Everybody's Favorite Oatmeal Cookies
Recipe
Basic ingredients
225 g /16 tablespoons softened butter
220 g / 1 heaping cup light brown sugar
100 g / ½ cup white sugar
2 eggs
10 ml vanilla extract
150 g / 1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
salt (just a little more salt than you think you should put)
250 g / 3 cups oatmeal. Use the kind that takes longer to cook. Bigger kernals are better
than smaller ones. I don't know if a single oat of oatmeal is called a kernal, but you know what I am talking about.
Secret ingredient
Some shredded coconut (not too much). I've never measured, I just dump some in.
Additions
You can put pretty much whatever you want in these cookies. Chocolate chips and walnuts are a big hit, but I've also added sunflower seeds, cranberries, white chocolate, macadamia nuts, pecans, raisins, peanut butter, peanuts, almonds, apples, cinnamon, fresh ginger... you get the picture. Here are the quantities I use as a general rule, for chocolate and nuts. Everything else, I just kind of eyeball it. I have accidentally added twice as much chocolate as this and the cookies held together fine, so this is just a guideline.
So far, I have not managed to add “too many things” to the cookies. More is just more in this case.
200 g / 7 oz / 1.25 cups chocolate (any kind, but dark chocolate goes particularly well with the very-sweet cookie)
125 g / 4.5 ounces / 1 cup chopped nuts
Raisins, dried cranberries, or other tart dried fruit
Directions
Do not preheat the oven. You have to chill the dough before baking. You should refrigerate the dough for at least an hour. Overnight is great.
In a very large bowl, cream together the 225 g of butter butter, 220 g of brown sugar, and 100g of white sugar until smooth. A wooden spoon works well for this. Sometimes I put in 250g of butter because the butter comes in that size. You can also play around with the sugar quantities.
Beat in the 2 eggs, one at a time.
In another bowl, sift together the 150 g flour, 1 tsp of baking soda, and lots of salt. It’s a big batch. You can go for up to 1,5 tsp of salt.
Stir the dry ingredients into the butter and sugar, but don't stir too much. Just until they are blended.
Mix in the 250 g of oats and whatever else you are putting into the cookies. Again, stir as little as possible, but get everything mixed together.
Put the dough into the refrigerator or the freezer for at least an hour. Overnight is ideal. You can scoop the frozen dough out onto the cookie sheet. I usually keep the dough in the freezer and just make fresh cookies as needed for about a week or so.
Preheat the oven to 160 C / 320 F
Take an ungreased cookie sheet and spoon the cookies out. I like to line the cookie sheet with baking paper. You can make them whatever size you want, but that will vary the cooking time. I like to make them small, scooping them out with a small spoon. Form the spoonfuls into little balls.
Bake for 12-20 minutes. Closer to the 12 minute side and they are chewier. Closer to the 20 minute side and they are crunchier. If you make chewy cookies, let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before moving them, otherwise they fall apart completely. Let cookies cool a bit before eating.
About These Cookies
I had a cookie-baking phase in 2008. I made all kinds of cookies that year, experimenting and trying different experiments. This cookie recipe is the one that I really perfected and for the past ten years or so, it is pretty much the only cookie I bake. It is easy to make and everybody loves them.
The best thing about this recipe is that the cookies are a little bit different every time. The baseline recipe doesn't change, but the ingredients I add can be quite experimental. Fresh roasted peanuts stands out in my memory as one of the best successes.
You can put batches in the freezer and make a few fresh cookies for dessert any time.
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