My oatmeal raisin cookies were crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. What I thought that would turn out as bad tasting cookies, since it was my first time making cookies from scratch, actually turned out to be probably the best cookies that I have ever made. All I had to do was follow the delicious recipe carefully.
It was a cold weekend in the middle of winter break when I came up with the idea of making oatmeal raisin cookies for my dad. The idea popped into my head when my dad mentioned this bakery that he passed by and the bakery had really good oatmeal raisin cookies. Oatmeal raisin cookies were his favorite type of cookies. I spent about an hour looking for the perfect recipe. I finally found a recipe on YouTube by Inspired Taste. Thankfully, I had all the ingredients, except for two, the brown sugar and the butter, which I bought at my local supermarket by myself.
I preheated my oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and greased my two baking pans with my warm butter. It didn’t take much time for the oven to preheat itself because my mom just finished baking something else. The short hallway floor was covered with pots, since my family stores all of the pots in the oven when we are not using them.
The small kitchen was hot, even though the window was open, bringing in the cold air.
Before I started my process of making my cookies, I washed all the dirty dishes in the sink so when I put the cookies in the oven, I wouldn’t have too much to wash. My sink was near the window, so it was a bit cooler near the sink. There was a cold breeze that lightly swept on my cheek, sending a shiver through my body.
I took out two metal bowls from a wooden cabinet that was under my sink. One bowl for the dry ingredients and another bowl for the wet ingredients. I also took out another small metal bowl to put my raisins in to soak in 1 cup of hot water so they could become plump. I then started beating ¾ cups of butter and 1 cup of brown sugar together until the mixture was creamy. I glanced up at the clock after two minutes and noticed that the mixture was becoming creamy. I cracked an egg and added it with 1½ teaspoons of vanilla extract to the butter and sugar mixer and beat it for about 1 minute. Next, in the other bowl, I whisked together ¾ cups of all-purpose flour, ½ a teaspoon of baking soda, ½ a teaspoon of salt, ½ a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, and ⅛ of a teaspoon of nutmeg. After that, I added 3 cups of rolled oats slowly to the dry ingredients. I added the oat mixture to the butter and sugar mixture slowly. Finally, I drained the raisins, and with my spatula, I stirred the raisins into the cookie mixture.
I molded the cookie mixture into 2 tablespoon thick balls and put them on a greased pan were the cookies were 2 inches apart from each other. I pressed the cookie mixture down lightly so they would become flatter. The cookies were about ½ an inch thick when I flattened them. I also put on extra raisins on the top of the cookies for decoration. Lastly, I put the cookies in the oven for 10 - 14 minutes or until the edges of my cookies were light golden brown around the edges and the inside of the cookie was still soft. I cleaned up the dirty utensils and bowls. I ended up using a lot of paper towels. There were random pieces of the cookie mixture in random places which I also had to clean up.
I realized that I didn't use packed light brown sugar as the recipe asked for. Packed light brown sugar is easier to mold together, but regular brown sugar worked just as fine for me, except regular brown sugar didn't hold the cookies together as good as packed light brown sugar would have.
After a while, the whole house was filled with the nice smell of the cookies. The cookies smelled like paradise. Luckily, I had time to clean the mess I made in the kitchen while the cookies were in the oven. Once I got everything cleaned up, the cookies were ready.
“Papi! Mis galletas estan listas! Puedes sacar las galletas del horno para mi? My cookies are ready! Can you take them out of the oven for me?” I shouted to my dad who was in his room.
“Si! Voy estar ahi! Yah! I will be right there!” my dad said in Spanish.
My dad carefully took the cookies out of the oven with his oven gloves. I left the cookies on the pan to let them cool for at least 10-15 minutes.
When they were cooler, I took them off of the pan. They came off really easily since I greased the pan with a lot of butter. My family was dying to get a bite of the cookies because the cookies smelled so good.
"Mmm... Those cookies smell so good. I can't wait to get one," my brother said.
I gave each of my family members one.
"These are so good. Aunque la proxima vez usa menos azúcar. Though, next time you should use less sugar," my mom said. My mom was always picky about the amount of sugar in her food.
Me and my brother shared another cookie because we loved the cookies. The cookies were so good and they reminded me of Christmas because of all the nice spices that that you would use in traditional Christmas recipes like cinnamon in hot chocolate. I was obviously going to use the recipe again. Me and my brother ended up getting nicely stuffed with cookies that night.
Chewy Oatmeal Cookie Recipe with Raisins
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 12 minutes
Total time: 27 minutes
Yield: 16 cookies
You Will Need:
- 1 cup raisins (optional)
- 1 cup hot water (if using raisins)
- 3/4 cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature (1 1/2 sticks)
- 1 cup (210 grams) packed light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (110 grams) all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 3 cups (270 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
Directions
- Add raisins to a small bowl then cover with hot water. The hot water helps the raisins to become plump and juicy. Set the bowl aside for about 10 minutes.
- In a large bowl, beat the room temperature butter and sugar with a hand blender until creamy, about 2 minutes. (You can also use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment).
- Add the egg and 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract then beat until combined, about 1 minute.
- In another bowl, use a whisk to combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Next, add the oats then stir until well combined.
- Now, add the oat mixture to the butter and sugar mixture in thirds, beating after each addition until incorporated.
- Drain the raisins then gently press down or squeeze them to remove any extra water. Stir them into the cookie batter. (Use a spatula or spoon for this, not the mixer).
- Drop dough by two tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto baking sheets. (You can also use a large cookie scoop for this). Then, wet the tips of your fingers with water and gently press cookies down until they are about 1/2-inch thick. If some of the cookies have no raisins showing on top, steal a few raisins from the bowl and add to the tops of the cookies (they are prettier this way).
- Bake cookies 10 to 14 minutes or until the edges are light golden brown, the center is still soft. Cool cookies on baking sheet for 10 minutes then move to a cooling rack and cool completely.
http://www.inspiredtaste.net/easyrecipe-print/18596-0/
