Classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Growing up I have eaten only biscuits. Cookies is something that had for the first time when I lived in US. The famous Chocolate Chip Cookies did not interest me much. My love affair with cookies started when I ate Oatmeal Raisin Cookies! The Crisp outer layer and the chewy inside with it melt in the mouth taste, the sweetness from the raisin and the goodness of oats. What's not to like.



There is a restaurant in US called the Panera Bread. They have an array of amazing soups, bread and ofcourse, cookies. They do a catering box with soup, 1/2 sandwich and a cookie. We used order that a lot when we ordered lunch as a group in office. And my favourite was the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie. Those cookies are not the small ones that I have made. They were slightly bigger than the size of our palm. They were pretty amazing considering it comes from the kitchen of a chain restaurant. I usually do not go ga ga over mass produced stuff.





My son and I have been doing all our baking experiments together. As it does not involve any gas flame and hot pans/pots I am more comfortable letting him work with me. I measure out ingredients and he keeps count of the cups and then adds them to the bowl. Does most of the mixing etc. I let him do as much as a little one of 4 yrs can do. You get the idea right! So we don our aprons. No, not figuratively. We actually do. One rainy afternoon last week, we baked these cookies and enjoyed it warm afterwards.





Ingredients (makes about 2 dozen small cookies)

Butter 6 tbsp
Brown Sugar 1/2 cup
Sugar 1/4 cup
Milk 2 tbsp
Egg 1/2
Vanilla Extract 1/2 tsp

All Purpose Flour 1/2 cup
Cinnamon 1/2 tsp
Baking soda 1/4 tsp
Salt 1/8 tsp

Oats 1.5 cups
Raisins 1/2 cup
Chopped Almonds (or peacans or any nut of your choice) 1/2 cup - optional





Method of Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 190 C (375 F). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2. Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

3. Beat the butter, sugars, milk, egg and vanilla in a large bowl till light and fluffy

4. Add the flour mix to this mixing well.

5. Stir in oats, raisins and nuts.

6. Drop tablespoon full of dough to the sheet. Don't worry if they are not perfect in shape or anything. It will just be lumpy. And will shape up while baking.

7. Bake for 12-15 min. For softer cookie bake for less time and more time for a crispier cookie. I baked mine for about 13 min.

8. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for 10-15 minutes. Note that the cookie will be very soft when it comes out of the oven. It will become harder as it cools down.

Enjoy!