my baking diary #5 Thick Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

hmm... i have got lotsa cookies to bake before CNY, but coz my oats are expiring soon so i have to bake a batch of oatmeal cookies...

this is one of the initial recipes i tried and like very much... you can find this on smitten kitchen... i have tried a couple of recipes from smitten kitchen other than this oatmeal cookies, which includes raspberry buttermilk cake, cranberry scones and have bookmarked a couple more to try!!

if you are looking for a cookies somewhat similar to famous amos, then this is not the cookies for you... result of this recipe is a more chewy cookies, but depending on how big or small you make it... i made mine on the smaller side (need more quantity to share with my colleagues and family), and thus on the thin side = crispier cookies... my first attempt made slight bigger cookies, hence, it was more chewy...

one of my attempts (i forgot how many times i baked these cookies....), i added in walnuts... but there's a slight bitter aftertaste... after which, i started adding in chocolate chips... prefer this version more... the colour of the cookies is a lighter shade of brown compare to the earlier recipe i tried, with the exclusion of cocoa powder...

cut the long story short... here's the recipe:

Thick, Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

115gms butter, softened

135gms light brown sugar (i reduced this to 100gms coz i include choc chips)

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

85gms all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt (sometimes i omit this, depending on my mood... wahahaha)

135gms rolled oats

100gms raisins

Walnuts - Optional (i used hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chips instead)

(Note: measurements in the actual recipe used cups, but i prefer weighing in gms, hence, used google to do up the conversion... may not be that accurate)

1. Preheat oven to 175C

2. Cream butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth (i cream butter and sugar 1st, then add egg and vanilla)

3. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together

4. Stir the dry mix into the butter/sugar mixture

5. Stir in oats, raisins and walnuts (or in my case, chocolate chips)

The end mixture is on a soft side  - as it will spread during baking, you can either chill the mixture for a while or you can scoop it on the baking paper and chill the whole tray before baking them. Of course, you can also bake them right away (which i did in this case... i will usually chill the baking tray after the scooping process in my previous attempts...) but it will turn out less thick...

Scoop the mixture about 2 inches apart (as they will spread during baking process) and bake them for about 10 - 12 mins, depending on the size of your cookies... Take them out when its golden at the edges but still a little uncooked-looking at the top. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for a while (like 5 mins) before transferring them to a rack to cool.

The above portion are meant to be a half recipe... which can churn out like 100 over cookies (based on my small cookies)

These cookies are also my mum's favourite! Everytime when i say i wanna bake cookies, she will ask me is it the oats ones?? Hope you like these cookies too ^^

Postscript: I brought a full jar to office on Tuesday... by the end of the same day, it's about 2/3 emptied...