Our family’s favourite oatmeal cookies, I can guarantee, will be different from yours! I have never come across the same oatmeal cookie in anyone else’s house and in all the years that I’ve been tasting oatmeal cookies that’s a lot of different kinds of the same kind I figure! Oatmeal cookies are forgiving. You add the right amount of fat, oats and sugar and it all sorts itself out, baking them into crispy, chewy, cakey, crunchy... they’re all good! This is the kind of cookie you can grab a couple of and convince yourself that really, with a cup of coffee or tea is pretty much the same as a meal....
My mother used lard and margarine in her oatmeal cookies, as well my grandmother on my dad’s side, plus a lot of other ingredients that included chocolate chips, nuts, etc. My mother-in-law made some killer oatmeal cookies with chicken fat, skimmed from roasts, soup, etc. So sometimes our oatmeal cookies would taste like rosemary and thyme...lol equally delicious! This cookie of mine is straight out of the Canadian Living cookbook, to which I’ve added my own twist with long-thread coconut and Thompson raisins, homemade vanilla, and butter (not margarine). It adds up to making a fairly minimalist cookie. I am currently trying to use up a 10 kg bag of quick oats; using large flake oats will give you a different cookie, but even those will disappear fairly quickly around my house. Anyways, I try to make them often, having something not too fussy as far as baking goes means you’re ready for whatever comes your way. They travel well to the beach, freeze well, and they are even better after mellowing in their tin a week or so....yeah good luck with that!
Kris’s Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
1-1/3 c butter
2 c packed brown sugar -Cream well then add;
2 eggs
2 tbsp vanilla
Mix well. Meanwhile put all of the dry ingredients into a separate bowl;
3 c quick cooking oats
2 c flour
1 tsp each soda and baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
Generous pinch of salt.
1 c Thompson raisins
1 c long-thread coconut
Mix it all together, making sure everything is well distributed, then add to creamed mixture, mix till everything is even-looking, no dry bits left in the bottom of the bowl!
Roll into smallish balls, about a tablespoon full with room around them to spread slightly on a parchment lined baking sheet. Flatten slightly with your fingertips and bake for 12-13 minutes at 350 degrees in the middle of your oven. Let cool on a rack before eating if you can although they are fabulous warm! Try them with a tablespoon of vanilla icecream while still warm sandwiched between two cookies, just not for breakfast!