when I take them to an event.

When you decrease the sugar you mess with the hydration...in baking sugar equals liquid. I agree with those who say use the semi sweet chips....or I like a 70% cacao chips or Hershey's special dark chocolate...
Try that before you mess with the sugar in the recipe.

Yes, you can cut the sugars down by more than half. Like mentioned it will change the 'spread' and texture but well worth a try. A few on-line sites have done a side-by-side comparison and the chocolate chip gets a thumbs up. Maybe press down the usual cookie scoop, (ball), with a flat bottomed juice glass. And use a dark chocolate of choice.

Personally, I find the traditional Toll House recipe impossible to beat....and I am not a lover of sweets. What makes it too sweet for me is the amount of chips suggested (regardless of type) so I cut it by half, sometimes even less. Messing about with the sugar will just compromise the recipe.

Nestle's is by far my favorite, too. Quaker's Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies are my go-to for oatmeal cookies. My sister tends to reduce the sugar in most cookie recipes. I could barely tell the difference with her cc cookies.

This is from King Arthur, FWIW.

https://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2017/03/15/reduce-sugar-in-cookies-and-bars/ 

From Betty Crocker's Cookie Book, 1980

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I use Domino dark brown)

1/3 cup margarine or butter ( I use Fleishmann's Unsalted margarine)

1/3 cup shortening (I use Crisco)

1 egg

1 teaspoon real vanilla

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (I use King Arthur)

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life Dairy Free)

Heat oven to 375*. Mix sugars, margarine, shortening, egg and vanilla. Stir in remaining ingredients. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until light brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove to cooling rack. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen.

If you use the margarine and chocolate chips I use, the cookie is dairy free. Grandson is allergic to all dairy.

When I made them when my kids were growing up, I used any margarine and Nestle Chocolate Chips.

Kate, those sound tasty and Jacques Torres can be a good source. I almost always make my drop cookie doughs the day before so I can park them in the fridge at least overnight. I just prefer the end result more when the dough goes in the oven COLD. Depending on how you like the cookies, they tend to spread less, too.

Let us know if they share and what you think! :-)

I don't know how cold the dough was by the time it actually got into the oven (perhaps not COLD), but this is what PJ Hamel, in the most excellent KA post Chloebud linked, said about the array of cookies in her experiment:

Chilling cookie dough for at least 30 minutes (and up to 7 days) before baking increases caramelization during baking, which enhances flavor. --[I'm thinking this is why Torres (or Kate's neighbor) does it.]

Refrigerating cookie dough for as short a time as 30 minutes before baking will help increase spread and enhance crispiness.

One last experiment with cookie B: Here’s what chilling the dough for 24 hours accomplishes. The chilled-dough cookie (on the right) is darker/more caramelized, and thus tastes better (richer, more complex). It also spread about 20% more, which means the edges were thinner/crispier.

Yes, I prefer to wait at least a day after making the dough - my results just aren’t as good without the chill time. My husband occasionally bakes them immediately, but they’re more like cookie pancakes.

plllog, I agree it was an interesting read from KA. I've pretty much always found chilled dough to be the best option for various cookie doughs, including dropped and rolled. I always use all butter for the flavor, and chilled dough helps prevent spreading. If I want a thinner cookie, such as maybe sometimes for ice cream sandwiches, the dough gets much less fridge time.

The crispy version in the King Arthur Flour cookie book is my standard these days (there is also a chewy version in the KA book which I do not care for).

I know preference varies when it comes to crispy, chewy or cakey cookies. Years ago (early 2000's) there was an article in Martha Stewart Living for Chocolate Chip Cookies Three Ways. I looked online and found a link. Have to admit I never tried the recipes.

https://www.marthastewart.com/1099220/crispy-cakey-or-chewy-how-do-you-your-chocolate-chip-cookies

A friend and I went to a class about cookies with a baking scientist. Y'know how the old version of the Toll House recipe on the Nestle bag had a spoon of water? And now it doesn't? Apparently that little bit of water can make the difference between a chewy or crispy cookie.

So interesting how a little bit of this or that...or none at all...can make a difference.

Years ago I had a request to make a lot of decorated sugar cookies for an event. I was so frustrated because my TNT recipe was NOT working. The cookies were spreading like crazy in the oven. I was pretty frustrated since any/all advice I got from those I thought could help were all tips I already knew. I'd even sent an email to Shirley Corriher. Plus, I'd made the cookies a zillion times. Finally, a caterer I knew asked about my baking sheets. I'd bought those insulated "air-bake" cookie sheets and was using them. Never even thought about that and no one else had asked. She told me to go back to my faithful non-insulated, heavy-duty aluminum pans. She said the insulated sheets heat more slowly giving the cookies more time to spread. Problem solved! I've since had others tell me they don't have the spread problem with their insulated sheets. IDK...could be it was just the brand I'd bought but they're long gone.

I have enamelled baking sheets that fit on the rack holders of my oven (one came with it, and I bought two more). I use them for all kinds of stuff, from chickens to kale chips to pâte à choux. They're great! For cookies, I use a couple of the plain (turned up edge to grab) flat sheet aluminum "cookie sheets" from my childhood. They're just better.

I don't know about too sweet. To me there is no such thing. But I use the crisco recipe for cookies.

https://www.crisco.com/recipes/ultimate-chocolate-chip-cookies-2102

I don't add nuts. I put more chips in.

Well, if you are interested in an excellent chocolate chip oatmeal cookie the recipe on the of the bag of Trader Joe's Rolled Oats is unbelievably good. And it's gluten free to boot. Found it!

My favourite is the one from the Criico box. Called the ultimate chocolate chip recipe.

I don't have a link for it, but I made David Leite's recipe for large chocolate chip cookies and chilled the dough in the fridge for 36 hours. These were outstanding cookies to me. I took notes and used Ghirardelli 60% cacao baking chips and Guittard extra dark chocolate chips, and I made sure to sprinkle them with sea salt before baking.

I have found though that even in my own family, we tend to disagree over what you expect from a perfect cookie. I prefer a flat, slightly crisp version, while others prefer more of a hermit almost cake like style.

Louise, it's the same at our house. Some like crispy, some chewy and some cakey. Not that it's ever stopped any of them from eating any of those versions. ;-)