Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I purchased The Grand Central Baking Book soon after its release in 2009.  I’d taken a class from Piper Davis a year or two before and loved her style.  She made what some might call a difficult subject – a rough method for making puff pastry – pretty easy, or at least understandable.  Translated that means a puff pastry you can make at home without a professional sheeter.  For some reason, the cookbook sat on my bookshelf for  some time before I actually made anything from it.  (Perhaps if you saw my cookbook bookshelf you’d understand why that might be….) But once I started making some of the cookie recipes I was hooked.  To date I’ve made several varieties and even posted the Ginger Molasses cookie recipe a few months ago.

What I really love is that the recipes are perfectly tested and easy to follow.  The only thing I do differently is make the cookies smaller than the recipes specify.  Most of the recipes make large, bakery size cookies.  I prefer cookies a little smaller. That way when I eat two of them I don’t have to feel  so guilty!  Making the cookies smaller affects the baking time but since ovens vary that can be the case with any recipe.

When making drop cookies you can use an ice-cream scoop to quickly and easily get your dough on the cookie tray.  The recipe calls for big cookies that are about 1.5 ounces, which would be a #20 scoop size.  I used a #40 scoop, which is about half that size.  For information on scoop sizes and numbers see this handy page.

This recipe is great as is, although I may make a few changes such as adding cinnamon or using regular raisins instead of golden for a little color contrast.  Dried cherries or little pieces of dried apricot would also be good in this recipe.

So here’s one more recipe, but really you should just go buy the cookbook!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

adapted from The Grand Central Baking Book

• 1¾ cups flour
• 1  tsp baking soda
• 1  tsp salt
• 1 cup room temperature butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3¼ cups rolled oats
• 1 cup golden raisins

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Line 2 or 3 baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl and put aside.

Cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar until the mixture is lighter in color, about 3 to 5 minutes using a stand mixer at medium speed. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl a few times during the process.

Crack the eggs into a bowl and add the vanilla.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the eggs one at a time to the creamed mixture, incorporating the first one completely before adding the second.

Gradually add the flour mixture in 2 or 3 additions, scraping the bowl after each addition.

Combine the oats and raisins in a bowl (you can use the empty flour bowl).  Add them to the dough with the mixer on low-speed.  Mix just until the oats and raisins are well incorporated.  You may find this easier to do by hand.

Using a #40 scoop, place level scoops of dough on the cookie sheet.  You should get 3 rows of 5 on each sheet.  Lightly press down to flatten the scoops a little.  Alternatively, use teaspoons or tablespoons to form approximately 1- 1½” balls, place on sheets and flatten slightly.

Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until the bottoms are golden brown and the edges are turning golden brown.  The cookies will still look a little soft and underdone in the centers.

Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheets.  If any of the cookies spread together while baking run a table knife or the edge of a metal spatula between them to separate while still warm.

Makes about 40 cookies.