Betty promises these cookies will be “soft and moist on the inside and crisp on the outside.” I feel a lot is at stake because my husband states that oatmeal raisin cookies are near and dear to his heart. Will he be impressed with this recipe, or will it fall short of expectations?
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Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies
1 cup raisins
1 cup water
¾ cup shortening
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 ½ cups flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cloves
2 cups rolled oats
½ cup chopped nuts
Simmer the raisins in 1 cup of water until the raisins are plump, 20 to 30 minutes. Drain the raisin liquid into a measuring cup and add enough water to total ½ cup.
Preheat the oven to 400̊F. Mix shortening, sugar, eggs, and vanilla; add the raisin liquid. Stir together flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and spices, and blend into the dough. Stir in the oats, nuts, and raisins. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough two inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Makes 6 to 7 dozen cookies.
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The first part of the directions instructs you to simmer the raisins until plump. I found this kind of strange (having never done this for any other cookie recipe that calls for raisins), but I figured it wouldn’t hurt since I had bought the store brand of raisins, and they were pitifully dry. Simmering them definitely plumped them up! When I went to drain the liquid from the raisins, I didn’t even get out half of a teaspoon; this may have only been because of the really dry raisins I used, but if you don’t actually see any excess liquid in the raisins when you are done simmering, don’t bother trying to drain them. Just add a half cup of water to the dough.
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| A blurry view of simmering raisins. |
I baked each pan of cookies for 8 minutes… or some even less time. What can I say, I like a soft cookie! The final result was soft and chewy cookies which sadly did not all hold together very well after a couple of days (perhaps I should have baked them longer…). They were also not crispy on the outside (perhaps I should have baked them longer…). And I thought they could use more oats, because I could hardly tell they were in there (not related to bake time! Yay!). As usual, I could take them with or without nuts.
They were generally a crowd pleaser, and all of them were eaten within a few days of baking (unlike some cookies I’ve made- remember the jeweled cookies?). I thought they were scrumptious and probably ate more than my fair share of these. What did Ryan have to say? They were good, but not the best oatmeal raisin cookies he’s ever had- and they could use more raisins.
I was recently loaned a glass cookie jar (yeah, I don’t actually have my own cookie jar. What’s up with that?) and intended to photograph the oatmeal raisin cookies inside the cookie jar so you could compare it to Betty’s photo:
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| Betty's cooky jar is pretty full! |
However, one recipe didn’t even fill up my cookie jar half way and the cookies looked too sad in there, so you’ll have to settle for a standard cookies-on-a-plate picture.
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| Chewy and delicious! Surprised they lasted long enough for me to take this picture. :) |
Molasses Jumbles are up next! Get excited!
Carly
This recipe was found on page 9 of Betty Crocker's Cooky Book; the picture was found on page 87.
