Recipe: Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies
I love these cookies. They are the first ones I ever had that tasted like food, not just entertainment. Sweet, chewy, and wonderful food, but food nonetheless. And food they are, full of whole grains from the oats and white-wheat flour and rich with healthy additions.
This is a variation on a recipe I learned in the first cooking class I ever took. It was the 70s in the nearby college town, and the focus of the class was to “take your food back from The Man.” My notes say “add mixed raisins or chocolate or anything.” The cookies and the idea are still good.
Active time: 45 minutes. Total time: 1 hour, 30 minutes. Makes about 52 cookies.
Ingredients
1 cup white-wheat or all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (if you have nutmeg, use 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg)
3/4 cups butter (1 1/2 sticks), at room temperature
1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups oats
1 cup raisins (or mixed raisins, chopped walnuts, or “anything” -- including chocolate chips)
Method
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Pre-heat oven to 350. Set out butter to soften. In a large bowl, put in flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg and stir to mix. Set aside on waxed paper if you only want to wash one bowl. Cream the butter and brown sugar, then beat in the eggs. Add the flour mixture and beat until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Stir in oats and raisins or other additions. Shake out the waxed paper and store for future use.
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On an ungreased cookie sheet, drop cookie dough by the tablespoon with 12 to 15 cookies on a cookie sheet. They spread while they cook, so leave them room. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until tops of cookies start to turn golden and look a bit crisp. Cool on wire racks.
- Store in a covered container at room temperature or wrap well and freeze.
Tips and notes
- To make the butter soften faster, cut it into about eight pieces per stick and arrange the pieces so they don't touch. Don't use a microwave or you will partly melt the butter, which will change the texture of your cookies.
- Use bread flour or all-purpose flour if you don't have white-wheat flour.
- Put parchment paper on the cookie sheets to cut down on washing. You can form the cookies on parchment paper, then slide the paper onto a cookie sheet when the previous batch is done baking.
- Cookies make terrific Cook for Good desserts because they are so easy to divide into servings. Try serving two cookies to each person instead of letting everyone dip into the cookie jar without restraint. That's enough for a satisfying taste of sweetness without adding up the calories or using up the recipe too fast.
