Not quite. The dough has the usual culprits, flour, eggs, sugar, plus a few variants like nutmeg and cinnamon. And of course raisins and oatmeal. Prep starts off well. Butter, sugar eggs and vanilla extract creams till fluffy and light. The recipe calls for whisked dry ingredients, but I choose to sift them instead. Raisins and oatmeal are added last. The oven is hot from baking the chocolate chip cookies. I line baking sheets with Silpat sheets. I roll small golf ball sized dough balls in my palms and lay them on the baking sheet two inches apart. Not what the recipe says. I am experimenting at this point. I manage to get fifteen cookies on the sheet and put them into the oven to bake. Then I happen to glance at the recipe which recommends pressing down on the cookies lightly. One tray of cookies have been baking for a minute. Out that one come! I use a measuring cup to tamp down the cookies gently. Trouble ensues as the cup keeps sticking to the tops! Turns out I haven't quite read the recipe completely. The tamping device, be it your fingers or measuring cup, needs to be lightly greased! By now three trays of cookies have been rolled and tamped down!
Its baking time! The recipe calls for a short bake, six to nine minutes. Reader, after the 'pressing' issue I carefully read the baking instructions. After nine minutes the cookies come out looking pathetically pale. They are soft to the touch and looked unfinished. Alarmed, I wonder what to do with this mound of dough? Throw it out and start again? Dismayed, I speak to Shauna, who refers me to the Smitten Kitchen cookie. She refrigerates the dough and then bakes cookies for twelve minutes. I follow that path loosely. I return the first batch of soft pale cookies to the oven for a longer bake.Very soon the tops turn golden brown. I look on in relief as the rest turn out the same way. Time to look for a large container to transport them to the shower!
OATMEAL RAISIN COOKIES
Adapted from Joy of Cooking and Smitten Kitchen
Makes 45 two inch cookies
1 3/4 cup AP Flour
3/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
3/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg powder
1/2 pound or 2 sticks Butter, softened (I used salted butter)
1 1/2 cups light Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1 cup golden Raisins
3 1/2 cups old fashioned rolled Oats
Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Cream butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla till fluffy, using a stand or hand-held mixer.
Slowly add the flour mix to the dough till smooth and blended.
Raisins and oatmeal go in now. Whisk slowly till well combined.
Refrigerate dough for 10 minutes.
Heat oven to 350F or 180C.
Line three large baking sheets with Silpat sheets or parchment paper.
Scoop a golf ball size portion in your hands and roll into a small ball. Place ball on baking tray.
Line the trays with balls spacing them 2 inches apart. If you have a large tray you could get 15 cookies on one tray. My baking sheets are 18x12 in size.
Use your fingers to press down on the balls to flatten them slightly.
Bake cookies for 12-14 minutes till tops are golden brown. Turn tray halfway through baking.
Take cookies out of the oven and let them rest in the tray for 5 minutes. They will harden as they rest.
Transfer on to a wire rack to cool. Once they are cool place them in an airtight container.
Enjoy them for a whole week if they last that long!
Two large containers of cookies go through intense TSA screening. In Debbie and Bob Sonderman's home they sit on heirloom plates, gracing the dessert table at the shower. Nikita and Rob have a monsoon of baby things. Nikita came as a three day old infant to my house. I am so happy to be at her baby shower. Life comes full circle in the shape of a cookie!
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