21: Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

As a motivation for getting out of bed today, I decided I would make my favorite type of cookie. Fortunately today is a Wednesday, a day of few obligations, so I had plenty of time for my first expedition into the world of baking yummy things. I browsed around online to find some recipes and stumbled upon a particularly appetizing recipe. I had most of the things lying around the house so after a quick grocery run I was ready to bake.

Before we go further I should cut the suspense out of this because stress is a serious problem and I don’t want to add to it. So let me say it straight and early: These cookies were the best cookies I have ever had in my life. Period.

Here is my list of ingredients. I have significantly toned down the amount of sugar used because I think it is ridiculous. I don’t care for sugary things so I didn’t miss it. Despite my initial shock at how much butter is actually used for these cookies (everyone says there is a lot in them but I never realized it until I actually made them) I left it unchanged, because I didn’t feel experienced enough to mess with that quantity and it looked important. Also I think the eggs, oats, raisins, and brown sugar was organic. Maybe the flour too? I am not an organic militant so I don’t keep track of these things. But the oats and raisins were cheaper organic because they were local and could be bought by weight.

• 8 oz sweet cream butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tspn salt
• 1 tspn baking soda
• 2 Tbsp cinnamon
• 3 cups (non-instant) rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cups raisins

If you’ve made (supremely awesome) pancakes from scratch (as I have) it’s not that much of a stretch to making cookies from scratch. You are basically adding butter to the mix (and oats/raisins for this case) and then baking the mixture instead of frying it. So here are the steps.

1. Did you beat those eggs? Do them separately. Just like for making pancakes.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Get a baking sheet (or if you’re cheap, a sheet of foil) and spray it with Pam.
3. Get a big massive mixing bowl and drop the butter in it. Beat the butter until it looks like mush. Heating the butter beforehand will help. I placed it in direct sunlight for a while to help it melt, because I don’t have a microwave.
4. Add the sugars and keep beating for 3 minutes. Then add the beaten eggs and mix until smooth.
5. In a separate bowl, mix the flour with salt and baking soda (like pancakes) and throw in the cinnamon and any other dry spices you want. You can never have too much cinnamon, so take what you’re thinking and double it.
6. Throw the dry mix into the wet mix. Add oats and raisins and mix until it is homogeneous. This is a lot of work.
7. Then you take little bits of the mix and plop them down onto the baking sheet. Throw them in the oven for 10 minutes and do a check to see if they are browning. If not, add another 2 minutes and check again. Once you’ve done the first batch the timing for the rest will follow.
8. Lastly, when the batch is done remove immediately and place it on a porous rack to cool. I used a little metal rack from my toaster oven and I also used a pan from the bottom of the oven with some holes and ridges in it. Basically anything that allows cool air to flow uniformly over the cookie will work. This is how you get the perfect crunch to the cookie.

Some notes:

• It is imperative to mix each ingredient well after introducing it into the mix. Take your time with steps #4 and #6. Also, try to get an even mixture of everything, especially the oats and raisins. When you scoop out goop you don’t want one with all raisin and no oatmeal (or even worse, vice versa). Here is what my final mixture looked like.

• The two steps that matter the most are the last two steps. Even if you screw them up your cookie will still taste great, but it won’t be very fun to eat. Get the last two steps right and your cookie will be perfect. To help with this, do a small batch of four first and see how they turn out. Tune your process accordingly.
• When you plop them on the pan (step #7) note that your cookie’s diameter will double when it is done baking. So for the picture below, the original gobs of cookie were 1/2 the diameter (1/4 the area) that they are now. So space accordingly. Also don’t worry about the height of your goop, the cookie will sort itself out in the oven.

Now the recipe I followed said it made 24 cookies, but actually it makes 40. Yes, that’s right, 40. So if you’re worried about calories and stuff, let’s break down the ingredients per cookie.

• 8 oz –> 0.3 oz sweet cream butter. This is about 1 teaspoon. About 35 cals, mostly fat.
• 1/2 cup –> 3 mL brown sugar. About 1/2 tspn of sugar.
• 1/2 cup –> 3 mL white sugar. Again, about 1/2 tspn.
• 2 large eggs, beaten –> something small. About 10 mg cholesterol.
• flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon –> who cares.
• 3 cups –> about 6 grams (non-instant) rolled oats. Don’t know for sure, but maybe 1/2 g fat, 4 g carbs.
• 1 1/2 cups raisins –> there is sugar content here, but it’s natural, so feel good about it!

I’m not going to bother adding them up, but it sounds pretty guilt-free to me! So eat ‘em up!