I’m a huge fan of oatmeal cookies and I used to bake them all the time several years ago. But then I learned new recipes, started trying new things, and thus forgot about these sweet little guys. So I felt it was time to give them some love again and bring them to the blog 🙂 Scroll to the bottom for the full recipe, and try not to eat all the dough!
This is probably one of the simplest recipes I have–I usually like to do more adventurous recipes than simple ones–but sometimes simple is just where it’s at. Another thing I’m a huge fan of is BUTTER (call me Julia Child) – on anything and everything! Now I know there are plenty of healthier alternatives to use when it comes to baking (and I mostly cook healthily otherwise), but you know what…sometimes you gotta FORGET the healthy and enjoy the baked thing for once! <3
This recipe calls for two whole sticks of butter, and here they are in all their glory! I like using cute small bowls for melting butter, it makes it more fun that way. These I believe are for baking tarts in, but I use them as butter melting bowls. You know it’s a problem when you have bowls specifically for melting butter…cough.
While your oven heats to 350, go ahead and soften your two sticks of butter and add them to a large bowl full of 3/4 granulated and 1.25 cups brown sugar, and add in 2 tsp vanilla. Mix well with an electric mixer, then add in 1.5 cups flour and 1/2 tsp baking powder and salt, plus some shakes of cinnamon if you’d like (if you read my post about these amazing berry muffins, you’ll know how much I love using cinnamon as well as how I never really measure). Mix everything together before adding 3 cups of Quakers oats – fold them into the dough with a scraper spatula.
Once your oven is ready, take your dough and roll it between your fingers into small balls and place on your cookie sheet about 2″ apart (make sure you either use wax paper or grease it before hand). I use some flour my hands to roll and place the dough but if you don’t want to get dirty or sticky, use a teaspoon to drop them on the tray.
Set them in the oven for 16 minutes, and remove promptly or else they’ll start to get extra crispy around the edges. Transfer them to a wire rack or glass plate to cool for 8 minutes before sampling some with a glass of milk 😉
Once they cool, they’ll have a slightly crunchy edge and a soft chewy inside. SO much yum. My little brother (not exactly so little, he’s 21 but he’s little to me for life) told me he’d buy these cookies in a store if he knew this is how good they tasted which made me happy 🙂 Because if people would pay for your stuff, you know it’s good.
>> Just a side note if you’re new to baking or are having fun trying new recipes: always check out the bottoms of your cookies, a couple minutes before the timer is done. They will have an even, golden brown coloring to them if they came out perfect. If the bottom is darker brown, really dark along the edges, or sort of charred, you might want to try these things:
– take them out of the oven sooner but keep the same oven temperature
(ex: from 350 at 15 minutes, instead of 18 minutes)
– lower the oven temperature and shorten the bake time
(ex: from 350 to 325 at 12-13 minutes instead of 15)
– switch around your oven racks
(ex: make sure the one closest to the top of the oven is placed in the middle of the oven)
– if your oven over bakes and over cooks more often than not and these don’t help, then get your oven checked out by a professional especially if you have an old oven, like me.
^ Perfectly done cookies, pictured above. Does anyone else use an apron (like really) when they bake or cook? Because I do! I wore this one ALL the time when I lived on my own and baked every day. Here’s the recipe:
– 2 sticks of butter, softened
– 1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
– 3/4 cup granulated sugar
– 2 tsp vanilla
– 2 eggs
– 1 1/2 cups flour
– 1/2 tsp baking powder
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 3 cups Quaker oats
– 3-4 shakes cinnamon
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and place wax paper on a cookie sheet. Set aside.
2. Beat butter, both sugars, vanilla, and eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer until creamy.
3. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a separate smaller bowl.
4. Gradually beat flour mixture into butter+sugar mixture.
5. Add cinnamon and mix with scraper spatula.
6. Fold in oats with scraper spatula.
7. Form dough into 2″ balls with hands or a spoon, and place onto prepared cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 16 minutes or until cookies are golden brown.
9. Transfer to a plate to cool. Makes about 36 cookies.
Enjoy! If you tried making these, let me know in the comments how they turned out! <3
