Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Oatmeal raisin cookies breakfast disks

Ted has got me thinking of oatmeal raisin cookies. They are my favorite cookie, although I don't make them often (I'm not much into baking; too much measuring and too many dishes to wash afterward. I've mentioned that I'm slackass lazy, right?)

I wasn't planning on making cookies at all this year. I'm making truffles for work (intending to do that tomorrow, in fact) and a key lime pie for the family party, and on Saturday my mom and sister and I will be doing the traditional family (Polish and Hungarian) stuff. But I don't need cookies, the people at work don't need cookies (the office has been hit with a food tsunami), and most of my family are on diets.

But I was looking at Ted's oatmeal raisin cookie recipe thinking...oatmeal is healthy. Raisins are healthy. Maybe I could call these breakfast?

Just for comparison, here's my recipe:

1/2 cup shortening or butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup oatmeal
1 1/2 cup sifted flour [Yeah, right. I have never sifted the flour. This was my mother's recipe. She sifts.]
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup seedless raisins [Can you still get raisins with seeds?]

Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and oatmeal. Sift [Uh huh. Mix with a fork.] together dry ingredients and add alternately with milk. Add vanilla and raisins. Drop on lightly greased cookie sheet [I assume the original recipe said something like "drop by tablespoonfuls" and I was trying to fit the whole thing on one side of a 3 x 5 card]. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.

One of the first times I made these (as a kid) I used what were then brand new "no stick" baking sheets. I neglected to compensate for the dark no-stick coating and after 12 minutes the bottoms of the cookies were quite burned. That first batch went to the dog, who loved them...we finally got her trained to "shake" using the burned cookies.

Another thing I don't like about baking is having to get the ingredients right...it is chemistry, after all. (They don't allow me in the lab, have I ever mentioned that?) So I'm wondering if using wheat flour, which I happen to have, would screw this recipe up totally. And I have some buttermilk, but no regular milk...wonder what that would do.

If I have time tomorrow I might experiment. And if it doesn't work...I have never trained this dog to shake.

Posted by Nic at December 16, 2003 05:23 PM | TrackBack