Simple Oatmeal Cookies

This past weekend Ben and I went to Angel Fire, New Mexico and spent all day Saturday skiing.  That’s right.  I skied for the first time in 10 years.  And get this, I did not fall, even once.  Maybe that is because I played it safe and stayed on greens and easy blues.  I was pretty proud of myself, regardless.  Even Ben, the man who owns his own skis, said I did a “very good job”.  This means quite a bit to me.

Here we are before the day began.  The weather was great, and the snow was the best Ben has ever seen by New Mexico standards.  I had such a great time!  Who knew that I would ever get a renewed love for skiing?   This statement will come back to bite me sometime soon, but I must say this…I like to snow ski.  If Ben hadn’t encouraged me to try it again, I don’t know if I would have.  Thanks, Ben! 

Speaking of Ben…his favorite cookie is the classic oatmeal raisin.  I have become enamored of this cookie as well during our 7-year relationship.  The hearty oats in the butterery dough with tart, sweet raisins is delicious and utter perfection.  I made a few hundred of these cookies as favors for our wedding in 2006.  My lovely and incredibly helpful aunts and cousins from California came in about a week before the wedding and helped prepare the 250 packages of cookies in cute cellophane bags and tie them with blue and brown ribbon and a “Carrie & Ben” hang tag.  I found them to be adorable, but I don’t know if people even noticed them.  Oh well.  I guess there are things you make for your wedding that you put incredible blood, sweat and tears (or butter, eggs and flour) into that no one really notices…

Back to the real subject here, cookies!  Sometimes you want a plain and simple oatmeal cookie.  No extras, nothing to take away from the pure goodness of the oats, butter and warm brown sugar.  These cookies fit perfectly in that simple, no frills category.  I used a recipe from allrecipes.com with one change; I used half butter and half shortening.  I think it yields a more sturdy cookie while maintaining the lovely butter flavor.  These cookies are incredibly easy and crazy good.  The amount of salt in this recipe surprised me a bit, but it was wonderful against the sweet sugar.  A little salty-sweet is great in a cookie.

Soft and Simple Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 3 cups quick cooking oats
Directions
  1. In a medium bowl, cream together butter, shortening, white sugar, and brown sugar.
  2. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in vanilla.
  3. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in oats. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour.
  4. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls, and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.
  5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.