Pregame for Fall with These Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

We've made it, people. We're over that atrocious stretch of summer when it's too hot to sit anywhere but directly in front of your air conditioner. Over the past months, baking likely became a distant memory, your oven transformed into storage for takeout menus. You probably forgot what a warm, gooey cookie tastes like, fresh out of the oven. Tragic, isn't it?

Sure, it's not exactly cold-weather, fuzzy-sock-wearing, cookie-baking season yet, but this still deserves a celebration. And what better way to celebrate than with crunchy walnuts and perfectly melty, chewy pockets of chocolate?

Consider it a pregame for the full-fledged cookie shitshow that inevitably unfolds every holiday season. And, if we learned anything from college, it's never too early to start pregaming.

So bump that A/C, crank your oven, and thank the baking gods that you made it past the dog days.