COOKIE #1: OATMEAL COOKIES

Where do we begin?  *drum roll please* Oatmeal cookies!  Yes, the oatmeal cookie is the first cookie listed in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Which makes me wonder… why oatmeal first? Was it the favorite of 1962? The cookies certainly aren’t listed alphabetically, though they are grouped.  The first group - ‘drop cookies’. 
 

I’m going to go out on a short limb and say that the oatmeal cookie isn’t exactly the most loved cookie of 2012.  Chocolate whatevers tend to muscle out the delicious textures and symphony of flavors found in the oatmeal cookie. However, I am only a chocolate liker, but a HUGE oatmeal lover.  Lucky me, the oatmeal cookie is my all time favorite cookie!

So I'm stoked to begin. One of the first things I notice, these cookies are titled “Oatmeal Cookies.” Very unpretentious. Today, we love over-the-top names.  The longer the name, the fancier the cookie, right? Like “Award Winning Double Delight Peanut Butter Cookies with Gourmet Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chips”.  Even if the only award it ever won was the one the chef’s mother gave it, the title is tacked on to say “hey, look at me!” Apparently that wouldn’t fly in the 60’s. Every recipe name in this cookbook gives the simplest explanation of the cookie. Most cookie titles contain only two words: Blank Cookies.

Another thing I notice is that there isn't a single recipe that offers optional 

ingredients.  These are matter-of-fact cookies.  Take the Oatmeal Cookie - there are raisins and walnuts included in the recipe, not suggested as options. Like, duh! ALL Oatmeal Cookies should have raisins and walnuts in them. To call them Oatmeal Raisin Cookies with Walnuts (like I would have normally done) would be a redundancy. In that same token, no plain oatmeal cookies then? Hmmm. 



Now I am not a fan of walnuts and would normally substitute pecans, but since I am following each recipe verbatim, bring on the Juglans hindsii (the scientific name for California walnuts, see the recipe above).  Now are my nuts from California? No silly, all my family is from Texas. j/k. But really, I bought Kroger brand walnuts and they don’t say where the nuts were harvested. Let’s pretend they’re from Cali for the recipe’s sake. 



Sifter in Action

Besides the very specific instruction to use The Golden State walnuts, I notice that this recipe calls for buttermilk. That's different. And for both baking soda and baking powder.  Why? Both are leavening ingredients, why the double dose? For lighter than air cookies perhaps? Well, when a recipe contains baking powder and baking soda, its the baking powder that does most of the leavening. The baking soda is added to neutralize the acids in the recipe, in this case to neutralize the buttermilk. Which makes more sense of the asterisks noted on the original recipe.  If you don’t use buttermilk, then you don’t need as much baking soda. Interesting tidbit, and a reason to finally dust off some of that high school science mumbo jumbo. Knowledge is power!  

Mama's Little Helper



So with the support of my little cookie monster, I bake the very first cookie of my blog. First, I was surprised that the cookies didn’t flatten out after I baked them. They were more like fluffy mounds of oatmeal goodness.  Which was convenient because that meant I could cram more cookies per sheet and speed up the baking process. Second, the batter tasted way better than the actual cookie. Bummer, right?! I got 59 cookies after eating quite a bit of batter (yes, I know there are raw eggs in it…so?).  They are not nearly as sweet as the contemporary oatmeal raisin cookie, and not nearly as chewy.  They have more of a “good for you, granola, cake” vibe to them, which is not a bad thing, just different.  If you get a bite with enough raisins, then they are quite delicious.  But if I were to recreate this cookie, I would add more raisins and maybe some raw sugar.  And perhaps cut back on the baking powder to reduce the cakey-ness and add a touch of vanilla. Sorry 1962, but this is my absolute favorite type of cookie, and my taste buds know what they want out of it. More sweetness and more chew.

Still, I had a wonderful time baking these cookies and will enjoy eating them! What a fun first cookie!  I'll give myself a couple days to demolish these cookies, then on to Cookie #2.

Cookie Grade: B = Still good enough to eat! But wouldn’t use the exact recipe again.

What I was jammin’ to: Afrobeat mix cd from college