Classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

This recipe is from my favorite recipe library on the King Arthur Flour website. You can read the full recipe here.Oatmeal raisin cookies are so delicious and versatile that they can be eaten as dessert, as a snack, and can even be considered a breakfast item. I prefer this recipe because of the extra flavors in the cookie – the allspice, ginger, and honey give this ordinary cookie a unique flavor.

I attempted this recipe a couple of weeks ago and quickly realized that I needed a do-over. Lessons learned from the first attempt:

1.   There is such a thing as a raisin that’s too big. It was kind of gross to bite into a nice soft cookie and get assaulted by a big juicy raisin. My fix: chop the raisins before adding to the dough.

2.   The cookie flow rate. The recipe says to chill the dough for at least an hour before baking, but doing this kept the butter too cold, and when baked, the cookies did not spread. I was left with trays of ‘cookie balls’ (still tasted fine though). My fix: a ten-minute chill just to firm up the butter.

My first step was to chop the raisins. I am not a big fan of raisins, the flavor is great but the texture is not, hence the reason why I want to cut down the size of the raisin for this cookie. My desired results would be for a cookie that has an equal flavor and texture with every bite.

 

For the dough: the butter, sugars, and flavorings were mixed, and the egg, honey, flour, oats and raisins were added. It’s important to use ‘quick-cooking’ oats for this cookie; otherwise the texture of the cookie will be very different. My dough was very soft (more than my first attempt) so I did end up refrigerating it for 30 minutes. The extra moisture may have been the result of chopping the raisins, because the moisture of the raisins was released into the dough.

All done chilling - it’s time to fire up the oven! The baking sheets were lined with parchment paper and with my trusty scoop ready, I filled the first 2 trays. A cookie scoop is the best investment ever, drop cookies are a cinch, and all the cookies end up being a uniform size and shape. I watched the cookies in the oven closely, since I did not want either ‘cookie balls’ or ‘mini-oatmeal raisin pancakes’. At 10 minutes, they were almost perfect – a good spread, not over-done, not-under done.

This batch turned out much better than my first one. Their appearance, taste, and texture all improved. Practice does make perfect, and I will need to practice this one at least a couple more times.