Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

For this week’s Cooking from Cookbook Challenge (CCC), I baked a recipe from Wall Street Journal. This is the last recipe I baked for the bake-a-thon, that I can use for CCC as well. This recipe calls for refrigerating the dough for up to 4 days. I baked a small batch of cookies to take pictures and refrigerated rest of the dough for 2 days. Though I baked a small batch for pictures, I didn't get an opportunity to click.

The rest of the cookies were baked on the morning I was leaving to India. Husband did not want to eat any cookies and I brought these freshly baked cookies to India. My nephews enjoyed them. Just like me, my older nephew gave mixed feedback. He thought the cookies were a bit salty. He did not want anymore but he gradually finished all the cookies leaving three for the pictures. He reminded me to click pictures as the cookies were fast finishing. I took a quick picture with my iPhone that night. As for the taste, initially I thought the cookies were a bit salty and as I ate more, I did not find it that salty. The only reasoning for this could be that salt was not evenly mixed in the flour.

Source: WSJ weekend edition
Total Time: 25 - 30 minutes (excluded time required to soak the raisins)
Preparation: 20 minutes
Bake Time: 15-17 minutes
Yelled: 18-20 cookies depending on the size

Ingredients:

1 cup Raisins
1 ¼ cups All-Purpose Flour
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon (I used 1 ¼ - 1 ½ tsp)
2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 ½ teaspoon Fine Sea Salt
1 ½ stick (12 tbsp) softened Unsalted Butter
1 cup Light Brown Sugar, firmly packed
6 tablespoon Granulated Sugar (almost ⅓ cup)
2 cups Old Fashioned Oats
1 extra large Egg
1 ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Preparation:

Soak raisins for 30 minutes in hot water and drain.
Meanwhile, in a bowl sift together flour , cinnamon powder, baking soda and salt.
In a big bowl take butter, sugars and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. I used my handheld electric mixer/beater. Do not over beat.
Add flour mixture and beat on low speed until well incorporated.
Mix in oats , followed by raisins, egg and vanilla extract. These can be mixed using a wooden spoon and I used the lowest setting of my handheld electric beater.
Using a tablespoon or an ice cream scoop, scoop out the dough and place it on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Slightly flattened the dough. A ¼ cup measuring cup can also be used but I felt those would give me gigantic cookies and used a serving spoon. I used my hand to shape and flatten the cookies. Cookies spread a lot and place the cookies atleast 1½ - 2" apart.
Cover the baking sheet with a Saran Wrap and place the cookie sheets in the refrigerate for 4 days. Cookies can be baked right away and I baked 6 cookies right away for clicking the pictures but could not do so. I baked rest of the cookies 2 days later.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 15-17 minutes until golden brown on the outside and soft in the middle. The cookies I baked immediately without refrigeration were done in 15 minutes and the ones that were refrigerated for two were bone in 16-17 minutes.
Remove from the oven, rest for few minutes on the cookie sheet, transfer to cooling rack and cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Note:

I felt the cookies a bit salty and despite that I could not stop myself from eating. I also felt the salt was not evenly distributed.
Cookies spread a lot and place each cookie at least 1 ½ - 2” apart.

This day in 2013: Crispy Corn

Events: This goes to this week's Cooking from Cookbook Challenge.