I have always loved oatmeal raisin cookies, but they must meet certain standards to capture my heart truly. They must be soft but not cakey.
They must be a little crisp on the edges, but not too brittle and they must bend, not break, when I bite them. Most of all, they must have a chewy, buttery heart, and the raisins must be soft and plump.
When oatmeal raisin cookies meet all my expectations, there is one big problem. I can’t stop eating them! I love them most with a cold glass of milk, but a cup of coffee is my second choice.
Tomorrow I will have to give most of them away so I am not tempted, but it was a delightful couple of days eating them one after another.
It all started when I found a half carton of raisins while I was reorganizing my kitchen cupboard; from inside the box, they called to me in a little dried-up voice and begged to be baked into an oatmeal cookie. How could I say no?
Since they were pretty shriveled up, I measured one cup of them into a glass measuring cup and poured boiling water over them to plump them up. When the water was cool, I drained them to use in the oatmeal cookies. Success!
Let me begin by saying the perfect oatmeal raisin cookie for you may be crisp or cake-like, which is always a personal preference!
Since I love chewy cookies, and maybe you do too, I set out to find out exactly how to make them, and I was delighted to find some very helpful general information! The main thing that makes a cookie chewy is the higher moisture content in the dough. This can be accomplished by changing the brown sugar to white sugar ratio. Brown sugar has more moisture.
Egg yolks have more fat than egg whites, so in some recipes, the white is omitted from one of the eggs.
Baking powder is more acidic than baking soda and helps keep the cookies from spreading, getting thin, and baking too quickly. Use some of each, or go with all baking powder.
If you use shortening for all or part of the fat in the recipe, the cookies will be moist and stay chewier. That’s because butter is about sixteen percent water; cookies dry out faster when made with all butter.
Please don't skip chilling the dough before baking, it will help the cookie spread less as it bakes, making it chewier. But don't chill them too long; if you want to know more, here's an in-depth article about the optimum chill time.
Finally, parchment paper or a silicone baking mat helps the cookies “hang on” and spread less, making your chewy oatmeal raisin cookies plumper, less thin, and crispier.
If you want cookies to stay chewy, keep a slice of fresh bread with them in a tightly sealed container. The difference will amaze you!
This recipe doesn’t cover everything I found when searching for how to make chewy oatmeal raisin cookies, but I think it is "just right," as Goldilocks would say. I like that there is no cinnamon or nuts, but you can add them if you want! Heck, you can add butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, or anything else you like!
I distinctly remember, as a child, grabbing a cookie off a tray, anticipating it was my favorite chocolate chip cookie, only to discover it was oatmeal raisin. 😕 My adult palate now greatly prefers a perfectly chewy oatmeal raisin cookie every time. Oatmeal raisin? Yes, please!
This oatmeal raisin cookie recipe is quite basic. As you see, I used all butter because butter tastes the best, in my opinion. They will get eaten so fast around here that they will not have time to dry out anyway! Here is everything you need. As you might notice, I only had salted butter, so I left out the salt.
Begin by creaming the butter and sugars until they are nice and fluffy, then beat in the eggs and vanilla. At this point, I beat in the leavening instead of whisking them with the flour in a separate bowl. I have always thought this saved a bowl to wash and the leavening gets well distributed. Call me a rebel.
Now gradually add the flour and beat until there are no visible streaks of flour. Finally, fold in the raisins and stir in the oatmeal. I found I had to do this with my trusty Danish Whisk.
I got a cookie scoop for Christmas. I asked Santa for one, and the old boy delivered! Hooray! The original recipe says each cookie should be two tablespoons of dough, and this one's perfect.
If you don't have one, I found walnut-sized balls of dough placed two inches apart worked very well. They stayed nicely rounded and didn’t kiss each other when they baked.
Bake them on the center rack at 350 degrees for about eleven or twelve minutes. Watch closely at the end because they brown fast in the last few minutes. It’s good to bustle around the kitchen while they bake!
Remember the little trick about keeping a slice of bread in with the cookies? It really does help keep them soft and chewy.
Wonderfully soft and chewy oatmeal cookies are easy to make with this recipe.
I don't often make cookies; I'm usually in a hurry (for no reason), but I love to make bar cookies. Here are two of my favorite bar cookie recipes: Cake Mix Lemon Bars and Perfect Frosted Fudgy Brownies.
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Where's the cinnamon in the oatmeal cookies
I mention in the post to add cinnamon or whatever you like to the cookies! 😊 Make them the way that makes you happy! I prefer mine straight up, nothing but the sweet, chewy, buttery taste of the oatmeal cookie!
Can I use old-fashioned oats add coconut and corn flakes?
Oh gosh, sorry for the delay, my class reunion was this weekend and I was away from my computer for a change. Well, you can use old fashioned oats and you can add those ingredients but it will definitely change the texture of the cookie if you add too many dry ingredients. I would take it easy on the amount you add, and you might want to decrease the amount of oats proportionately to what you add.