One of the advantages of oatmeal cookies is their flexibility;
they are delicious plain or loaded with all sorts of
goodies, from dried fruit to nuts. Toss in raisins, dried
cranberries or cherries, chocolate chunks, or coconut—
the dough can handle up to 11/2 cups.
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
11/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
How to make
Fast Oatmeal Cookies
Heat the oven to 375 F. Use an electric mixer to
cream together the butter and sugars; add the eggs one at
a time and beat until well blended.
Mix the flour, oats, cinnamon, salt, and baking
powder together in a bowl. Alternating with the milk,
add the dry ingredients to the dough a little a time, mixing
on low (if you’re adding ingredients like raisins, now
is the time). Stir in the extract.
Drop tablespoon-size mounds of dough about
3 inches apart in rows and columns on ungreased baking
sheets. Bake until lightly browned, 12 to 15 minutes.
Cool for about 2 minutes on the sheets before using a
spatula to transfer the cookies to a rack to finish cooling.
Store in a tightly covered container at room temperature
for no more than a day or two.
Lacy Oatmeal Cookies.
Almost tuiles, these cookies contain
no flour: Melt the butter and combine it with the
sugars, oats, and salt; beat in the eggs. Omit the flour,
baking powder, milk, and vanilla; add the cinnamon if
you like. Bake at 350 F on greased baking sheets for 8
to 10 minutes; let rest for a minute before transferring
to a rack with a thin-bladed spatula to finish cooling.
Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies.
Any nut butter works
here; these cookies have a tendency to burn more
quickly, so keep a careful watch over them: Substitute
1/4 cup peanut butter for 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) of
the butter.
Whole Grain Spice Cookies.
Cooked whole grains (like
bulgur, barley, wheat or rye berries, buckwheat, or
even short-grain brown rice) replace rolled oats with
tender-but-chewy results: Substitute cooked whole
grains for the rolled oats and fluff with
a fork to separate the kernels before combining with
the other ingredients. Omit the milk. In Step 2,
increase the cinnamon to a teaspoon and add 1/2 teaspoon
ground ginger and 1/4 teaspoon each ground
allspice and freshly grated nutmeg. Proceed with the
recipe, combining the dry ingredients into the egg
mixture in Step 3 all at once without adding any milk.
Coconut Cookies.
Shredded coconut replaces all or most
of the oats: Substitute coconut milk (to make your
own, see page 389) for the milk and shredded coconut
for all or a portion of the oats, as you like.