There's this oatmeal cookie recipe that I've had since I was a kid that never turns out quite right. It was passed on to me by my mother, who says they've never turned out right for her either. I didn't care all that much because they were delicious - sweet, stuffed full of oats, and oh so buttery - but they spread. They spread a lot. I remember tugging this recipe out of my mother's very overstuffed recipe box time and again, hoping that this time I would miraculously find the solution. I'd whip up a batch with a bit less butter or a bit more flour, plop them onto a cookie sheet, and look through the oven window with dashed hopes as the fluffy little balls of dough melted into nothingness, flat and crumbly on the pan. One batch fell apart as soon as I picked them up, so I scraped them into a jar and called it granola.
A couple of years ago, a friend of mine served up some oatmeal cookies after dinner, sandwiched with peanut butter icing. The icing was fantastic (read about my love affair with peanut butter frosting
here), and the cookies had that same sweet buttery flavour as my old recipe, but they were too hard to work well as sandwich cookies. I'm sure you've all had this problem before: biting down so hard to get through the cookie that all the frosting squishes out the sides, forcing you either to lick the extra frosting off and eat the remainder of the cookie sandwich sans filling, or shove all the filling back into the middle with your fingers, only to find yourself in the same situation after the next bite. (First world problems, I know.)
Anyway...I asked her for the recipe.
Now that I had one recipe for too soft cookies and another for too hard cookies, I did the logical thing. I morphed them together. I have played with this recipe a few times, adjusting the egg, sugar and oatmeal content and adding a bit of flair with browned butter, and I'm pretty sure I've created the perfect oatmeal cookie. These babies are crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, sweet, full of oats and oh so buttery. And best of all, they hold their shape beautifully.
The Perfect Oatmeal Cookie
- inspired by my mom's family recipe and my friend's sandwich cookie recipe, perfected by me
1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 cups oats (not instant)
Brown the butter. (
Here's a good instructional video on how to do this.) Be careful not to let it get too dark or it will taste burnt. Remove the butter from the heat and let it cool slightly. Pour into a large bowl with the sugar and beat until the butter is no longer hot. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add gradually to the wet ingredients, mixing just until combined. Stir in the oats. Refrigerate the dough for about half an hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Scoop the dough by tablespoon and roll into balls. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.
