Oatmeal Cookies

Jenny is in perpetual search for easy, weeknight recipes to attempt to feed her family. When they balk, she just eats more.

Today: An oatmeal cookie to freak out over.

Passive Aggression In Our Times: a (very) short play:

Husband to older child, within my ear shot: “I am sorry but I don’t think your oatmeal is going to taste very good. This oatmeal mom bought just isn’t great.”

Me to husband: “What seems to be the problem with the oatmeal?”

Husband: “It’s just sort of, you know, chunky.”

I wait for husband to volunteer to go to the store to purchase oats more to his liking. 

Husband exits stage left. 

So the moral here, I had some oatmeal to get rid of. After perusing the various offerings on the site, I paused with intrigue on Oatmeal Cookes both for the intriguing method for making raisin paste, and the use of browned butter. (How brown? Definitely be careful here. When it takes on a brown nutty color in the bottom of the pan, take it off the heat. I also let it cool for a few minutes before proceeding with the recipe.)

This recipe, contributed by Mr_Vittles, tells the truth in every step. The wet ingredients will look a little odd, and once you add the eggs, the mixture does indeed immediately come together. I prefer to mix in the dry ingredients by hand, FYI. This recipe invites exciting improvisations: in the first batch, I sprinkled the tops of turbinado sugar, for the second, I added the last of a bag of chocolate chips I had in my pantry. 

You will be a little challenged to know when these mamas are done because the dough is dark in color to begin with; I baked mine for 12 minutes and they were not quite there. Old Vittles here suggests you lift a corner of the cookie and if it bends slightly it is done. This is as good a guide as any though they will still look soft. Don’t let them go beyond that or they will over bake. They do indeed need to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet.

Net result: a very sweet, complex and crispy cookie, sort of like fruit cake flavor intensity meets lace cookie texture. There isn’t a person in my house who didn’t freak over this cookie, made with the very oats they dissed -- oven-roasted old fashioned type-- which in fact were perfectly good. User error!

Exit kitchen. 

Oatmeal Cookies by Mr_Vittles

Makes about 50 cookies

2 cups dark raisins
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsalted butter, browned
2 cups light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Optional, white sugar, for rolling

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Photo by Sarah Shatz