Cookies

For some reason, last week I decided I wanted to make cookies.  I think it was from over-dosing on Friends episodes.  Anyway, I was torn between Oatmeal & Raisin cookies, and Snickerdoodles - which I like just for the name, but which really are like the digestive biscuit of cookie-land: a basic sugar cookie with no particular flavour or extras.

In the end I thought a snazzy name wasn't enough to sway me so I went for the Oatmeal & Raisin.  I checked out a few recipes online and finally went for one I found over on a blog called www.smittenkitchen.com .

This is an American blog so all the measurements were in weird amounts - cups and ounces.  I spent a wee while converting them all to metric and here they are:

120g butter, softened
130g  light brown sugar, packed
1 egg
95g all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
140g rolled oats
135g raisins

Because of the conversion the amounts are a bit random, and harder to measure without a digital scale: 95g, 135g... but I made do and they turned out fine.

So I decided to make a new batch tonight, but I cut the recipe in half to make it easier to mix: last time I had to split the mixture in two as I stirred it all together because there was so much of it.  This time, I got 11 cookies, which seemed like a perfect amount.

The recipe is simple enough: you cream the butter, sugar, and egg, whisk together the flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda (not baking powder) and then add the two mixtures together and give a good whisk.  Then you add the oatmeal and raisins and stir as much as you can - the oats make it quite hard to mix so it takes some elbow grease and dedication - the last time I literally had a batter explosion in my kitchen, all over my hair and the floor, and everywhere!  Tonight, with the half-sized recipe it wasn't so bad.  It comes together in a very sticky, lumpy batter:

And it's so thick that it hangs off your spoon for about 30 seconds if you hold it over the bowl!

Roll the batter into wee balls and put onto your baking tray/sheet of baking parchment.  Once they're laid out, with a good space between them, you smush them with the bottom of a glass so they're more cookie-less meatball shaped.

Smush!

And then you stick them in the oven at 175C for ten minutes.  Most recipes I found said 10-12 minutes but the last time I wasn't convinced 10 was long enough, so I went for a full 12 and then wished I hadn't.  The cookies were still tasty but not as chewy in the middle as I'd wanted.  So tonight I went for ten minutes on the nose.

Baking in the oven

Your time will vary depending on your own oven, but essentially what you want is for them to be brown on the edges and pale in the middle.  You can also do the prodding test where you push down on one and see if it gives... but make sure it isn't still batter in the centre!

A finished article.

After you take them out the oven, leave them to cool for a bit and then take them off the baking try.  Don't eat them right away, because of the raisins: ten mins in the oven raises the temperature of a raisin to something approaching lava and will burn the mouth off you, as I discovered first time around when I happily popped a stray raisin off the tray and straight into my mouth. BURN!

The last step is to generously offer a cookie to your family or friends... and then hide them.  'Cause they are very tasty and people will scarf your hoard if you leave them lying about.  You have been warned!

Now that I've typed this I think my cookies will have cooled enough so I'm off to enjoy the fruits (and oats) of my labour!

Ta-DAH!