Sweet Jesus these are so goddamn good I can't even control myself! And that is saying something.. The Magic Cookie Dough is fantastic and a fabulous frozen nugget of goodness but these are unbelievable baked... irresistible really. Perfect amount of sweet, spice and salt. Make 'em when you know you'll be able to give most of them away ;)
The Essential Chewy Oatmeal Cookie (Taken From The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion)
preheat oven to 375
1/2 c unsalted butter
1/2 c vegetable shortening
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 c brown sugar (I used light)
2 t vanilla extract
1/4 t almond extract
3/4 t cinnamon
1/8 t ground cloves
1/4 t nutmeg
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 large egg
6 T light corn syrup (I used dark)
2 T milk (not non-fat)
3 c quick-cooking oats (or pulse old fashioned oats in a food processor or blender to break into smaller pieces)
1 & 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 c raisins
1 c chopped pecans or walnuts (I omitted due to picky husband)
Lightly grease (or line with parchment or silpats) two baking sheets.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and shortening, sugars, extracts, spices, salt, and baking soda, beating until fairly smooth. Beat in the egg, scraping down the bowl, then beat in corn syrup and milk. Stir in oats, flour, raisins, and nuts.
Drop the dough by the tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 11 minutes, until they are light golden brown. Remove them from the oven and transfer to a rack to cool.
makes 45 cookies at 156 calories a piece.
* I omitted the nuts and scooped out level tablespoonfuls of dough and yielded 67 cookies at 100 calories a piece.
A little cookie primer:
Baking cookies with all butter makes for a softer cookie, using all shortening (or margarine) makes for a crisp and crunchy cookie. This cookie calls for half of each yielding a delightfully crisp crust. All butter is great for sugar cookies while all shortening is prefered for molasses cookies and ginger snaps. But if you have a strong preference for one quality over the other you can adjust most recipes to the texture of your choice by replacing butter with shortening (or margarine) and vice versa. Happy baking people!
