Recipe Dev: Oatmeal Cookies

I'm a cookie guy. It's an ideal dessert for a lot of people because it's self contained, portable, and scalable. A plated dessert might be fantastic, but would you order three of them if you liked the flavors? Almost certainly not! Cookies don't have that problem- you can have one or two for a nibble... or look around to make sure nobody's watching before you indelicately obliterate that box of Thin Mints you told yourself would last a month. No, I didn't see that- nobody did. Honest.

Another delightful point in the favor of cookies is their versatility. Depending on your ingredients, your scoop size, your baking time, and any number of other things, you can turn the same cookie recipe into very different results in a way you can't do nearly as easily with cakes, pies, and pastries.

Unless you're allergic to chocolate, you probably enjoy a good chocolate chip cookie. I certainly do, and put my personal recipe up here back in February. That one calls for a mixer, but but today I wanted to showcase a cookie that doesn't. The recipe here is one I sometimes send alongside my Almond Cookies in tins during the holidays- a pleasantly robust oatmeal cookie. A sorely underrated gem of a cookie that's easy to tinker with. A little on the soft side, not too sweet, perhaps a little crunch underneath, and absolutely NO FUCKING RAISINS EVER okay that's out of my system good yes hello there how are you? Ahem.

This recipe is quite simple, coming together in about ten minutes (before going in the fridge to firm up). I designed it specifically not to require a stand mixer since I don't own one, but I've found that having a hand mixer (or immersion blender for one step) does help yield a fluffier finished product, if that's your thing.

Equipment: 1x Medium Bowl, 1x Large Bowl, Rubber/Silicone Spatula, Measuring Spoons, Kitchen Scale, Half-Sheet Pan (~13"x18"), Parchment Paper, Oven

Ingredients: (Yields about 3 dozen cookies, but the recipe also halves perfectly)

275g Rolled Oats
225g All-Purpose Flour
2 Tbsp Cornstarch (this makes it more like cake flour)
230g Unsalted Butter (melted)
180g Brown Sugar
90g Granulated/White Sugar
2 eggs (L or XL are both fine)
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Salt
2-3 tsp Spice Mix (I use cardamom, allspice, black pepper, ginger, and nutmeg)

Process:

If you plan on baking these as soon as they're ready, preheat the oven to 375F/190C.

In the medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and spices. Set it aside.

In the large bowl, combine the salt and melted butter with both sugars, and mix with the spatula till well combined and slightly fluffy. Then add the eggs and vanilla and do the same. (Here is where I use the immersion blender for a few seconds to whip air into it and ensure everything is aggressively homogeneous.)

In 2-3 stages, mix the contents of the medium bowl into the large until just barely combined.

Use the empty bowl to weigh the oats, then add and gently mix until evenly distributed.

Refrigerate the dough for at least 30m, or ideally overnight.

Line the half-sheet tray with parchment. Using heaping tablespoons (or a #50 portion scoop if you have one), tray out cookies 12 at a time in a 3x4 configuration, refrigerating any unbaked dough until needed.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, and allow to cool for another 5 once out of the oven before removing them from the tray.