My Mother’s Kitchen – Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

This recipe comes from my copy of Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 1968 Edition, on page 116. Kirk and I were talking about the recipe, we both grew up on cookies made from the cookbook and that the taste and texture are different now – mostly as Kirk put it mine were softer and airer, where as he remembered them being denser/chewier. I think there are a couple of reasons. First, I used a stand mixer to make them versus the old school way of hand mixing. The dough is so much lighter. Two, I made them with butter versus shortening. Many of the cookies in the book were made with shortening. It was cheap and produced a crispy cookie. It has been years since I bought shortening though! Third, I used the “sweet milk” variation of the recipe, where you use more baking powder which produces a higher, loftier cookie. The recipe gives two versions, the other uses buttermilk and more baking soda (I give the variation below the recipe). Four, I always remember raisins being hard/chewy as a kid. Even my organic raisins I buy at Costco are soft these days. No complaining there! As well I don’t cook on plain shiny baking sheets anymore. I hated having to pry cookies off with a metal spatula when I was young. Parchment paper has been a blessing. And finally, my using a disher to get evenly sized cookies has made a huge difference – no more “1 Tablespoon” sized cookies that were really 2-3 in size. Hah!

But in the end the cookies were great tasting and Walker went crazy over them. They fit in his hand perfectly and he was trying to climb the counter to get to the ones cooling!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter (1 sticks), softened
• 1½ cups brown sugar, packed (used dark)
• ½ cup liquid Egg Beaters® or 2 eggs
• ½ cup milk
• 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• 1½ cups quick cooking oats (1 minute)
• 1½ cups old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup raisins

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400° and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a stand mixer bowl add the butter and sugar, beat until light and fluffy, add in the eggs and beat till smooth. Lightly beat in the milk.
Whisk the dry ingredients through soda together in a bowl, add to the wet on low and beat in. Add the oatmeal and rains, quickly beat in on medium until mixed.
Use a 1 Tablespoon Disher to make balls, 12 per tray. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly golden brown on top. Let cool for a few minutes, then transfer to cooling racks.

Makes 60 to 70 cookies (mine made 68). Store tightly wrapped or in the freezer, the cookies taste best after mellowing overnight!

Notes:
The recipe called for 1 cup shortening, I choose to use butter instead. It also called for 3 cups quick cooking oats, I choose to use half of them, half of old-fashioned as I like the texture.
There is a second variation of the recipe – use buttermilk instead of milk and use 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon baking powder. Follow as above. The recipe also called for 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, we never added those growing up.

~Sarah