Sunday, April 10, 2011

Thick and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Russell has been begging (yes begging) me to make these cookies for a couple weeks, but with everything else going on I had not been able to. With my parents coming to visit this past weekend, and knowing my daddy’s love of oatmeal raisin cookies as well, I finally made a batch. Russell and my dad loved these cookies! They are just as their name describes; thick and chewy. There are so many different ways to create these cookies: You can add walnuts, pecans, or chocolate chips. Since I do not like raisins I divided the dough in two parts, adding raisins to one half and chocolate chips to the other. This way everyone was satisfied; Russell and my dad were able to have their favorite oatmeal raisin cookies, and I was able to enjoy delicious oatmeal chocolate chips cookies.

The ingredients below reflect a half batch of cookies. This was perfect for us as we can never finish the two dozen cookies a full batch yields.
  • 1/2 cup softened butter (1 stick or 4 ounces)
  • 2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
  • 3/4 cup raisins (I used golden raisins)
  • 1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, optional

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, cream together softened butter and brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir to combine. Stir in the oats and walnuts or pecans if using them.

Chill the dough in the refrigerator (chilling the dough is not absolutely necessary, but if not chilled the cookies will not be as thick and chewy). Place cookies 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake for about 10-12 minutes (baking time will depend on the size of your cookies and how long you let the dough chill for).

Remove the cookies from the oven when the edges are brown but the tops still look a little under cooked. Let cookies sit on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before removing them to cool on a wire rack.

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