I don’t eat enough oatmeal. Some doctors say that if you eat oatmeal every morning for breakfast, you might live forever. It’s healthy stuff. I will, however, eat oatmeal cookies. How many ever oatmeal cookies you give me are how many I will eat, especially with a glass of cold milk.
Oatmeal is an interesting and varied product.
Mr. Wiki says that oatmeal is a preparation of oats that have been de-husked, steamed, and flattened, or a coarse flour of hulled oat grains that have either been milled, rolled, or steel-cut. Steel-cut oats . are known as coarse oatmeal, Irish oatmeal, or pinhead oats. Rolled oats were traditionally thick old-fashioned oats, but can be made thinner or smaller, and may be categorized as quick oatmeal or instant oatmeal depending on the cooking time required, which is determined by the size of the oats and the amount of precooking.
Nancy sent me to the grocery store recently and oatmeal was on her list. I bought oatmeal, but not the right kind. She wanted Quick One-Minute Oatmeal and I bought a box of Old-Fashioned Oats, not what she wanted, but perfect for making a batch of Oatmeal Raisin cookies, and I did.
Oatmeal raisin cookies are a little more labor intensive than I like, but it’s worth the extra effort. Below is a recipe I have used on several occasions, and the cookies have a way of quickly disappearing.
Put a stick and a half of room temperature butter in a bowl along with a cup and a half of brown sugar. All that butter and brown sugar, too? Already, you can tell that this is going to turn out well.
User a mixer and beat on a low speed (so the stuff doesn’t go all over the kitchen walls) and mix till nice and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add 1 egg and 2 t of vanilla and mix for another minute. Add 1 ½ C flour, ½ t baking soda, ½ t baking powder and ½ t salt. Mix until combined. Add 2 ¼ C of old-fashioned oats and 1 C raisins and blend thoroughly.
Make 1-inch balls of the dough and place on a cookie sheet two-inches apart. Bake in a 325 oven for about 24 minutes. Make sure you sample a few while they are still warm to double check your work, then hide them somewhere to keep the riff raff away.
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
3/4 cups butter room temp
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups old-fashioned oats
1 C raisins