Oatmeal Cookies

Mmm. New oatmeal cookie recipe. I love my Bush Cookies, but a co-worker requested plain oatmeal raisin (I can't believe she doesn't want chocolate in them!!!), so I went hunting for a new recipe. I think I have a new favorite. These are wonderful (I think the whole tsp of salt has something to do with it).

The girls at work have come to recognize this as the goodie basket.

Soft Oatmeal Cookies

INGREDIENTS
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups quick cooking oats
raisins or nuts (optional) (I used about 1.5 cups of raisins)



DIRECTIONS
1. In a medium bowl, cream together white sugar, butter, and brown sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla.
2. Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda,and salt. Stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats. If you are using nuts or raisins, mix into dough, combining well. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. Roll the dough into balls, and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.
4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.Makes approx. 36-60 cookies, depending on how large or small you make them.

Oatmeal Cookies

I know that this is looked down on in the legal profession (and most other professions as well), but I am not above giving a bribe. There. I said it. My future as a member of the judiciary just went down in flames on blogger.

In exchange for the purchase of some tickets to a Junior League event that I'm supposed to sell, I gave a co-worker cookies. I did. She asked for oatmeal cookies, and I delivered - just a little quid pro quo.

I found the perfect recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook - perfect because it didn't require any ingredients that I didn't have in my pantry.* And it called for plenty of nutmeg (or maybe I just put in more than it called for since I don't really measure spices), and it was good.

*As it turns out, I was actually about a cup short on oatmeal, and ended up running to the store anyway to get some more. Of course, this would have happened with any recipe, since the standard seems to be 3 cups of oatmeal (in spite of the fact that the standard container of oatmeal has 5 cups!). And I still forgot to add the second cup, and had to guess at how much to add to the remaining batter after I put the first batch in (which is about when I realized that the reason the batter seemed too runny was that it was missing 1/3 of the oatmeal). Still, a pretty good recipe.

TWD (plus an attempt to catch up a little)

This week's recipe was Chocolate Whopper Malted Drops on page 85, chosen by Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart.
- yum! This is a delish, rich cookie, and as another TWD'er has already mentioned, the dough is amazing (they were even smart enough to use it to make a cookie dough ice cream - yum!). I take this cookie as the sort of cookie that that I would make an entire batch of and eat myself in a bout of pms - but I can't really see serving it because it's so rich. Also as mentioned by another blogger, they shrink when they cool!

(As a photography note, I have been frustrated by my lack of natural light locations for photo-taking now that I'm in a little apartment without a balcony, and now that I'm at work during most of the daylight hours. But it finally clicked that the natural light lamp I have might be better for lighting pictures... and it is! The above pictures were taken with the lamp light, and they look much better than the flash-lighted pictures!)

Also, last week the recipe was chosen by Stefany of Proceed with Caution. She chose,
Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters on page 73 - another great recipe! I made them last week, but didn't get post on them. They were another good oatmeal cookie, and I like the addition of the peanut butter. Still, I have to say the Bush cookies are my favorite oatmeal cookie - I love that they are so full of stuff!