Best Oatmeal Raisin Cookies EVER! Go-To Oatmeal Cookie Recipe!

RECIPES AT THE TOP - CHIT CHAT AT THE BOTTOM!

Here's how I make the Best Oatmeal Raisin Cookies EVER - AT HOME MY WAY:

Best Oatmeal Cookies EVER!

• 3/4 cup butter (use the real thing - I use salted butter), (softened to room temp)
• 1 cup dark brown sugar (I didn't have brown sugar so used 1 cup regular sugar and added 1 teaspoon molasses to my creamed ingredients.  Light brown sugar works fine also.)
• 1/2 cup regular granulated white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon regular table salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups oats (old fashioned oats-uncooked)
• 1 cup raisins (+water for cooking them)

Directions (I use a wooden spoon to mix these up):

FIRST - Preheat oven to 375°.

NEXT (don't skip this step)-Put the raisins in a little pot and cover with water.  Bring to a boil and then shut off the heat. Let them sit 15 minutes - just while mixing your cookie dough. Then, fully drain and cool a little for adding to the dough last.

IN A MIXING BOWL, cream softened butter, brown sugar, white sugar, egg until smooth. Then add baking powder, salt, vanilla, baking soda, cinnamon. Stir again until well blended.

NEXT-Add flour and stir to mix completely.

THEN add oats (uncooked), stir to mix completely (will be a very stiff dough).

LAST- add the drained, plumped/cooked raisins and stir to disperse the raisins throughout the dough.  (The wet raisins add a little moisture to the dough.)

(NOTE:  You can refrigerate the bowl of dough-covered (I used a Walmart bag over my bowl) for a few hours to end up with fat chewy cookies or you can bake them right out of the gate and they are still delicious.  I have done it both ways depending on how much time I have.)

Place scoops/rounded balls of dough (like golf ball size?) on sprayed or parchment lined cookie sheet to bake.

BAKE in fully preheated oven at 375 for approximately 12 minutes. (Obviously, chilled dough may take a little longer so you are waiting to remove them until the cookies are starting to brown.)  

(Let them rest 5-10 minutes before removing from the pan to finish cooling on a cooling rack.)

Look how fat these little babies are!

The CHIT CHAT:

A few weeks ago I actually BOUGHT bakery cookies for my daughter's birthday treat.  My kids normally insist on having those big Great American cookie cakes for birthdays, frosted and decorated and oh so yummy but our Great American Cookie is long gone.  We have another local cookie bakery called Hot Box Cookies which was actually started by a college kid in our town.  Those cookies are beyond awesome so I bought Hot Box Cookies for my daughter's birthday treat.

What I discovered when I bought a variety of Hot Box Cookies was that even though most people wouldn't say oatmeal raisin cookies are their favorite, oatmeal raisin cookies are always the first to go!  I decided right then and there that I needed to find a go-to oatmeal cookie recipe!

I have several favorite blogs that I can  count on for reliable home cooking recipes.  I found this cookie recipe at one of the very very best.  It is Suzanne's (Chickens in the Road blog) recipe for "Iced Oatmeal Cookies".  I don't mean to just re-post recipes that Suzanne has already shared, but I definitely want to be able to find this specific recipe in the future here on my own blog because it worked so well for me!  This way I know just-a-what-I-like! (I have adjusted her recipe by adding a little salt and leaving out the cloves.)

These cookies are the perfect oatmeal raisin cookie!  Suzanne frosts hers with melted white chocolate but to me, they need nothing.  These cookies are the best combo of chewy and crisp.  Refrigerating the dough overnight creates fat little cookies that don't spread into lace.  I just cannot describe them any better way than they are PERFECT!  

If you need an old fashioned recipe to share at your next family dinner or potluck and you want to bring home an empty dish, these are your cookie!  (If you want cookies leftover, be sure to leave a few at home.)  Let me know if you try them!

Enjoy!

Gina