Fat Chewy Delicious Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I can dig good cookies.  Big fat chewy cookies that make me belly up to the bar at 10:00 at night, with a glass of cold milk in hand.  That is my kind of cookie goodness.

Now you have heard me whine on my blog that my baking skills have a lot to be desired.  It was true, and it is still true.  Yet these cookies turned out near perfect.  I was feeling baking love.  I must have followed the directions which is almost always a leap for me.

I am odd man out in my house.  Delicious defined for me is rice pudding and cookies like oatmeal raisin, which at best gets a yawn.   It’s okay, it rocks.  I have managed to eat  4-dozen cookies, and get my fair share of calcium with all the milk that I consumed.

1/2 cup (1 stick or 115 grams) butter, softened

2/3 cup (125 grams) packed light brown sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 (95 grams) cups all purpose-flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1-1/2 cups (120 grams) rolled oats
3/4 cup (120 grams) raisins
1/2 cup walnuts (65 grams), chopped (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F (175 C)

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth.  In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together.  Stir this into butter/sugar mixture.  Stir in the oats, raisins and walnuts, if using them.

At this point, you can either chill the dough for a bit in the fridge and then scoop it, or scoop the cookies onto a sheet and then chill the whole tray before baking them.  You could also bake them right away, if you’re impatient, but I do find that they end up slightly less thick.

The cookies should be two inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheet.  Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes, taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top.  Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.

Enjoy!