Today's bake is for Sweetie. He has been such a staunch supporter as I have worked on the puzzle of what to eat and drink and what to avoid putting in my gut. Things are improving in that area and I'm feeling my oats, walking more, gardening again, and even putting a coat of paint on an outdoor structure. Oats are also the star ingredient in the cookies I made for Sweetie today.
He has always loved oatmeal cookies, especially chewy ones, so that's what I made. I used a recipe from the old standby cookbook Joy of Cooking, with (of course) a few tweaks. I added some chocolate chips and some dried cranberries and some chopped walnuts. Beyond that, it was just the recipe in the book. Classics become classics because they are good enough to stand the test of time.
So for this fairly flat, chewy cookie the dominant flavors are butter, brown sugar, oats, chocolate, vanilla, cranberry and walnuts. The edges are crisp, but otherwise it is a fairly soft cookie. Sweetie really doesn't enjoy crisp, crunchy cookies.
I made the cookies pretty large, so I ended up with 26 of them and he ate five as soon as he got home!They are that good (and almost gluten free, with only 1/2 cup regular all-purpose flour...since I've decided that I can have a little gluten now and then with no harm...and it does help with the cookie structure.)
Quick Oatmeal Cookies
Makes 36 2-inch cookies
A variation of a recipe in Joy of Cooking cookbook
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Measure:
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Cream with:
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
Combine and beat in until smooth:
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk
Sift together and add to the above ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour (I used 1/2 cup gluten free flour mix and 1/2 cup all-purpose flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
When beaten smooth, add:
1 cup uncooked quick rolled oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Beat the mixture well. Drop cookies 2 inches apart on well-greased cookie sheet and bake until light brown. Remove to a cooling rack soon after taking cookies from oven.
Huzzah for feeling a little better -- and for finding that some gluten does no harm. I am coming to that conclusion myself, as some of the nut flours have provoked abrupt allergic reactions (!). It's all a balancing act, and indeed oats are a thing I'm glad to have more of in my life. A mix of seeds, cereal grains and oats are just the thing for a cold morning, too... and maybe I'll have to experiment with some new grains in cookie forms, too!
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