Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I believe these may be my son's favorite cookie. He could have cared less about the chocolate peanut butter cookies and he does not mind chocolate chip or sugar cookies, but for some reason these oatmeal raisin cookies had him coming back for more and more and more and . . . I'm sure you get the picture.

I planned to bake a batch of these, divide them into three groups with a few leftovers for home, and deliver them to three friends. That was the plan. I ended up having a few more than I planned at home because a good portion of the batch baked up so differently than the others that I didn't think they were fit for public consumption.

 I don't know if you can see in the picture above but I tried to line them up on the cooling rack in the order that they came out of the oven, first ones to the far right and last batch to the far left. Notice how the cookies on the far right are very thin, and I mean so thin that there were holes in some spots when I lifted them off the cookie sheets. They cooled to a hard crunchy cookie that still tasted good but their look was kind of blah. Yes, those are the cookies that remained at home. I couldn't bring myself to hand over cookies that looked less than desirable to someone outside of our house. The next row is a bit better, no holes but still very thin and crunchy. The third row were probably the best as far as looks and texture. The final row was very dense and they barely spread at all. My thoughts are that the butter somehow did not get distributed evenly throughout the dough and the first cookies had a lot of butter and the last cookies had a lot of oats.

Although they were yummy, I think I might just stick to the recipe on the back of the Quaker Oats box or look in my handy dandy cookbook for future oatmeal raisin cookies. Enjoy! (I didn't use walnuts since I was taking them to people and wasn't sure of nut allergies.)

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Source: Annie's Eats and Deborah's Culinary Confections

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs and vanilla until well blended. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add to butter mixtures, stirring until just combined.

Fold in rolled oats, raisins, and walnuts. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are lightly brown. Cool 2 minutes and remove to wire rack to cool completely.