Oh My Stinkin Delicious
Ok, I have to share this because I am dying in oatmeal cookie heaven over here. After many disappointing oatmeal cookie recipes and hours of reading later I have finally found the perfect oatmeal cookie recipe for my family. I looked at a ton of recipes online and combined a few of them for a great combination. The cookies are crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. They keep their shape and best of all they are SOOOOOO Good!The secret is the raisins. You have to soak them. I don’t even like raisins. In fact, I typically really DISLIKE raisins. But I decided to brave it and I can’t believe how good they are! You have to try it with the raisins (even if you normally hate them, you’ll see). I added chocolate chips to ours but they are totally not necessary. We had to omit the nuts because of nut allergies in our house but they would rock with some chopped pecans or walnuts. These cookies make your house smell soooo good.
Recipe:
1 cup butter, room temp
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 TBSP (yes tablespoon) vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinammon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3 cups oatmeal (quick cooking or old fashioned, not instant)
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
To prep: The key is to soak the raisins. This makes all the difference in the world. Beat eggs and vanilla together and then add the raisins, stir. Soak for an hour or two. I just walked by a few times and stirred it while I waited.
Directions:
Preheat to 350 F
Cream butter and sugars with mixer. In a seperate bowl combine flour, salt, baking soda, cinammon, ginger & nutmeg. Stir the dry ingredients until well blended. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix well. Now add in the egg & raisin mixture (I used my hands). Then add oatmeal and chocolate chips/nuts and combine well. Form into balls on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet for 2-5 minutes or until firm enough to transfer to wire rack.
Made about 2 1/2 dozen cookies for me and I made them pretty big. You could get 4 dozen if you make them small.
Like you, I too was unhappy with every oatmeal cookie recipe I have tried. Today I googled “best oatmeal cookie” and found your recipe. Soaking the raisins in the eggs and vanilla intrigued me so I tried the recipe. Amazing! So delicious! The only thing I changed was I used 1/2 cup of butter and 1/2 cup of vegetable shortening (I was low on butter) and I did not put in the nuts as my teen does not care of nuts in cookies. So wonderful. This will be my oatmeal cookie recipe of choice from this day forward. Thanks for sharing.
Very good recipe. The first time I made the cookies I made it as is except I replaced the flour with whole wheat flour. The best oatmeal cookies I have ever made.
For those interested in a healthier version today I tried the following:
1) Use 1-2 tablespoons of butter instead of a full cup.
2) Replace the rest of the butter with applesauce (I used home made apple sauce from 4 small apples).
3) Use half of the sugar and brown sugar.
This version comes out pretty decent for how healthy the cookie is and cuts out a ton of saturated fat and sugar.
Oatmeal raisin happen to be my husband’s favorite and these are delicious! Kept their shape beautifully! (I use the small melon scooper and get a nice consistent size each time) Didn’t have any ginger so substitued ground nutmeg (1 1/4t because I love it!)and it worked out very well. Walnuts are my nuts of choice for these. I think later I may try them with some flaked coconut!
Whatever the combination these would be excellent cookies each and every time and you’re absolutely right – soaking the raisins is the trick, especially in 1T of vanilla!
Thanks so much for sharing what my most favorite aunt would have called “a keeper!”
Pat
This IS the BEST oatmeal cookie EVER!!!! My husband doesn’t like oatmeal cookies. He lovessss these!!! I will NEVER make another kind of oatmeal cookie. THIS IS THE ONE AND ONLY for me from now on!
I am totally excited to try these … tomorrow!!!
I LOVE to get new receipts, and this one sounds GREAT!
Laurel :)
PS: I’m enjoying your blog.
Yeah, oatmeal cookies are pretty tricky. If you leave them too long in the baking sheets, they get all crunchy you cannot lift them out without breaking them into pieces. Found a technique, though. Instead of directly putting the oatmeal dough directly on the baking trays I lined them with wax paper so it was easy to lift and peel off the cookies. Would you have a better idea on how to remove these cookies without deforming or breaking them? Or perhaps this recipe of yours will work and . . . MAGIC!. . . My cookies won’t break.
Coming from a person who makes 8-10 dz cookies at a time…the best way to bake your cookies on a baking sheet is on parchment paper. You find it near the wax paper. This allows you to pull them right off the sheet and onto the table or counter to cool without them braking or sticking to the sheet. I use air bake sheets that dont have a lip, so they slide right off. Magic! Have fun!!
These Cookies were incredible! Honestly, the best oatmeal cookie I have ever tasted. I couldn’t stop eating them. Thank you so much for sharing! This will be go to for now on!
I am excited I found your recipe! I have the raisins soaking now. My BF is thrilled that I can add chocolate chips.
These are the best oatmeal cookies ever – 100%! My mom found your recipe – and shared it with me. It is now a favorite of the entire family. We have linked it on our website under our favorites, hope you don’t mind. We often add 1/4 cup of dried cranberries to the recipe – Just delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
These cookies do live up to their name! So good! Only thing was my kids couldn’t wait for the soaking that long so we only soaked for 20 minutes or so, basically while we mixed the other ingredients. Still great! I used about 1/2 raisins and 1/2 cranberries b/c I like the added tartness and I used walnuts because that’s the only nut we had. FABULOUS recipe! Thank you!
Okay, these cookies live up to the hype – they are freaking amazing! I agree – the soaking of the raisins adds a certain je nais sais quois. Thank you for sharing this recipe – it’s a keeper!