In a small/medium bowl place the butter, sugar, condensed milk and vanilla
Cream until light and fluffy, I use my cake mixer, but an electric beater or a wooden spoon and some elbow grease will work just fine.
Add the flour, baking powder, and oats (I don't sift but I do attempt to sprinkle the baking powder into the mixture relatively evenly)
Create the condensed milk cookie dough by incorporating the dry ingredients, I use a beater on a low speed.
Add the chocolate, and mix until it is relatively evenly distributed, I use a wooden spoon to do this (only because this is what my mum did). You can use your mixer on low speed.
Take tablespoons of the dough and roll into balls (you should end up with approximately 24 balls, depending on how many are gobbled up during the process)
Place the balls on a baking paper lined baking tray
Take a fork and gently press each ball (kids love this task)
Bake at 180 degrees Celsius, which is approximately 360 Fahrenheit, for 15 minutes
Cool
Eat
Notes
Tips
I find this recipe is the perfect base recipe, you can use it to create loads of different flavours
Raisins: Substitute the chocolate chips for raisins for a delicious raisin oat cookie
Dates: Substitute the chocolate chips for chopped dates
Peanuts: Substitute the chocolate chips for peanuts, and you will end up with a yummy peanut whitey cookie, if you add a tablespoon of cocoa you will end up with a peanut brownie
Nuts: Any roughly chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, pecans etc) all work well
Just go for plain, skip the add-ins and just leave it as a plain vanilla oaty cookie
One of my favourite tips is to freeze the cookie dough balls, I freeze them in an airtight container, then it is an absolute cinch to pull them out and pop them in the oven, fresh made choc chip cookies!
Ingredient Substitutions
Condensed milk: Interestingly enough, you can actually substitute the condensed milk for an egg.
Rolled oats: You can use quick cook oats or traditional rolled oats. Or if you don't want rolled oats you can replace them with plain four.
Brown sugar: This can be substituted for any granulated sugar.
Chocolate chips: These can be left out, or substituted for raisins, chopped dried fruit or nuts.