Classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I realized recently that I’ve been woefully neglect of including oatmeal cookies in the DisplacedHousewife family. Chocolate? Yep, plenty of that. But oatmeal? No love. The loss was weighing heavily on our hearts. An emptiness that just couldn’t be filled. We had to rectify the situation.

I set out on a journey to make us PERFECT oatmeal raisin cookies. It was a journey I didn’t take lightly and I had a very specific oatmeal cookie in mind. While I love girth in my cookies it just didn’t seem right here. Nope. I wanted her to be thinner than most of my cookies, but not too thin, lacy or crispy. None of that is welcome. I futzed with flours and futzed with sugars and futzed with eggs…no cinnamon and too much cinnamon. Meanwhile, this was going on whilst I was trying to perfect the pumpkin muffin (translation: eat Libby’s entire current stock of canned pumpkin). Suffice it to say getting dressed for dinner the other night had its challenges.

BUT, it was all totally worth it. Here she is…after weeks of testing. She’s not too bulky, not too cakey, perfectly chewy, with the correct raisins to oats to cookie dough ratio. Plus, she’s easy as hell to throw together. Yep, she’s a keeper. You guys, it’s almost fall!!!

Before We Get Started:

• Butter. You can melt the butter or you can brown the butter…I’m going to leave that up to you. Both options are marvvy. Really depends on the amount of time you have to invest in getting said cookies mixed + baked.
• Usually, after you melt your butter, I make you wait until it cools down a beat. Not this time. Just dump yo sugar in there and make it happen.
• You HAVE TO refrigerate this dough, prior to separating it into dough balls…for at least 30 minutes. You’ll thank me. The dough is quite sticky and the fridge time will make it easier to shape. Take a bath or a quick cat nap while it chills. You deserve it. Or, not nearly as sexy, clean the kitchen so you can just climb in bed with your oatmeal raisin cookies when they’re done. You eat cookies in bed, right?
• Flour… So I have you use 1/2 bread flour and 1/2 all-purpose flour. I tested them with all bread flour and they turned out fine…you’ll just have a cake-ier cookie. I also tested them with all-purpose flour…they turned out, but there was lots of spread…if you do opt to use 100% all-purpose flour I highly recommend putting the dough balls in the freezer for at least 15 minutes prior to baking to keep spread to a minimum.
• I always have you futz your dough balls into perfect little spheres. Not this time. Gently futz into balls and then press down a bit, so you have more of a disc. Yep, that’s right. You got this.

Let’s get our bake on…

More Yummy Cookie Fun

Grab My Favorite Cookies Tips for Perfect Cookies, make these Crinkly, Fudgy Brownie Cookies (they’re so good!) or try my favorite, small-batch (one bowl! no rest!) Mega Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cookies!!

Classic Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Makes About 2 Dozen Cookies

INGREDIENTS

• 1 stick, 4 ounces, of unsalted butter, melted or browned
• ½ cup sunflower seed oil, or other neutral oil
• 1 cups packed brown sugar or muscovado
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup bread flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 1/2 cups oatmeal (I use Quaker Old Fashioned)
• 2 cups raisins (I like the dark ones)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. Make sure you have a rack in the top third of your oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.
2. In a large bowl, mix your melted butter, oil and sugars until nice and smooth.
3. Add the eggs + vanilla and mix until everything is well blended.
4. In a small bowl whisk together the all purpose flour, bread flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt.
5. Dump the flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix until the cookie dough is barely blended….you’ll still see streaks of flour. Add your oatmeal and raisins and finish mixing with just a few strokes.
6. Lay some plastic wrap on the counter and dump the dough on top. Wrap tightly and stick in the fridge for at least 30 minutes…it will make it easier to work with. This is a wet cookie dough, your hands will get messy. Prepare yourself. Side Note: You can put the dough, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, in the fridge for several days at this point, if you want to make the oatmeal raisin cookies another day. Additionally, you could also roll the dough into balls (and gently press down into little discs), freeze in a single layer on a cookie sheet and then shove them in a resealable plastic bag and put back in the freezer to have oatmeal raisin cookies on-demand…just add a minute or two to the bake time.
7. Once the dough is chilled, pull out of the fridge and gently roll into balls of about 2 tablespoons each and allow about 2 inches of space between the dough balls. Press the dough down a bit (not too much) so that they are like little discs.
8. Bake the oatmeal raisin cookies in the top third of the oven for about 11-12 minutes. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes post baking and then move to a cooling rack to finish cooling down.
9. I hope you love them and thanks for making these oatmeal raisin cookies! Be sure to tag me @displacedhousewife #displacedhousewife so I can see your creations!!

On My Mind

• If you want to read about my favorite Amazon + Etsy stuff, read this quickie interview over on The Housewife Blog!
• What fall shows are you watching? I have yet to get into anything…looking for suggestions…
• What’s everyone reading? I picked up The Grandmothers several years ago, read several pages and never picked it up again. Did you see the movie? It’s crazy. Last night I picked the book back up and I’m loving it. Has anyone else read it?
• I’m doing a feedfeed  (@thefeedfeed) Snapchat takeover on Sunday!! I’m going to make my Pumpkin Scones, if you guys would like to join me. Get your ingredients and bake along with me! I’ll start around 10am PST.
• MORE COOKIE RECIPES: Chocolate Marshmallow Sea Salt Cookies, Dark Chocolate + Tart Cherry Cookies, Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chai Spiced Oatmeal Granola Cookies, Brown Butter Muscovado Snickerdoodles, The Best Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever, Loaded Aloha Cookies, Smoked Salt Double Chocolate Rye Cookies, Double Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies, Bomb Chocolate Chip Cookies, Breakfast Crack Cookies, Holy Shit S’more Cookie, Bi-Curious Peanut Butter Cookies, Classic Snickerdoodles, Giant Salted Dark Chocolate + Olive Oil Cookies…
• FAVORITE FALL RECIPES: Pumpkin Streusel Muffins, Spiced Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Petite Pumpkin Scones, Pecan + Tart Cherry Granola, Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies (one of my favorites!), Fresh Fig + Pecan Fall Salad, Thai Thai Scones and Breakfast Crack Cookies.
• I’m so glad you guys liked the Pumpkin Streusel Muffins!!! I had a really hard time taking them off the cover of the site…I was obsessed with the photos…
• I know, lots of sweets happening over here! I’m working on something savory…something with chicken…maybe with a slow cooker (can’t decide)…but it’s comforting and just the kind of stuff we want to eat come fall. Which is Thursday — YAY!!!
• Enjoy your last day of summer. Sending lots of love!

–Rebecca xoxo